CULTIVATE // Creative Dundee
2021 - 2022
A regional leadership programme for Creative Practitioners and Local Communities to collaboratively engage, create and produce locally relevant work, with a climate and social justice lens, across the Tay region.
My roles in this project: Creative Director, Videographer, Editor, Illustrator
In August 2021, I was one of 7 creative practitioners commissioned by Creative Dundee as part of the first round of their CULTIVATE project. I was partnered with PLANT - People Learning About Nature in Tayport - and started the project by spending a couple of weeks getting to know them and the work they do in their community garden.
From the beginning of the project, we always had a clear idea that we wanted to bring the community together to dream of a better future for Tayport. Our first event was the first-ever Tayport Climate Festival, which was part of the COP26 Fringe. This gave us the opportunity to get people started on thinking about what they’d like to see in the future of their town. It was also an opportunity to invite people to the next event we had planned - a Visioning Event.
The Visioning Event was part of COP26 Coalition's Day of Action for Climate Justice on the 6th of November. At this event, around 40 locals joined us to imagine what Tayport might look like in 2030. Why 2030? Well, scientists believe that the next ten years are key in making sure we do the most that we can to combat the climate crisis.
During the event, we time travelled to a future Tayport that was brimming with life; a place where shopping locally was easy and affordable; where creativity and sustainability were at the heart of the community. People wrote down their ideas and made cardboard buildings, and at the end of the day, we shared a meal together.
The ideas generated from the Visioning Event went on to form the basis of the work I made for our final exhibition. I started by creating a map of Tayport in 2030, combining existing locations with some of the new places that had been dreamed up. We then created an audio tour that would explain to listeners in more detail what they might see in Tayport 2030. In response to this, I created an illustration for each stop on the tour. We also created a lesson for Tayport Primary School, asking pupils to draw and write about their dreams for the future.
For the final exhibition, we displayed large prints of my illustrations alongside work from the pupils, as well as having the audio tour available for visitors to hear. It was a great opportunity to showcase the project to the local community, and to start more climate conversations.
