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Expectations Versus Reality: Community Arts Practice Edition

by Rachel Shnapp

It’s easy, when initially developing a creative project, to let your dreams run away with you. When I first thought up the project that I would be developing within The Stove this winter, my plans were, on some scale, grandiose. I saw the project spanning across the region, inspiring five football teams (full size, not 5-a-side) of young people, who, like me, had grown up surrounded by the moss and the hills and the dry-stone dykes of Dumfries and Galloway, dreaming of clapper boards, dressed sets, and, let’s be honest, Hollywood* mystique (*note the two Ls.)

The project I was aiming to deliver was a series of screenwriting workshops with three groups of young people from the region who, on a national level, fell under the bracket of ‘rurally excluded’, each from a different geographical area of the region. (Aside: we could have a whole other conversation (and multiple debates) about the phrase ‘rurally excluded’ and its role within diversity and inclusion, but that’s for another time.)

My aim was to teach these three groups of young people how to construct short narrative films, focussing on naturalistic and localised film, and through this process co-write a script with each group, that I would then go and shoot.

I envisioned ending with a series of coming-of-age short films based within the region, telling stories that spoke to a generation of kids who rarely (if ever) see themselves on screen. This would combine my own practice as a director, and the work I had been doing for the past six months at The Stove in community arts. The thought of inspiring the aforementioned penta-football gang of local-next-generation screenwriters and filmmakers appealed to no end. 

I’m going to do something you are generally not supposed to do in storytelling. I’m going to drop the spoiler in right at the second act:

I didn’t reach my expectations for this project. I’m going to do something else you are generally not supposed to do in storytelling: admit that I am an unreliable narrator. To say I didn’t reach my expectations for this project, would be telling only half the truth. The full truth, which sometimes we must wrestle with to discover, weed out of the proverbial pavement, is that my expectations shifted entirely throughout this project, and my initial goals, although in some ways not entirely met, paled in comparison to the happy accidents that shone through.

Due to various circumstances, I ended up only working with one group, of five young people, all from one town.

Firstly, with the impending threat of another Covid lockdown, all the schools I had hoped to work with were closing their doors to external visitors. Another group I had been introduced to were, sadly for me, not at all interested in screenwriting. Other pre-formed groups across the region had their spring schedules signed off well before Christmas, and were therefore unavailable. This singular group situation was not the geographically wide-ranging cinematic spectacular I had planned for. But within the confines of reality, I was able to spend more time and energy working with a group of young people who were determined, hard-working, and, truly benefited from the workshops in ways I had not at all anticipated.

(Disclaimer here: I definitely do not claim to take all the credit. I’m sure, without me, the group would have developed these skills in time on their own; and the team leading the group were making leaps and bounds with their photography and filmmaking abilities before I even stepped foot in the space.) But to see, first-hand, the benefit of having a space for young people to collaborate and work creatively, to try new ideas, and to (it seems so simple in hindsight) just be themselves, is more valuable than any evaluation procedure jargon I could have come up with in the first place.

This realisation, this eureka moment, is that what so many young people in rural communities really need is a space to hang out, to eat snacks with their friends out of the cold, dark Scottish winters, to truly be themselves around people who accept them and want to support them. A space to try out new ideas without the judgement of small-town-small-minds that can so often hold back anyone who does not conform entirely. I am definitely not the first person to make this realisation – I have seen colleagues in the region come to this conclusion and work tirelessly to provide these environments for the younger community. But to see it with my own eyes, up close, to be told by one of the young people that they feel ‘more at home here than at home’, to be able to contribute to that safe, comfortable space, where a young person is able to just be themselves. There’s nothing that could be more valuable, more inspiring, or more cinematic than that.

Rachel Shnapp is an Associate Artist forming part of the Creative Spaces Project 22-23

Remake Dumfries

A Month of Charity Shop Diving & Clothing Regeneration

February 14, 2022 @ 12:00 pm 3:00 pm

If you’ve been looking for an outlook for your creativity, look no further! We’re in need of all the budding fashionistas, under the age of 30, for our own Dumfries & Galloway twist on Project Runway. Come and rummage through the treasures of Dumfries’ High St charity shops and then spend the rest of February regenerating and reinventing the pieces into a new, community made, fashion collection. Join a collective of like-minded individuals interested in fashion, textiles and sustainability – no experience required, just a desire to get stuck in and think outside the box!!

