Creative Dundee

Dundee Soup #7 at DJCAD

Keep up to date with Dundee Soup through our website and social media, you can also sign up on this mailing list here and join the conversation through #DundeeSoup.

If the cost is a barrier to attending this event, just let us know.


Dundee Soup is a social event supporting local community-based projects and creating new connections in the city. Apply to pitch or simply come along to the next Dundee Soup on Thursday, September 26, from 6 pm – 8 pm, at DJCAD.  If you would like to pitch your project at the next Dundee soup, you have until September 19, 5pm to apply and you will be notified whether you were successful shortly after.

Dundee Soups are run by Creative Dundee and The Circle. This event is kindly hosted by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design at University of Dundee.

For a suggested donation of £5 or more, you can join us on the night, receive a simple soup supper and hear four short presentations from local people with creative ideas to benefit their community – these can range from art, design, urban agriculture, social justice, social entrepreneurs, education, technology and much more. At the end of the night, everyone gives their donations directly to their preferred projects!

Dundee Soup dinners are open to anyone – whether you need help for an idea that could benefit the Dundee community or you want to support a project that aims to tackle local challenges!

#DundeeSoup

Speakers include:

Edwin Baines presenting Kirkton Food Larder, a food enterprise set up to target food poverty in our local area and help with summer hunger, with so many in-work families and students as well as those on benefits struggling we need to help break the stigma and help those who need it in a sustainable way. 

Luis Acada presenting Icebreaker Comedy – Stand-up Comedy and Spoken Word promoter currently putting on recurring shows in and around Dundee, with a view to opening a full-time venue. Improving the nightlife of the city by offering an accessible alternative to standard pubs and nightclubs and organising workshops to introduce complete beginners to writing and performing stand-up comedy as a means of improving their mental health. 

Brook Marshall presenting Turn Up The Heat project that gives young people with mental health and wellbeing challenges the opportunity to learn a valuable life skill and self-care tool – cooking! The therapeutic benefit of cooking is well known and Feeling Strong is keen to give the young people they work with, a vulnerable and often isolated demographic, the chance to come together as a community and get cookin’.

Jen McAlinden presenting Dundee Makerspace. A community-based workshop and skills share group, that offers the use of a variety of equipment along with teaching and support services to their members and the wider community.

How to apply?

Anyone who has an idea to benefit Dundee’s communities can pitch – whether you are an individual, small team or community group. With a special focus on design, we’re looking forward to hear from people who want to use design in their community – in relation to space, organisational change, food sharing, human well-being or energy efficiency, to name a few.

“Good design is all about solving problems and improving people’s lives – not just by changing the way things look, but the way things work.”

– Peter Nurick of V&A Dundee

“Dundee Soup gives micro-grants to creative projects which benefit the Dundee community. The event offers a safe space, a platform to connect and collaborate. This is a democratic experiment where people come forward with creative ideas to benefit their community and get support from others.” 

– Claire Dufour of Creative Dundee

About Soups

This event is produced in partnership between Creative Dundee and The Circle. Thanks to Shona Littlejohn for helping kick-start the first Dundee Soup to happen in the city in April 2017.

See previous Dundee Soup projects here. Dundee Soup logo was created by Pete Thomas – check Pete’s work here!

If you are interested in hosting a Dundee Soup in the future, sponsor the supper, play some music, or something else on the night then get in touch – we’d love to hear from you: news@creativedundee.com.

The first SOUP was developed in Detroit in 2010 with a group of artists’ friends gathered around dinner to share ideas about art challenges, finding innovative solutions and imperfect ideas for projects that were hard to discover funding for. Over the years, Detroit SOUP has moved from funding artists to a wide variety of community members that need a little money to start their projects and the challenging ideas pushed people to think about the city in different ways.

“It’s a little bit of funding, it’s a lot more empowering and it’s even more about connectivity.”

– Amy Kaherl, Detroit Soup founder. Find out more about Detroit Soup here.

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