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”Illuminating a Dark Theatre: Arts, Community, COVID19, Theatre, Cultural Heritage, Culture, Digital
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.
Continue reading “Illuminating a Dark Theatre: Arts, Community, COVID19, Theatre, Cultural Heritage, Culture, Digital”Recovery, Repair & Renewal: The role of arts and culture in the future of urban places
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”Signs of ‘Normal’ Life? A Moment of Interest
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”COVID ISLAND DIARY: Diary of a Pandemic ✍️ 🎨
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 ✍️ 🎨”Post-Pandemic: The Cockroaches of the Cultural Sector
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”The Creative Road to Recovery
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”#CCSEConversations: Conversations Archive
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”Review of the Year so Far: A View from Our Blog
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”Live FM: Fan Monitor: Analysis of attitudes and behavioural trends of music fans in Germany and Scotland during the Covid-19 pandemic
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”Paisley Book Festival Goes Digital
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”Whose Festival is it Anyway?
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?”Welcome To The “Lockdown Lounge”
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””Why Every Little Helps the Arts to Thrive
“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 PhD and the Pandemic Part Two: The ‘New Normal’ for a PhD Student
Back at the beginning of April, I wrote a short blog post sharing my experiences of some of the challenges of doing a PhD during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes we might have been in lockdown, but the sun was shining and the colours of spring were beginning to bloom around us.
Continue reading “The PhD and the Pandemic Part Two: The ‘New Normal’ for a PhD Student”One Crisis after Another: The Impact of COVID-19 on Roma Communities in Glasgow
It is evident that COVID-19 is radically changing the way we go about our everyday lives and the things we normally take for granted, whether it is community events, festivals, family celebrations and even attending funerals to show our respects.
Continue reading “One Crisis after Another: The Impact of COVID-19 on Roma Communities in Glasgow”Light in the Dark Days
On an average Monday morning at Wallace Street, I start my working day greeted by Margaret with her little Chihuahua pup in arms. She tells me about her latest knitted dog coat purchase as other bodies start to shuffle through the narrow corridor. We settle in a semi-circle of kind faces and laughter, and I can hear the sound of mugs clinking and the smell of coffee brewing in the background.
Continue reading “Light in the Dark Days”Create Paisley’s Second Open Minds Summit
CCSE were partners to the Open Mind Summit along with Future Paisley, Renfrewshire Leisure, Kibble. The second annual summit hosted by Create Paisley launched the day before World Mental Health Day. It explored the role of creativity and culture in improving mental health and wellbeing for children and young people.
Continue reading “Create Paisley’s Second Open Minds Summit”