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A screenshot of the artist Kate MacKay in a zoom meeting. Kate holds a bright green geranium leaf up to her nose, as if smelling it.

25 March 2022

“The Mirrored Room – who is inside the room and who is outside?”

Kate MacKay is a member of the Combine to Create Collective. In 'The Mirrored Room - who is inside the room and who is outside?' Kate reflects on the value of real-life objects and connections at a time…

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Flat lay photograph of a tomato siting on a green plate, with an intricate design of overlaid petals.

18 March 2022

Food for Thought on Climate Justice

Jeni Reid and Kirsty McKeown are Creative Practitioners taking part in CULTIVATE. In 'Food for Thought on Climate Justice' Jeni and Kirsty share thoughts about their collaboration with Community First…

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Photograph of the bottom of supermarket receipts featuring helplines for domestic abuse.

18 February 2022

A Women’s Issue?

Catriona Meighan is Artist in Residence/Neach Ealain air mhuinntireas at the Highland Culture Collective/Co-chomann Cultar na Gàidhealtachd. In ‘A Women's Issue?’ Catriona looks at the complex and…

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The visual minutes are a hand drawn illustration in pink, orange and white. The page is divided into two rough halves - the top half is white and the bottom half is made up of two wide sweeping lines, one orange, one pink, which make a gentle hill shape on the left side of the page. At the top of the page, large text on a white background asks the question from the session: "What needs to change to support creative and community-rooted activity? What should we be advocating for?". The remainder of the illustration captures the key points from the session which are, in the order that they appear on the illustration from left to right, in the white section: "We are here to nurture and spark conversations, we are here because we care!" "Celebration - we are so glad to be asked and asking these questions" above a small illustration of people holding question signs. "How do we support practitioners who work with communities in the midst of a mental health crisis? To try with Culture Collective: counselling sessions, peer-to-peer training/coaching, mindfulness, mental health first aid. Duty of care to freelancers from organisations and the people who hire them. Funding applications, ask how will artists be supported throughout the project? Create coffee and chat time as we do for communities. Is a cup of tea enough?" followed by a cloud of doubts, then an illustration of a worried looking person, scratching their head and the words: "are we overthinking?". "Participation is key! Yes, and good art is participatory. If it connects with community, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Paid time for planning and reflection." Orange section: "How do we rethink the problem-solving narrative? Artists are facilitators, not fixers. If money is the answer, what is the question? Who says this is a problem? How do we define community without othering?" An illustration of a person with praying hands, and a glowing red heart. "Set your own values and boundaries and be intentional." "How do we respond creatively to tension and potential conflict in communities? Foster neutral space, prepare the ground." "How do we foster longer term, trusting relationships?" An orange way marker says: "Beyond project-based funding." Pink section: "Whose creativity is valued?" "How do we define relationships with community partners?" "Do we need a compass...a north star, but not a fixed destination." "This is a moment...could it be a movement? It already is!".

14 February 2022

Open Space Event 2 – Advocating for Change

Across the Culture Collective network, we’ve been making space for slower, deeper connections via a series of Open Space events, facilitated by our friends at Improbable. We held the second of these…

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27 January 2022

A New Approach to Culture in Scotland?

Matt Baker is a public artist based in Dumfries and Galloway and is one of The Stove Network’s founding members. In 'A New Approach to Culture in Scotland?' he explores new models for supporting both…

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27 January 2022

Arts and the Community

Creative Producer for Safe Harbour: Open Sea, Martin Aitken reflects on the interdependence of art and communities in Fittie and further afield. My post with Open Road Ltd has allowed me a lot…

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11 October 2021

Up the Teviot: On Artists and Residencies in Hawick

Director of Alchemy Film and Arts Michael Pattison reflects on curation, care and community in The Teviot, the Flag and the Rich, Rich Soil. …

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6 October 2021

The Circle Way: a leader in every chair

Producer, writer and co-founder of Open Road Lesley Anne Rose reflects on how Safe Harbour: Open Sea uses The Circle Way to ensure rotating leadership, shared responsibility and collaborative working.…

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6 October 2021

Is failure always failure?

Project Coordinator Rebecca Livesey-Wright explores the opportunities afforded to us when we get things wrong as part of the EVOLVE Culture Collective project delivered by RIG Arts in partnership with…

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6 October 2021

Conversation starter: aligning expectations with reality

Each month, the Culture Collective network have a ‘Cuppa’ – a conversation prompted by a conversation starter or provocation, often from one of our projects or artists. In this blog, we're sharing…

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6 October 2021

Conversation starter: defining and realising our values

Each month, the Culture Collective network have a 'Cuppa' - a conversation prompted by a conversation starter or provocation, often from one of our projects or artists. In this blog, we’re sharing the…

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The visual minutes are a hand drawn illustration in pink and white. In the middle of the page is a large circle with white text, which asks the question from the session. It says: “The question that brought us here: How can we work together to make our Culture Collective more than the sum of its parts?”. The remainder of the illustration captures the key points from the session which are, in the order that they appear on the illustration: Community Arts as a sector, can it be a political force for good? There's an illustration of a walking boot with the words ‘boots on the ground’. It says it's about building relationships, and impact takes time. Culture is not only big theatres and institutions. Let's take pride in community arts, artists are in the community, and there is a capture of key words which are community, culture and health. The next section asks ‘whose interests are served?’ It looks at things like focus groups, taster sessions, artists, steering groups, community steering groups, and finding value more than solutions. Many people are at the intersection of many communities. And there's an illustration of a diverse collection of people. The next section is headlined urban versus rural. And it says ‘it's more fluid and complex than that, it's a spectrum’. It asks us to tackle assumptions about urban access, and rural “lack” (in inverted commas), and the historical expertise within communities. It notes that not everything should be about bringing the city to the countryside. And that provision should be more accountable to the public. Our lives don't look like maps. The next section looks at how to support artists at the end of this project with resources, not just with money, and asks “how do these 18 months inform ongoing infrastructure?” It notes parity of experience is important, particularly around digital poverty, and notes,this should be more than a hashtag. We want to move from inspired conversation to imperfect action, building geographic connections. Some of those connections might be around coordinators and managers or those who are starting up, the illustration wonders whether a weekly 15 minute catch up would make people feel welcomed, and notes that we should be aware of our wider network. We looked at funding, and asked how to show local non-arts partners the value of this work - and to not only ask for funding in relationship building. There was a conversation around toolkits, noting That The Best You Can Be? There is a compass of values and participatory practice and notes that Culture Collective is a road test. And that there could be co-training on using any toolkit that emerges. It discusses rules or guides for engagement specific to the sector. And asks “Who values the process?”, or “How do we measure success?” There's a quote from someone who attended saying “This is nourishing, I'm leaving more connected”. Next we talked about expectations and framing - acknowledging the power dynamics within the room and asked “Is this a ‘change the world’ project or a short constrained project?” And we noted that that's okay too. The final section touches on evaluation and asks “What is enough? What is too much?” And that evaluation should not only be providing a service to a third party, but should be helping people understand process and meaning to give tools to the community and to collect the magic moments. And there's an illustration of people holding campaign-style banners that read “We know what we want”.

7 July 2021

Open Space Event 1 – Building Our Network

Throughout the Culture Collective’s first eighteen months, we plan to hold a series of Open Space events, facilitated by our friends at Improbable. These events are designed to build connections across…

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