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.
Continue reading “The Paisley School of Arts”
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.
Continue reading “Don’t Just Patch – Have a Revolution / Begin by Sewing on a Button 🪡 🧵”
This Thursday, I complete my last day at UWS before I move back to France to start a permanent job as a Lecturer in Geography at the University of Amiens. As I have been a member of CCSE over the last two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow on the FESTSPACE project, I thought that it would be a good time to pen some reflections on my time here.
Continue reading “‘Au revoir’ FESTSPACE & CCSE (But Hopefully Not An ‘Adieu’!) 👋”
The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant changes to the way we live our lives and interact with others. This was only too evident with national lockdowns putting an end to all but essential contact in early 2020.
Continue reading “The Future of Events – A New CPD Programme for Event Practitioners”
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”
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”
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”
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”
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”
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”
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”
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”
Never in my professional or academic career has my field of study and work been more relevant than over the last seven months.
Continue reading “Covid 19: Participatory Action Research as Emergency Response”
Instagram Live, Zoom quiz nights, podcasts, at home workouts. In the last few months these forms of connections have skyrocketed into the public consciousness with everyone and their granny (literally) logging on to connect with the world. It makes sense, now more than ever we all are desperate to grasp onto as much human connection as we can.
Continue reading “The Future Paisley Podcast 📻 🎧”