by Centre for Culture Sports & Events | Jul 15, 2021 | Art, Arts, City of Culture, Community, COVID19, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Regeneration, Culture, Digital, Events, Lonliness, Place, Public Space, Renfrewshire, Uncategorised
At the beginning of June, CCSE had the perhaps slightly unexpected pleasure of one again hosting our annual conference virtually. As CCSE Director – Prof Gayle McPherson – pointed out in her opening remarks; at the time of our first virtual outing in May last year, there were few among us who believed we’d be gearing up for a second digital event just over twelve months later.
Home offices, dining, kitchen and side tables served as our venue once again and everyone bore responsibility for their own tea and biscuits. While far from the traditional conference offering, it is potentially the case that the widespread development of digital – and in future hybrid – events will be one of the longterm legacies of the pandemic response, ultimately enabling greater engagement with a wider audience. (more…)
by Lil Brookes | Jul 1, 2021 | Art, Artist, Artist Development Grant, Arts, Community, COVID19, Culture, Uncategorised
Over the past five years I’ve been in business as Gatekeeper Art. My small creative business is my full time occupation and when asked what I do I usually term myself as an artist and social historian with a community practice. I wrote a blog recently for CCSE called “Welcome to the Lockdown Lounge” which outlined how I had with my social historian “hat” on been designing and delivering heritage/ cultural related workshops online. (more…)
by Joanna Mawdsley | Jun 17, 2021 | Art, Arts, Audience, Community, COVID19, Culture, Events, Learning, Public Space, Research profile, Resources, Uncategorised
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns, many museums developed and put in place online digital offerings. This prompted quite a lot of handwringing and self-reflection across the sector, as well as for me personally. I immediately felt slightly guilty – what is the point of a museum? Is it really that important? Is it relevant? Who are we for? Why are we here?
Big questions… (more…)
by Len McCaffer | Jun 3, 2021 | Art, Community, COVID19, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Regeneration, Culture, Performance, Public Space, Research profile, Theatre, Uncategorised
On September 1939, at the start of the start of World War II, the government ordered the closure of all theatres throughout Britain, fearing that large congregations of people would be susceptible to aerial bombardment. It was quickly realised that theatres were vital to the morale and wellbeing of the general public and The Gaiety Theatre, Ayr was the first in Britain to open its doors providing welcome entertainment to the public and troops stationed locally. (more…)
by Centre for Culture Sports & Events | May 20, 2021 | Art, Arts, City of Culture, Community, COVID19, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Regeneration, Culture, Digital, Events, Place, Power, Public Space, Renfrewshire, Uncategorised
The Centre for Culture, Sport & Events is delighted to invite you to our virtual annual conference. The event ‘Recovery, Repair & Renewal: The role of arts and culture in the future of urban places’ will take place on Wednesday 9th June 2021.
The Centre for Culture, Sport and Events, CCSE, undertakes research, consultation and knowledge exchange work aligned with our four key themes:
(more…)
by Sophie Mamattah | May 6, 2021 | Art, Arts, COVID19, Culture, Digital, Events, Uncategorised
As we tentatively emerge from our third lockdown in the course of the strangest of years it is possible to glimpse the ways in which our cultural lives might be returning to some kind of ‘normal.’ For example in recent days, we have seen the first steps towards the return of audiences and participants at sporting and social events. Mark Selby lifted his fourth World Snooker Championship crown in front of a capacity crowd in Sheffield; football has been played in front of fans, V&A Dundee welcomed visitors back with an exploration of the relationship between club culture and design: Night Fever, Designing Club Culture and some of Liverpool’s clubbers were able to dance a night away while simultaneously providing an opportunity for policy advisors and policy makers to test the waters regarding wisdom of enabling us to emerge from lockdown and make a return to our former patterns of cultural and social engagement. In these events – and the managed return to co-proximity and co-presence that they signify – it’s possible to recognise and return to what can seem as a former life (though, Brighton Pride has been cancelled for the second year running demonstrating that the route back to ‘normality’ is not free of obstacles). (more…)
by Maureen Rocksmoore | Apr 29, 2021 | Art, Artist, Artist Development Grant, Arts, Community, COVID19, Culture, Renfrewshire, Uncategorised
At the beginning of the Pandemic Lockdown period in March 2020, I began an online page – “Covid Island Diary”. I began to document and collate images, memes and political comment made by artists during the situation as it unfolded. I was extremely interested in the artist response to this immense world event. It became very clear, early on to everyone that as a society we rely heavily on artists every day. Designers, film makers, writers and musicians all helped to make an enforced lockdown at home more bearable for us all. (more…)
by Liz Gardiner | Apr 22, 2021 | Arts, Brexit, Community, COVID19, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Regeneration, Digital, Power, Public Space, Uncategorised
During the 1980’s and 90s, when social enterprise was an innovative concept in Scotland, Strathclyde Regional Council, Objective 3 Partnership and the Scottish Centre for Regeneration were surprised when Fablevision board members thanked them for turning down applications for funding on the grounds that we were ‘not sustainable’. Having funding bids rejected forced Fablevision artists, like most other creative practitioners, to develop other, entrepreneurial business models that would allow them to continue their practice without compromising their vision or values and we thanked them for forcing us to be independent. Over the ensuing decades, Fablevision inherited furniture from Strathclyde Regional Council when they shut up shop; computer equipment from Objective 3 Partnership when they closed and co-created learning materials on the demise of the Scottish Centre for Regeneration. The ‘unsustainable’ small cultural social enterprise outlasted all the big beasts. Like other small cultural organisations, we were light on our feet – able to adapt and pivot creatively and meet the new requirements of whatever adverse social/economic/political circumstances presented. There is a joke in community based cultural practice that practitioners of these arts are like ‘cockroaches will be after the nuclear holocaust – they will be the only living things to survive’. (more…)
by Heather Paton | Apr 15, 2021 | Arts, Community, COVID19, Culture, Place, Power, Uncategorised
I can’t quite believe it’s been a year since I took a seat at my dining room table and mastered the virtual meeting world to join Renfrewshire Leisure’s Arts Team for a vital discussion: what are the needs of the Creative and Cultural Sector in Renfrewshire?
Conversations of concern and despair from arts professionals across the team were the focal point. After discussions with local organisations, artists and seeing the impact the pandemic was having on the arts nationwide, it was clear – something radical had to be done and done quickly. We had to try and support the creative and cultural sector in Renfrewshire, giving local artists and organisations a chance to adapt, to recover, renew and to keep spirits up, raising hope through the arts, creativity, and culture. (more…)
by Centre for Culture Sports & Events | Apr 1, 2021 | Arts, Community, COVID19, Cultural Heritage, Culture, Digital, Events, Music, Place, Public Space, Research profile, Uncategorised
At CCSE, we began our conversations series in the autumn of 2020. The seed for these discussions was planted at our virtual conference in May 2020. This event – Festivals, Events & COVID19 – was an opportunity to explore and discuss the impacts of the pandemic across on aspects of arts and cultural praxis. At CCSE we were keen to find a way to continue these discussions, and to provide a platform for ongoing consideration and discussion of the ways in which the pandemic could and would change the ways that we approach and experience arts, culture, sports and aspects of travel and tourism that insect with the areas of interest for CCSE. (more…)
