Looking ahead to the end of this cohort of Culture Collective projects, the network was able to get together at a special event to celebrate all that’s been achieved by the 26 projects, artists and communities.

On Wednesday 4 October, representatives from across the network gathered at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh, where members of the public were also invited to join us online throughout the day. The emphasis of this event was on sharing and celebration, with an exhibition, book nook, audio station, film showcase, performances and more by artists working across the network.

The day opened with a short welcome from Kathryn Welch and Morvern Cunningham of the Culture Collective Programme Lead team, with details on what to expect from the day ahead. At this point, Kathryn also introduced the Culture Collective Manifesto, which includes points drafted by and with many of the Collective. You can read and download the manifesto here.

The audience, both in person and online, were treated to a programme of short films from the Culture Collective network, with films from the Sensory Collective, Creative Islands Network, Deveron Projects, EVOLVE Seedhill and more. Catch up on the full playlist of films, as well as the audio works shared in the event’s audio station, here.

As well as providing an audio station with MP3 players featuring audio and music from the network, there was a book nook filled with the many books, pamphlets, zines and publications created by the Culture Collective network. Whilst some of those publications exist only in physical format, we’ve gathered digital versions of as many as we can to create this Virtual Book Nook, which you can browse at your leisure.

Likewise, we created a Virtual Exhibition, featuring some of the paintings, banners, photography, textiles and sculpture including in the physical exhibition at the Storytelling Centre. You can view the Virtual Exhibition here.

In the afternoon, the Celebration included numerous performances from creatives in the network, as well as a film screening from Inverclyde Culture Collective’s Walking to Connect project. With thanks to Amadu (CULTIVATE), Gemma (Creative Islands Network), Anne (People’s Parish), Salma (Arts in Moray), Cara (Safe Harbour, Open Sea), Mandy and Hazel (Intercultural Youth Scotland) and Daniel and co. (Aiseirigh) for sharing their work.

We were also delighted to have been able to launch Our Voices: A Diverse Artists’ Guide at the Celebration event, with a panel chaired by Culture Collective Engagement Lead Matt Hickman and featuring Nina Doherty, Maya-Rose Edwards and Salma Faraji. Find out more about the Guide and download a copy here.

At the evening reception, we were joined by Steve Byrne (TRACS), Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture Angus Robertson, and Karen Dick (Creative Scotland). John Martin Fulton and Anthony Schrag spoke about the programme evaluation and Miwa Nagato-Apthorp (Alchemy) gave a stunning vocal performance. You can view The Culture Collective Story, John Martin Fulton’s response to the evaluation, here.

At the end of the night, we all made our way to the garden at the back of the Storytelling Centre for a moving aerial performance by practitioners from Findhorn Bay Arts’ Combine to Create and friends from the Culture Collective network. It was a fitting end to a day of celebration and commemoration of all that has been achieved by the network and the many partnerships, friendships and creative bonds made along the way.

You can view the full gallery of photos from the day, by Kat Gollock, here, and view a video of highlights, filmed and edited by Mario Cruzado, below.