Faith Liddell, the director of Dundee Contemporary Arts, loves the clean lines of the striking building and its innovative exhibition space. The two high-ceilinged galleries have white walls which look permanent but can be moved to create different rooms to suit individual shows. As she walks around, she acknowledges the creative spark that exists between educators and practitioners.

“We have great interest in both directions, from schools and artists looking to put their ideas into practice. We can’t keep up,” says Ms Liddell, who came to DCA’s helm in mid-November from the Edinburgh International Book Festival. “It’s partly because of the level of quality so far delivered and the level of skills from the artists.”

Her head of education, Sarah Derrick, who has been in visual arts education for 14 years, joined the DCA seven months after its opening in 1999 and last year won a Scottish Arts Council award for Innovation in Visual Art Education. She believes the success of the education programme is due in no small measure to Dundee’s geography and size.

“We’ve been able to build partnerships locally which have influenced how we’ve developed the programme. (The Gannochy Trust, a Perth-based youth oriented charity are funders.) Other partnerships, such as with Dundee’s education department and the Corner Youth Organisation, have taken off and we now have community groups banging on our door saying ‘We’re local, you’re public; what are you doing for us?’ ” As part of a continuing development programme, Ms Derrick has acted as mentor to a team of local artists herself, while the DCA’s busy print studio has run National Lottery-funded creative and technical skills courses to encourage artists such as those coming out of Jordanstone college and looking for what to do next.

“I’m employing 12-14 artists on a regular basis. In addition, at any one time we’ve 40 artists wanting to work with us,” says Ms Derrick.

Matching local artists with local schools is one of the ideas currently being pursued. Over the next few months, pupils from six Dundee primaries and two secondaries will be involved in the Big Hand, Little Hand craftworkers’ residency programme funded by SAC Craft department. Schools were asked to make proposals for a residency and the DCA married appropriate craftworkers to them.

While the DCA covers informal and formal education projects, from pre-school to further and higher education, there is no prescriptive menu, so participants are free to choose their type of work. One novel proposal came from Craigie High, which has a particular interest in ceramics. Their plan is to set up a public art installation of tiled work in their school foyer and entrance hall. They plan to develop a “tile drop-in” involving the whole school, working under the creative eye of ceramic artist Michelle Bills who will set up the methodology. This casual meeting place at the school will provide an on-going project to which pupils will add year by year.

At Menzieshill High, jeweller Dot Sim will lead workshops for Higher students.

Seventy P7s from Clepington Primary, under the guidance of Karin Muhlert, who crafts paper objects, are using the material to make something which they can sell for their school enterprise project.

Meanwhile, the P7s of Barnhill Primary are exploring textiles for a mural with artist Liza Green.

Each school was also asked to outline the staff development potential of their proposed residency. In-service training and skill sharing is a big element of the DCA’s education programme and the proposals may lead to wider in-service workshops and courses for teachers in the Dundee area.

Regular teachers’ sessions at the DCA include artist-led workshops where teachers learn to interpret an exhibition, then take some of the ideas and approaches and make something. The DCA’s print studio also runs twice-yearly courses in printmaking.

Ms Derrick recently received news that a three-year funding bid made in partnership with Dundee’s education department to the New Opportunities Fund to extend a five-day summer school pilot has been successful. The pound;86,000 grant means the summer schools, aimed at Secondary 2-3, Standard grade and Higher pupils, can help to motivate more than 200 young people each year towards a career in the arts.

The DCA’s education programme also includes work with Dundee College and the Univeristy of Dundee. What started as an eight-week print project with Dundee College has become a 10-week pilot for a Scottish Vocational Qualification in print skills.

The university’s Visual Research Centre is housed in the DCA building. Its state-of-the-art technolgy enables the school of design to experiment with digital media (including video and music), fine art publishing, design and 3D prototyping systems.

Also based at the DCA is the school of design’s Integrated Manufacturing Centre, which offers access to rapid tooling and prototyping facilities.

Thanks to Scottish Screen, the DCA’s two cinemas hold film development workshops, based on an exhibition or film, which encompass storyboarding to simple editing and sound techniques. Tailor-made projects have included the Dundee-based Scottish School of Contemporary Dance teaching trainees how to film dance.

Ms Liddell says: “We have an extremely ambitious programme, both locally and regionally. I think we’re acting as a national flagship in terms of the education programme and the standards we’re setting and achieving.”

Dundee Contemporary Arts, 152 The Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4DY tel 01382 909900 www.dca.org.uk