This is a 5 session event, participants are advised to attend all sessions in the series. All session dates are listed below:

SESSION 1

Saturday 5th February 12-3pm – CHARITY SHOP DIVE

Get a taste of what’s to come and join in with our charity shop rummage. We’ll meet at The Stove, discuss our project desires and collective #vision before hitting the shops and collecting the starting goods! What’s better than shopping I hear you ask? Shopping with someone else’s money! As a group, we’ll have a budget to spend on our starting charity shop finds, so no need to bring anything other than yourself and some excitement to get us through!

SESSION 2

Monday 7th February 5-7pm – CREATIVE PLANNING

Here’s where the ‘real work’ starts! We’ve got four weeks to turn these charity shop garments around and reimagine something new entirely! We’ll start off this session by curating our garments and materials, drawing and planning our project outcomes and initiating textiles test ideas of potential processes. Mood boards, concept ideas, visualisations…we’ll be doing it all…

SESSION 3

Monday 14th February 5-7pm – CREATIVE MAKING: TESTING & DEVELOPING

This week we’ll be in full making mode, developing and producing our community fashion collection through textiles and fashion upcycling processes. Sharing skills, we’ll be looking into all the different ways we can manipulate the garments we have to generate our desired outcome. Embroidery, stencil screen printing, patchwork, embellishment and maybe even some knitting (??) the possibilities are endless, and our minds are open!

SESSION 4

Monday 21st February 5-7pm – CREATIVE MAKING: THE MEATY ONE

There’s no way round it, there’ll be lots to do and much sewing, cutting and sticking(?!) to be done to get everything ready in time. Seeing the creations come to life we’ll be making sure everything is looking runway ready in no time. Think ‘Great British Sewing Bee’ with no tears or stress but lots of laughs and creativity!

SESSION 5

Monday 28th February 5-7pm – CREATIVE MAKING: THE FINISHING TOUCHES

It’s all hands-on deck for the final push to get this community fashion collection off the ground! As well as finishing off the collection itself (sewing in all those pesky threads!!), we’ll be solidifying the overall project aesthetic and creating visualisations to influence a final photoshoot before all is revealed at the Creative Spaces showcase in March.

Free
100 High Street
Dumfries, Dumfries & Galloway DG1 2BJ United Kingdom
01387 252435
View Venue Website
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News Project Updates

Creative Spaces Presents:

A Doonhamer’s Guide To The End of The World

This November, in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland, Creative Spaces presents: A Doonhamer’s Guide To The End of The World.

This series of events runs alongside COP26, the global climate conference that brings together climate experts from around the world. Hosted this year in Glasgow, COP26 will see decisions made that will change the path of the planet and humanity in the face of climate change.

On Thursday 4th November 7pm – 9pm, the team will be opening the series with a public discussion around climate change and the planet. If you’re under 30 and passionate about the environment, or are looking to learn more about climate change and COP, come along and help fuel the conversation.

The second event in the series, on Saturday 13th November 12pm – 3pm, is an afternoon of environmental talks at the historic Caerlaverock Castle. A bus will be leaving from The Stove at 12noon, so if you’re interested in attending this event, reserve a ticket here to confirm your place. You’ll be treated to an environmentally friendly (and delicious) lunch and refreshments when you book a ticket. Warm jackets and waterproof shoes are recommended!

Ever wondered what a zine is or how they are made? For the third event the Creative Spaces Team are running a zine making workshop in The Stove cafe on Thursday 18th November from 7pm – 9pm. Come along and learn how to make your own zines, or work on a contribution for the eco-zine the team are working on together. Zines are self-published and grown from a D.I.Y. making history – come along and let your creative energy flow for the evening!

For the last event in the series, Creative Spaces in collaboration with Dumfries Women’s Sign Writing Squad, are running a protest sign making workshop. Prepare to stand up for the planet in style. Join the team in The Stove on Thursday 25th November, 7pm – 9pm, they’ll bring the paints – you bring the passion.

