You Are Here...

from Fresh Start for the Arts 

It’s widely recognised that Dumfries and Galloway has an impressively large number of creative practitioners, for such a sparsely populated region.

Indeed, it’s sometimes cheerily claimed that there could be more creatives per head of population than anywhere else in Scotland. But where’s the evidence?

Certainly the experience of the Fresh Start team has been that there is an amazing variety of talent – both home grown and inbound from elsewhere in Scotland, the UK and overseas.

As our role is to make recommendations on giving the sector a bigger say in its own future we would like to get some firm data to show who is doing what, and where, and how many there are across D&G.

'You are here' - Sans façon

This cultural mapping exercise could prove invaluable in planning the best, most inclusive and effective ways ahead. So we are inviting arts practitioners of every kind (that’s musicians, lens-based, digital, performance literature, visual arts, crafts or any other) to get involved. We’ll be looking at organisations and institutions a little later.

If you would like to get involved just send an email with the words “cultural map” in the subject line to info@matthewshelley.net  and we will let you have a quick and easy form to fill in.

We appreciate that there have been lots of requests for information from the sector recently. And while we are using a range of sources for the project there are data protection restrictions on what can be shared.

We are also putting out invitations through a variety of sources to reach as many people as possible. To minimise duplication we are also working with partner organisations, such as CABN, to do joint data collection (there’s a note about this on our form). So we do hope you’ll take part, even if the thought of more forms makes you mutter and groan.

In the meantime just a quick reminder that Peter Stark will be leading two more discussions about Fresh Start which will take place on Thursday 11 April. The first meeting will be at Moffat Old Well Theatre at 10.30am, and the second will be at The Stove, Dumfries, at 2.30pm.

Also there’s still time to get in your application for web design work to help create the portal that will be one of the legacies of Fresh Start and a key resource for all connected with the arts in D+G.

If you would like further information about anything connected with Fresh Start please email Matthew Shelley at info@matthewshelley.net or call 07786 704299.