Reflection: Partnering with Remembering Together
Adil Iqbal, Remembering Together’s storytelling associate reflects on his conversations with partners from East Dunbartonshire, Aberdeen City, Dundee and Western Isles. The various discussions highlighted the complexity of geography, diversity of communities, and the different types of approach and understanding of co-creation between the partners and Remembering Together team.
During my conversation with Craig Elliot who works as Cultural Services Manager at East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust, we highlighted the strong connection the region has to their local history and heritage. Building on the success of one their previous projects ‘ Trail and Tale project, the team were able to use their cultural and local knowledge in shaping the artist brief. Their understanding of co-creation is when the artist works with communities to create a piece of work together that holds a sense of meaning and value to everyone.
It is very common with cultural and arts projects to fall into the hands of ‘middle class’ or affluent older people who have the time or specific position in their community and they are looking to break through this barrier and span a wider demographic. One of the challenges was to incorporate wider demographics and reach out to the communities who have not worked with cultural arts projects. The team is interested in encouraging participatory arts and facilitation as a way to engage with local communities. Elena Mary Harris was appointed in May this year. We look forward to seeing her progress.
Stewart Aitken who coordinates the Culture Collective North East Culture at Culture Aberdeen emphasised the vital role creativity and culture played in community development, which has been influenced by the regeneration strategy for the city of Aberdeen. The key themes emerging for Aberdeen city were community health, social care connected to art, mental health, young people and greenspaces.
They are interested in a shared dialogue, in which co-design and co-production plays a significant role in co-creation. Stewart emphasised the primary role community partners’ knowledge and conversations had on giving them further insight into geographical diversity, regeneration areas, shelter homes and older people. Regardless of socio economic status, everyone experiences pain and their challenge is to bring out multiple voices and personal narratives that make up Aberdeen City. An artist collective of three artists was selected in June and aims to work with tactile material exploring themes such as care and intimacy, oral histories through sounds and video and exploring the environment through natural materials.
Roland Engebretsen who is the director at Macaulay College based in Isle of Lewis (Western Isles) aims to create a holistic learning environment for people with learning difficulties by involving them into practical and arts related methods.
“There is beauty and something special in being located in the islands, where the community spirit is strong, and everyone knows each other. Staff know the students and there is care and attention to their individual needs” Roland Engebretsen
Roland was keen to see social links and connections that can come out of co-creating, where the students can facilitate and support the artist during the activities. There is learning in the creative process that everyone can participate in. A key approach for them is for the artist to join in what’s going on and connect with the wider community groups on the island.
The college has since appointed Lewis based artist Robbie Thomson who works between the fields of visual art, music and theatre. At Remembering Together we are excited to see Robbie’s approach of co-creation with the communities and students from the college.
Annie Mars from UNESCO City of Design, Dundee, sheds light on how ‘co-design’ can be a powerful mechanism to engage and make the lives better for local communities.
The pandemic impacted heavily on communities who came from low socio economic backgrounds and Annie and her team are passionate in addressing this through their co-design approach. An example she shared was of the Sunny Dundee facemask, which brought local communities and a designer together during the lockdown. It showed the resilience and dedication of multiple community partners in maximising their resources and local materials to generate a social impact.
Poverty and austerity is systemic in Dundee and the ‘pandemic wedge’ has increased issues of mental health, domestic abuse and further amplified the shared trauma faced by numerous communities. Annie underlined that the arts are the best way to recover and break down the social barriers. They have hired design collective Around Zero, who are working in social innovation and environmental impact and making a difference through design. We look forward to seeing their progress and learning on their approach.
At Remembering Together we are still in early days of phase one development and it is inspiring to experience the commitment and dedication from all these partners in creating a legacy that honours and gives a voice to their communities.