Community
Community building is at the heart of what I do. It is an everyday lived experience of unifying and belonging.
As a working artist, I have been privileged to work alongside varying community groups and community build in several different contexts. Developing my understanding of community engagement and placemaking.
Here I have given examples of community building projects I have contributed to in the past few years.
Mountainhall Greenspace Community
Mountainhall Greenspace Community
A community project being developed from the NHS grounds of the Mountainhall treatment centre, Dumfries’s former hospital. NHS Scotland are moving towards using their greenspace estates to be better used for community benefit, enhancing public health through access to nature, creative wellbeing and community.
The project having been activated in March 2024, has been gently evolving as we've learnt what it means for a community project to be activated on NHS grounds. With learning and steering from multiple organisations and community members this project is finding it's footing ready to be a beautiful asset to the Dumfries community, and the local institutes which neighbor the greenspace site.
Propagate and DesignHOPES at Strathclyde University are partnered with the NHS to develop this project.
LIFT Community exchange shop posters
Funded through What We Do Now ‘Sparks’ an initiative for artists to activate creative ideas within the community.
In summer 2025, I worked alongside LIFT out of the ArtCabin to explore community self-promotion. Finding local creatives who would like to take an active part in shaping Lochside’s creative scene, and offering resources to promote and advertise workshops, events and activities.
The fund enabled me to spend time in the community. Getting to understand how LIFT works, meet people, and find out their interests.
My time there involved drop-in workshops with a focus on poster, print and zine making. One-on-one collage workshops, and towards the end of the project, invite only workshops where we investigated what it could mean to belong to a collective together.
With thanks to The Stove Network’s Off-The-Margin project for supporting this fledgling group after the Sparks commission came to an end.
Haddington in Miniature made with the Happy Club
A busy, creative community hub in heart of Haddington. My role as Community Co-ordinator involved weekly workshops for our local disability charity (usually focusing on seasonal window displays). Contributing to the monthly ticketed craft workshops as well as the day to day running of an art shop and community space.
My time with MADE also involved co-curating and delivering our 6 month long ‘Creative Connections’ project funded by National Lottery. The project aimed to inspire and involve people in the re-development of the historical site which MADE operates out from. We focused on the evolving functions of the venue exploring it’s changing uses through workshops, artist commissions, murals, and three larger scale community events which focused on ‘the past, present, future’ of the space.