Categories
Musings News

Wild Goose Festival 2021 Photo Competition

Each autumn, tens of thousands of wild geese arrive in Dumfries & Galloway after their long migration, some travelling over 2,700km to reach the region. This mass gathering of geese, including barnacle, greylag, brent and Greenland white-fronted geese, flock to Dumfries & Galloway each year, making our region one of the best places in the UK to see such a variety of geese.

As part of the 2021 Wild Goose Festival, we want to celebrate the beauty and wonder of our visiting geese, as well as the vast photographic talent found in our region. This competition is open to professional and amateur photographers from or based in Dumfries and Galloway. 

To enter the competition, please send us:

Your chosen photograph (any nature/environmental themed photo taken in Dumfries and Galloway);

Your name; 

Your email (so we can get back to you);

Your age;

Where the photo was taken;

And one or two sentences about your image.

Please enter the competition using this Google Form, where you will be asked for the above information: Link to enter here.

The deadline to enter is midnight on 11th October 2021. The top 10 finalists’ photographs will be displayed at the Wild Goose Festival Closing Gala on the 23rd October 2021, where a winner will be announced.

Winning prize to be announced.

The festival is part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival 2021 and is supported by Dumfries & Galloway Council and TRACS – Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland.

Learn more about Wild Goose Festival here.

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Musings News Project Updates

Creative Spaces: ‘So You Wanna Go to Art School?’

By Jodie Barnacle-Best

With the creative industries growing at four times the rate of the UK average1, it is perhaps a surprise that the age-old tropes of art school haven’t yet disappeared. For many students, the decision of whether or not to go to art school is a nuanced debate – one which undoubtedly isn’t given enough airtime at schools or colleges across the country.

The concept of ‘art school’ and what actually goes on there is still seen as pretty mysterious and aloof (all art students will know the struggle of trying to explain how your degree requires significant work, time and skill just like any other degree). And as the stereotypes build and build it is easy to forget how reliant we all are on the arts and what your individual future in the arts could look like… like can you make money or are we all doomed to the ‘struggling artist’ trope forever?

But even once we are over the hurdles debating the mere importance of the arts industries and the potential for growth within an arts related job, there is still a question as to whether art school is the way to go about achieving these ambitions. Do you a need a fashion degree to be a designer? Or a degree in painting to be a painter? And what does a degree in fine art actually mean? 

The impact of the arts is constantly minimised (anyone still remember Fatima the ballerina ‘whO’s NExT JOb cOulD BE iN CyBer’?)2. What is often overlooked is the transferable skills which you accumulate as you hone your craft within your degree.

Hopefully, you will get to become a magnificent painter following a degree in painting and printmaking. But also, you’ll learn creative problem solving, verbal and visual communication methods, responding to briefs and deadlines, emotional resilience, collaborative working… the list is endless!

With art school in particular, it is arguably not the end result of the degree which makes the choice ‘worth it’ – but the art school method of thinking it can instil in you, the acquiring of potential contacts, the widening network of opportunities and access to facilities that is developed during an art student’s academic career.

The chance to be immersed with like-minded people and having the time and space to fully concentrate on learning your craft (or even finding your craft) is one of the many great allures of art school. The permission to experiment, and the safety to fail, while working on projects for the sake of projects (and, for the most part, not commission or money) is an opportunity that’s not frequently available outside of an art school setting. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only way to go!

One of the many beauties of the arts is that there’s not one path for everyone. We all find ourselves clambering around, finding our way, losing our way, or deciding to set up camp halfway down the path for a while because we just like the view.

Ultimately… to art school or not to art school? You decide. But hearing about other people’s creative pathways and understanding the paths available will always be a good starting point. 

