Creative Practitioners and communities will work together across the Tay region to tackle climate change and social issues, accelerating COVID recovery while making Fife a more sustainable place to live, work and visit.
Each practitioner will work with a Community Partner, developing place-based solutions to boost engagement and capture hearts and minds within their local community. Through workshops, activities and events with local communities, they will create new ways to respond to local challenges that can then be shared across Tayside.
Creative Dundee has secured £300,000 of Creative Scotland ‘Culture Collective’ funding, part of the £6M Scottish Government emergency COVID-19 fund, to support this exciting, new 18-month programme which will include projects across the Tay region – Perth and Kinross, Dundee, North East Fife and Angus. In total, the project will create 12 paid opportunities and will also reach the wider public through a visible high street presence within empty retail units.
CULTIVATE will be delivered in collaboration with a number of partners, including both Dundee City Council and Perth and Kinross Council.
In Fife, CULTIVATE will work with People Learning About Nature in Tayport (PLANT), a subgroup of Tayport Community Trust. Since 2011, PLANT has been working on projects bringing people together to grow food and flowers, while reducing carbon emissions and enhancing Tayport’s natural environment.
Funded by the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund, PLANT runs the thriving Tayport Community Garden – an inclusive community growing space where organisations, groups, families and individuals of all abilities can work, learn and socialise. PLANT is also involved in organising Tayport Climate Festival (24-26 September 2021), a programme of fun and engaging activities aimed at building a better and fairer future for the local community.
Kaska Hempel, Digital Storytelling and Carbon Conversations Coordinator of PLANT said, “Harnessing the energy built through the Tayport Climate Festival and the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow later this year, 2021 could be the year we really make a difference.
“Here in Tayport, we want to bring people together to create memories of a better future, shaping specific community projects which the town can focus on over the next 10 years. Our ambition is to involve as many people and organisations as we can, making it creative, exciting, fun and hopeful. CULTIVATE presents us with so many opportunities to make a tangible difference – we are particularly interested in generating a conversation between generations and hearing our young people’s voices and concerns so they can really contribute to the ideas and plans we develop.”
As well as working with their specific communities on a climate justice challenge, the practitioners will all come together to exchange knowledge, develop their work and spark new collaborations and opportunities.
Claire Dufour, Creative Climate Producer, Creative Dundee said, “While the climate crisis presents critical and pressing global issues, each and every one of us has a role to play locally. The power of creativity and design in that drive is immense, attracting attention and engagement, breaking down barriers and sparking new approaches and practical solutions in the process.
“CULTIVATE will present some fantastic opportunities. For the Creative Practitioners, it’s the chance to bring a community project to life, build their profile, be part of Creative Dundee’s wider network and motivate tangible change. For those living and working in that community, it’s the chance to get involved and contribute to a better, fairer and more sustainable society– changes which, however small, could make a lasting impact on their environment and the world we’re passing on to future generations. For us, being part of the Culture Collective network is an opportunity to connect the work happening across the Tay region with other creative and climate projects all across Scotland – helping both to share the exciting work happening in the region and to connect it with the learning from initiatives all over the country.”
Launched in 2008, Creative Dundee leads collaborative projects which generate local, national and international opportunities for people and the city, supporting Dundee’s strong creative ecology. Most notably, Creative Dundee led the development and creation of Dundee’s Creative Industries Strategy in conjunction with key partners.
To find out more about CULTIVATE – and apply for the Creative Practitioner roles – please visit: www.creativedundee.com/cultivate
CREDIT: This press release was prepared by Claire Grainger on behalf of CULTIVATE project. Illustration by Cara Rooney.
