Iconic Tim Stead house saved following fundraising efforts

The iconic home of sculptor Tim Stead is an artistic, homely space that chair of the Tim Stead Trust Nicola Fletcher hopes will inspire creativity in the local community and beyond for years to come

The team at the Tim Stead Trust, headed up by chair of the trust Nicola Fletcher, is delighted after their crowdfunder raised over £36,000 and can now be saved from being sold.

The Steading has long held a place in the hearts of many locals in Galashiels as well as fans of Tim Stead’s artistry and talent for creating landmark designs and architecture crafted from locally-sourced wood.

A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, Stead’ was known for his curved wooden furnishings and designs which appeared in galleries, museums and castles across the country. One of his most famous works, The Millennium Clock, a co-collaboration with four other designers, is in the National Museum of Scotland.

The sinewy wooden designs Tim Stead was known for appear in all their diversity at The Steading, nestled away in the Scottish Borders

Ms Fletchewr said that the Tim Stead Trust were incredibly grateful to all who donated and helped the team to save the iconic Scottish home: “I would like to pay tribute to all these trusts, who contacted us and who responded to our pleas, and just jumped straight in, really supportively and really enthusiastically.

“The crowdfunder has been brilliant because it's finished off the process,” she added. “The enthusiasm really jumps out at you when you read the comments and it’s been great to see that.”

Many of those contributors to the crowdfunder shared fond memories of visiting with relatives and friends, helping to reinforce the value of The Steading in the local area and wider art community. This has been an especially heartwarming aspect of the successful campaign, Nicola said:

“Something else that’s come out of this whole process is how inspiring the setting has been over the decades and what we're wanting to do for the future is to make it a place to inspire people to be creative and think outside of the box.”

The Trust now hopes to obtain ongoing financial support to keep the project moving and bring their plans for The Steading to life. Such plans include allowing visitors, even school trips, back into the home to allow people to interact with Tim’s unique furnishings and art.

“You don't have to be an artist to be creative,” Ms Fletcher said. “You could be somebody designing a commercial forest who might be thinking normally in straight lines. But you go into The Steading and see things that are not straight lines, it makes you realise that you can do things differently."

There are also plans for the home to pay further tribute to Tim Stead’s life, work and artistic legacy through creative projects involving the Stead family, particularly the artist’s widow Maggy Stead.

“It's a dare-to-be-different sort of place. And what we really want to do in the future is to inspire people in all walks of life to be creative.”

To find out more about The Steading and the Tim Stead Trust, visit their website at https://timsteadtrust.org/.

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