Join in and continue this discussion at our first event of the ‘So You Wanna Go to Art School?’ programme! Book a place at our panel discussion happening on Thursday 2nd September 7-9pm at The Stove, Dumfries or tune into the livestream via our YouTube channel:

Sign up – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/so-you-wanna-go-to-art-school-panel-discussion-tickets-165255719305 

Livestream on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJbT8JrUhg0pf3UaH0N4sFg


1 Creative Industries Federation, 2019 report ‘Public Investment, Public Gain: How public investment in the arts generates economic value across the creative industries and beyond’, https://www.creativeindustriesfederation.com/publications/public-investment-public-gain, via Culture Counts Scotland

2 Brit Dawson, ‘A brief explainer of the government’s dystopian Fatima cyber ad’, https://www.dazeddigital.com/politics/article/50747/1/a-brief-explainer-on-the-government-dystopian-fatima-cyber-ad

Categories
Musings

The Tortured Artist

By Jenna Macrory, Creative Producer of Creative Spaces

The stereotype of the tortured artist is ingrained in Western culture. With this trope remaining so pervasive for such a length of time the archetype of the tortured artist has adapted with society over time. With the societal perception of mental illness changing, how has the relationship between creativity and suffering progressed over time?

Historically, mental illness and creativity have always been closely associated. In ancient Greece, madness was perceived as a state of other-worldliness. Madness to the Greeks could be interpreted in two ways: divine or demonic.* Demonic madness was seen as bad and therefore perceived in a negative light similar to how mental health is often stigmatised today.

Conversely, divine madness is a spiritual pursuit that permits an individual to act out with conventional societal standards. For the ancient Greeks, creativity was derived from this subversion of social norms. In other words, creativity comes from madness, albeit a specific type of madness but for numerous centuries creativity and madness have remained intertwined.

Few things have remained as prominent through human history as the trope of the tortured artist. Spanning centuries and infecting every single medium of art, prominent creatives appear to use suffering to their advantage.

Author Sylvia Plath channelled her depression into her only novel The Bell Jar; Louis Wain’s paintings of anthropomorphic cats transformed into psychedelic subjects upon his descent into schizophrenia; Kurt Cobain publicly professed his battles with mental health through many of his songs. The list of creatives battling with mental illness goes on but this alludes to a link between creativity and mental health particularly considering that this trope has remained over centuries.

As such a culturally pervasive topic, recent decades have seen the rise of studies investigating mental health in creatives. Despite the empirical evidence of a link between creativity and mental disorders, several studies have exhibited little to no link between the two.

Creative professions proved no more likely to suffer from psychiatric disorders according to a study involving 1.2 million Swedish citizens.** Contrarily studies that do exhibit higher rates of mental disorders show only a marginal difference.*** With the link between creativity and mental illness seeming arbitrary, why has the archetype of the tortured artist remained?

Although creativity itself does not correlate with mental wellbeing, many artists find themselves in conditions that allow psychiatric disorders to manifest. A passion to create leads many artists into situations that can be mentally straining such as low-paying career paths, job instability, or substance abuse.

This sentiment is reinforced by figures suggesting that as many as 60 percent of workers in creative industries spoke of having suicidal thoughts. Although the sole act of being creative does not denote an individual to madness, the environment and social networks we are part of contribute to our psychological wellbeing.

While the tortured artist trope was conceived from the concept of a suffering introspective soul, recent years have seen the narrative of this trope shift. The tortured artist is no longer tormented by an inward pain, the suffering of an artist is now amplified by an economic climate that makes living as an artist increasingly difficult.

Despite this shift, the stereotype of the tortured artist will remain although as we continue to witness the gradual destigmatisation of mental health we can address the issues at the core of this trope. As a result, we can begin to move away from this romanticised image of the tortured artist toward a healthier stereotype.

As humanity progresses how will the tortured artist stereotype change? How will changes to the wider society impact on this persona? Will the art economy, already struggling in a post pandemic world plunge more creatives into mental instability?

If you have any thoughts on these and you are under 30 you can join Creative Spaces for our conversation around the tortured artist persona at 7pm, 8th July. For more information and to book a space please click the link below:
The Tortured Artist Stereotype: An Open Conversation

* John Matthews, Creativity and Mental Illness: Exploring the ‘Tortured Artist’, https://www.vacounseling.com/tortured-artist/.
** Simon Kyaga, Mikael Landen, Marcus Boman, Christina M Hultman, Niklas Langstrom, Paul Lichtenstein, Mental illness, suicide and creativity: 40-year prospective total population study, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23063328/.
*** Stephen A. Stansfeld, Jenny Head, Farhat Rasul, Occupation and mental health: Secondary analyses of the ONS Psychiatric Morbidity Survey of Great Britain, https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr168.pdf.

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