What a year it has been.
Through task and deed the FBA team have worked with heartfelt dedication and in collaboration with so many artists and partners supporting our communities to come through Covid, to reconnect, to regenerate through creativity.
From our AMP: Music mentoring programme working with professional musicians who supported young people in Moray to develop new skills, build their networks and showcase their talents.
To the culmination of our Creative Paths project developed and delivered with creative practitioners and people connected to Quarriers care services in Moray and Aberdeenshire.
To working with Dandelion, the Scotland wide creative growing initiative to deliver Unexpected Gardens in Moray. The Unexpected Gardens programme invited local people to share ideas, make connections and inspire new ways of thinking about growing, whilst cultivating local roots and fresh connections among residents, growers, artists and community groups.
Nature and the Natural World, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Regeneration and Revitalisation and Connection and Re-Connection have been cross cutting themes across all of our work and embedded at the heart of our Combine to Create programme.
Combine to Create has supported seven creative practitioners, through long term residencies to work with communities of identity and place and four creative residencies placing artists within rural communities through their four village halls.
Together they have been testing and inspiring new ways of working within and between creative practitioners and communities through participatory arts projects.
The Combine to Create collaborative programme of creative activities in Moray is supported by and part of Creative Scotland through the Culture Collective programme. For the sector as a whole, the Culture Collective shines a light on the crucial importance of participatory arts projects for artists, for communities and for the future.
We returned with our first Festival since the Covid outbreak. The 4th Findhorn Bay Festival presented a spectacular 10-day journey of celebration, exploration and discovery for Scotland’s Year of Stories, offering glimpses into the past and hopes for the future, and experiences of nature, culture and adventure.
We would like to thank the heartfelt commitment of a dedicated team and the support and collaboration from our community partners, local businesses, funders, artists, creative practitioners and local people.
As we look to the future, to face the challenges ahead, and in an ever changing cultural landscape through conversation and collaboration we will continue to strengthen our cross-sector working, embedding artists in communities, reflect on our learning, share our learning and together inspire our communities to make creative things happen.
We’re off for an extended break – and our offices will be closed from 23 December 2022 to 9 January 2023.
From all of us at Findhorn Bay Arts wishing you and yours a peaceful Festive break and we look forward to working with you in the New Year.
Kresanna Aigner
Creative Director / CEO
