Working in Prisons: Q&A with Indra Wilson

The impact of arts interventions in the Scottish criminal justice system has been well documented in recent years, with previous work undertaken by Creative Scotland in collaboration with Scottish Prison…

Working in Prisons: Q&A with Hector MacInnes

The impact of arts interventions in the Scottish criminal justice system has been well documented in recent years, with previous work undertaken by Creative Scotland in collaboration with Scottish Prison…

Blog: Rekindling the Joy through CULTIVATE

Grassroots collective action is at the core of CULTIVATE, striving to connect the communities who too often fall to the outskirts of the climate conversation but who are most starkly effected by environmental…

Libraries Gave Us Power

The importance of community spaces and places is one that is common to many - perhaps all - Culture Collective projects. With this in mind, we're delighted to publish a new blog celebrating libraries by…

Looking ahead: the next 3 months

Q&A: Angela Austin

Angela Austin works as a Volunteer Coordinator at North Edinburgh Arts. As part of the Create Community Wealth Culture Collective project, she is employed as Creative Lead at WHALE Arts and has been involved…

Blog: Unlocking Imagination and Agency through Creativity

In this blog, originally published via Creative Dundee, Creative Climate Producer Claire Dufour, reflects on two years of CULTIVATE, the programme’s ambitions, and its invaluable ongoing work driven…

Blog: Oral Tradition, Environmental Justice, and Emotional Relationality

Over the last few months, CULTIVATE Creative Practitioners have been developing their commissions and ideas, connecting with people across Tayside, and running workshops exploring the realities of climate…

Q&A: Philippa Tomlin

Philippa Tomlin (she/her) is a socially engaged visual artist and theatre director. With participation at the core of her work, she creates hybrid multimedia public art. Her creative practice has punk…

Positivity in Rural Perthshire

In mid-March, six CULTIVATE Creative Practitioners headed to Comrie Croft in Perthshire for a three-day residential that brought together 65 people from the Culture Collective network. This residential…

Elina Bry: Walking to Connect at Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival

I took the train in the opposite direction from Greenock in order to make my way to Hawick [Hoy-e-K] and Embrace the Strange. At this point, I had no clue strangeness was going to be a recurrent theme…

Culture Collective Residential, March 2023: Photo Gallery

In March 2023, 65 folk from across the Culture Collective network gathered for a three day residential at Comrie Croft, Perthshire. Collectively representing 20 of the 26 Culture Collective projects, the…

Affirming Mother-artists

Created by Rebecca Livesey-Wright with and for Culture Collective, 2023. This piece was written in response to the mother-artists peer group sessions hosted February-March 2023. Throughout February…

Q&A: Kirsty Biff Nicolson

Kirsty Biff’s practice spans drag, clown, voice, play, performance making, neurodiverse access collaboration and support work. They work in community and professional spaces, creating collaborative experiences…

Q&A: Rachael Keiller

Rachael Keiller is a Fife born and based facilitator, actor and director. Her practice spans from working in communities with young people, in youth theatres, to work with babies and grannies alike. She…

Sparsile: A reflection by Gabrielle Barnby

Gabrielle Barnby is an author and creative practitioner based in Orkney. She writes novels, short stories, reviews and poetry, and also encourages creativity in others through community events and workshops.…

Louis Barabbas on keeping community spaces alive and thriving

Louis Barabbas is a writer and performer, best known as singer for rock band The Bedlam Six between 2006-2016. He has toured all over the world, from Mexico and the USA to mainland Europe and Australia.…

Remembering the Future

Paria Goodarzi is a visual artist and social art practitioner, member of UNESCO RILA Affiliated Artist network, and the Young Academy of Scotland. Paria studied BA (Hons)Textile Design from University…

Q&A: John Martin Fulton

John Martin Fulton is an award-winning Scottish artist who trained at Glasgow School of Art and is inspired by the heritage of modern Scottish painting. As part of North Lanarkshire Culture Collective…

CULTIVATE and Connection

In this blog, Jade Anderson reflects on being part of CULTIVATE and the importance of meaningful connection in community engagement. This blog was originally published by Creative Dundee. CULTIVATE is…

Young Quines’ Beth Godfrey on Transformative Spaces

Beth Godfrey is Associate Director: Engagement at Stellar Quines and the co-ordinator of the Young Quines project. In this blog post, she reflects on her role in youth and community work and the power…

Dreamlands: The Audio Cinema

Mina Heydari-Waite is British-Iranian artist and facilitator living and working in Govanhill. Central to her artistic practice is an interest in the reciprocal relationships between places and communities,…

Vickie Beesley on Creating a Positive Recruitment Process

Culture Collective is a network that places fair work for artists and freelancers at the heart of each of its projects. With over 300 roles created for practitioners so far, it's vital that we're constantly…

The Huntly Youth Climate Warriors: A manifesto

As part of Deveron Projects' Culture Collective activity, artist and educator Hussein Mitha led a project titled 'the world is ours, in spite of all’, in which they supported the development of a new…

Arts in Moray (AIM) Collective SHOWCASE

As the first phase of the Arts in Moray's work came to an end, the artists of the AIM collective came together at the end of September to present a showcase of their work and the process behind it.…

Reflections: Culture Collective Showcase

October 2022 saw the Culture Collective Showcase and Open Space, held in Dundee, to mark 18 months of Culture Collective activity. Elaine Cheng, Artist in Residence at Art27 Scotland, reflects on the experience...…

The power of drift…

At our Culture Collective Open Space in November 2022, creative practitioners were invited by facilitators Improbable to 'call a session' on any topic they'd like to explore with others. Artist Lesley…

Culture Collective Open Space and Showcase, Dundee

In October 2022, Culture Collective hosted a two day event, featuring an 'Open Space' workshop and a public showcase - both at the beautiful Dundee Contemporary Arts. Over two days, Culture Collective…

Altyre to Edinkillie – The First Encounter

Andrea Turner is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Forres. Her work spans visual art, music and poetry, and she is currently working with Combine to Create. In Altyre to Edinkillie –The First Encounter,…

Going and seeing

Kathryn Welch is a freelancer and Programme Lead for Culture Collective. In this blog post, Kathryn reflects on the many visits she has made to Culture Collective projects throughout the life of the project,…

Coaching the Collective

Morvern Cunningham is a freelance creative, coach and writer and is working as Culture Collective's Creative Lead. In this blog post, Morvern reflects on their own experience of coaching, as well as coaching…

The Colours, the Craft and the Craic

There is always an alternative. Always.

A Reweirding Proposal

Hector MacInnes is Artist in Residence/Neach Ealain air mhuinntireas at the Highland Culture Collective/Co-chomann Cultar na Gàidhealtachd. In ‘A Reweirding Proposal’ Hector explores the vibrant incoherence…

A collection of writings by Daniel Cullen

Daniel Cullen is creative practitioner working with Aiseirigh - a collaboration between SEALL, ATLAS Arts and Fèisean nan Gàidheal. Aiseirigh are working together with individuals, communities, businesses…

Accessible recruitment – what we’ve learned so far

Click here to listen to an audio version of this page. One of the key aims of Culture Collective is to create work - jobs - for artists, and so far Culture Collective projects have filled well over…

“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…

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…

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…

Open Space Event 2 – Advocating for Change

Click here to listen to an audio version of this page. Across the Culture Collective network, we’ve been making space for slower, deeper connections via a series of Open Space events, facilitated…

Open Space Event 1 – Building Our Network

Click here to listen to an audio version of this page. Throughout the Culture Collective’s first eighteen months, we plan to hold a series of Open Space events, facilitated by our friends at Improbable.…