Findhorn Bay Arts has been awarded £300,000 from Creative Scotland’s Culture Collective Fund.
The Culture Collective is a pilot programme which will establish a network of creative practitioners, organisations and communities, working together to create a positive difference locally and nationally in response to COVID-19.
The programme will focus on community engaged creative activity, supporting participatory approaches and projects where creative practitioners and communities work collaboratively. A key element of this will be proactively responding to the impact of COVID-19, providing employment opportunities for creative practitioners and actively engaging people in shaping the future cultural life of their community.
Gary Cameron, Interim Director, Strategy, Creative Scotland said: “Thanks to Scottish Government and National Lottery funds, the pilot Culture Collective programme is bringing new thinking and promoting collaboration to create a positive difference locally and nationally in response to the pandemic.”
Culture Collective is funded by the Scottish Government. In addition to the Scottish Government investment National Lottery funding will support the development of a national Culture Collective network for sharing progress and working towards programme research and evaluation.
This funding supports a multi-arts place-making project produced by Findhorn Bay Arts to be developed in partnership with Moray communities and creative practitioners and supported by key community and cultural organisations. It will test new ways of working, bringing together creative practitioners and communities in a series of residencies to develop programmes of creative activity through collaboration.
Entitled Combine to Create, the funding supports an 18-month programme that will be invested in communities across Moray to support the costs of artists residencies including fees, materials, sundries, film and photography documentation, marketing as well as the recruitment of a project coordinator. A small percentage (16%) of the funds secured will support the core costs of Findhorn Bay Arts (office, insurance, and core team).
The project will see creative practitioners working with local community hubs (halls/venues) for a minimum of six months. The key objective is to work with communities to draw out themes and stories of what is important to them and develop a picture of how the arts can improve their lives. There will be a call-out to nominate local community hubs for inclusion through an expression of interest.
We have chosen to work with hubs such as halls because they are at the lifeblood of the community, and are already engaging with a diverse range of communities and organisations. They are key to supporting our communities in the recovery from Covid-19.
Each residency will conclude with a community celebration, which will showcase the creative response of the artists and community. The aim is to breathe new life into community hubs, re-engage and re-connect the wider local community and will leave a lasting legacy.
Kresanna Aigner, Creative Director, Findhorn Bay Arts said: “We are deeply committed to partnership working in everything we do. We strive to build and sustain meaningful connections with individuals and organisations as project partners and as co-creators. We embrace our responsibility to nurture and support the wider development of the cultural sector within Moray and more widely across Scotland.”
We will announce more information and opportunities soon.
