From Govan to the city centre, from children with learning disabilities to New Scots, people all over the city of Glasgow have benefitted from the opportunity to explore their creative side, led by their own communities.
We recently hosted a workshop and reception to showcase the incredible talent and creativity fostered through our Creative Communities Glasgow Programme, which has been running for 18 months and has now been extended for another year.
The event offered funded organisations from across Glasgow an opportunity to come together to showcase what they have been working on with their participants, including an exhibition of artwork and live performances.
Since it began in September 2023, the programme has supported 10 charities that work with communities facing barriers to engaging with culture, providing opportunities for people to get involved in creative arts, experience joy and pride, reduce loneliness, build connections, and develop new creative skills.
Opening with a workshop on participatory arts and creative placemaking, followed by a reception, allowed project participants, partners, funders, and the wider Glasgow community to meet, see first-hand the positive impacts of the programme, and view an exhibition of artworks, videos, and photographs showcasing the diverse art forms explored through the projects.
One event attendee said, “Seeing art made by and for people and communities, listening to stories of lived experience and seeing how groups have been creative is wonderful.”
Incredible live performances also provided a glimpse into the varied projects supported by the programme and included a piece about the climate by the Village Storytelling Centre, and scenes from the Toonspeak Young People’s Theatre winter pantomime and spring production.
Catriona Patterson, programme manager for Creative Communities Glasgow, shared insights into the success of the programme:
“Over the past 18 months, the programme has supported over 2,000 people in some of Glasgow’s most challenged communities, employed over 80 creative practitioners, 45 project staff, and 72 volunteers, and recruited 55 new volunteers.
“We’re thrilled that Glasgow City Council and UK Government have recognised the value of this work and invested in a further year of the programme, allowing us to continue delivering it with our partner charities.
“We know it is needed, we know it works, and that it’s not just a ‘nice to have’. What we learn here, we hope to grow and develop into a wider connection between creativity, place, wellbeing and community.”
Find out more about Creative Communities Glasgow.
Photographs by Becky Duncan, Open Aye.
Workshop live illustration by Jules Scheele.
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