Hosted by the Centre for Culture, Sport & Events at UWS, Foregrounding a Rights-Based Agenda for Sport Events: Insights from Research and Practice, took place virtually on 20th June 2022. Colleagues from a variety of leading institutions gathered to discuss a number of questions arising from the rights agenda in mega sport events from a variety of research, governance, organisational and policy perspectives. This symposium was organised as part of the EU-funded EventRights project which includes a number of academic institutions from Europe, and further afield. (more…)
Originally posted on festspace.net, this blog is reproduced here with kind permission.
Barcelona’s FestSpace team has produced a short video to bring together the objectives of the research and to summarise its key outcomes. It includes the perspective of the five cities participating via the contributions of the principal investigators of the project, members of their teams and some stakeholders. (more…)
The Burrell Collection in Glasgow reopened to the public on 29 March 2022, after a major refurbishment that lasted nearly 6 years.The A-listed home of The Burrell Collection in Pollok Country Park is now a modern, greener museum that shows more of the Collection to visitors and gives access to over a third more of the building. (more…)
This project is a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland and Renfrewshire Council (Culture, Heritage and Events Fund), which aims to raise awareness of Paisley School of Arts, with the desire to establish formal arts education in the town tracing back to 1836. (more…)
Our Spirit of London 2012 and Local Trust funded research project examining the social value of community events was completed at the end of last year. This week, I participated in a webinar alongside project collaborator Tamsin Cox. Chaired by Bill Morris, LVO, and, along with Amy Finch (Spirit of 2012), Gurvinder Sandher (Kent Equality Cohesion Council) and James Austin (The Jo Cox Foundation) it was a great opportunity to discuss and reflect upon the outputs we created as part of our commissioned work (the webinar was recorded and so will be available soon for further distribution). (more…)
Recently we’ve had the opportunity to expand our library of #CCSEConversations, adding a couple of conversations with speakers engaged in tackling the climate crisis and, the promotion of women’s sport and of women in the sporting sphere. (more…)
It is easy to forget that in a world before COVID there were already significant barriers for people with disabilities and chronic illness who wanted to take part in physical activity. Some of these barriers were physical in nature, such as inaccessible facilities, difficulties in accessing transport and the costs of specialist equipment. There were also more social and cultural barriers for example stereotypes around disability, lack of awareness and understanding of how to cater for different needs.
And then, in March 2020, the pandemic hit the UK… (more…)
The Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (SGSAH) and Scottish Graduate School of Social Science (SGSSS) have been invaluable to my PhD experience providing training in research approaches, methods, different ways of thinking about the world and technical training with courses on how to edit and write. I signed up for as many courses as I could fit in, as accessing any of these courses outside academia is difficult, costly, or nonexistent. (more…)
The Grand Conversaziones series – part of the currently ongoing Paisley Exhibition – kicked off on the second Friday in February with a frank and fascinating exploration of Paisley’s Present. The event provided a timely reminder of the town’s assets – chief among them the internationally recognised Paisley Pattern – alongside an opportunity to reflect upon the path that Paisley is navigating out of the pandemic.
While the impositions forced upon us by the necessity for COVID19 lockdowns have been many, the enforced break from the norm has nevertheless caused many to reflect on what constitutes success and where we should seek to invest our effort when seeking to create vibrant, liveable and sustainable communities. (more…)
Matt Baker’s post on a New Approach to Culture in Scotland asks – “perhaps it is time to ask a fundamental question about the way we do culture in Scotland? Could we consciously support a culture of participation and popular ownership of culture as a key part of our national toolkit towards a just transition from both Covid and Climate Change?”
Reading this article leads to reflections on what I’ve observed in Paisley regarding where and how cultural activities meet health and wellbeing activities. Can I answer this question based on the snapshot my observations provide? From this vantage point, Paisley has an entwined approach of supporting community empowerment and the cultural ecology; both before Covid-19 and in response to the pandemic (for examples see here and here) and, starting from the principle that culture is created and experienced by everyone. (more…)
