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.
Continue reading “Recovery, Repair, Renewal: Conference Video”
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.
Continue reading “Looking to the Future!…”
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 hand-wringing and self-reflection across the sector, as well as for me personally.
Continue reading “Big Questions & Resourceful Answers: V&A Dundee’s Covid 19 Response”
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?
Continue reading “Big Questions & Resourceful Answers: V&A Dundee’s Covid 19 Response”
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.
Continue reading “Recovery, Repair & Renewal: The role of arts and culture in the future of urban places”
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.
Continue reading “Signs of ‘Normal’ Life? A Moment of Interest”
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.
Continue reading “COVID ISLAND DIARY: Diary of a Pandemic ✍️ 🎨”
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’.
Continue reading “Post-Pandemic: The Cockroaches of the Cultural Sector”
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?
Continue reading “The Creative Road to Recovery”
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.
Continue reading “#CCSEConversations: Conversations Archive”
As Easter approaches and, we enter the second spring of restrictions brought about by the onset of the COVID19 pandemic, it is interesting take a moment of pause to reflect on the activities undertaken and progress made at CCSE.
Continue reading “Review of the Year so Far: A View from Our Blog”
Through the Centre for Culture, Sport and Events, UWS collaborated with The University of Applied Sciences in Bonn to conduct the first report of the Live FM: Fan Monitor.
Continue reading “Live FM: Fan Monitor: Analysis of attitudes and behavioural trends of music fans in Germany and Scotland during the Covid-19 pandemic”
Following a successful and exhilarating first festival in February 2020, this year’s digital edition of Paisley Book Festival had to adapt quickly to fast changing circumstances. Looking back now, it’s hard to believe that last year’s event was staged in entirely normal circumstances, when just a few weeks later we were plunged into lockdown.
Continue reading “Paisley Book Festival Goes Digital”
I was invited to contribute to a conference organised by The Cockburn Association titled ‘Whose Festival is it Anyway’ on Saturday 31st January. The conference featured panels exploring Edinburgh’s Festivals – past, present and future. I participated in a panel chaired by well-known broadcaster, Stephen Jardine, focused on Cultural Tourism and the Festivals: What will be the ‘new normal’?
Continue reading “Whose Festival is it Anyway?”
In late March 2020 I watched with disbelief as my diary of project meetings, stock deliveries and workshops was wiped as the corona virus pandemic hit, leaving me wondering what next for my small business?
Continue reading “Welcome To The “Lockdown Lounge””
“The genie is out of the bottle now,” said the delegate from Paris looking glumly out of my lap-top screen, “We are giving away all of this work for free. How will we ever get people to pay for the arts again?” It was June 2020 and I was attending one of those seminars that have only seemed possible since the COVID pandemic closed performing arts venues last March.
Continue reading “Why Every Little Helps the Arts to Thrive”
The search for concepts I feel comfortable with to describe arts, culture, health and wellbeing has been a long one. Theories and concepts have been described as a lens to see the world or a framework to scaffold the thesis. For me it has felt more like trying on many coats.
Continue reading “Fetching a Coat: Finding a Concept that Fits Arts, Culture, Health & Wellbeing”
At the beginning of 2020, colleagues from STAR Project, Renfrewshire Council and the University of the West of Scotland organised a workshop, Paisley Art & Soul. The workshop brought together members of Renfrewshire’s local communities and other stakeholders to discuss the ways that art and culture affects individual and community prosperity and wellbeing.
Continue reading “UKRI Place Based Partnership – Evidence Review Launch”