01.02.21
We have shared the organisation’s work, ethos and impacts as invited speakers, facilitators and resource developers, across the UK, Europe, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Romania, Ukraine and Russia. We have designed and delivered a number of virtual workshops and talks, and hosted thousands of visitors from across the world around our city. Here are some of our projects over the years.
In collaboration with lead partner Matic in Cebu, Creative Dundee and Matic researched local materials native to the Cebu and Tay regions. The project is a resource for creative practitioners that aims to promote more sustainable and responsible approaches to design and making. Through collaborating virtually, the teams in Cebu and Dundee formed a strong bond and created events including Material Matters at V&A Dundee, and an online event, Our Digital Future: Creative Connections. This project was supported by British Council’s Connections Through Culture: UK-South East Asia.
Partnering with UNESCO City of Design Dundee, Creative Dundee supported a visiting delegation from Cebu in October 2022. Creative Dundee was part of a return study trip to Cebu and Manila in February 2023 to further understanding of their creative sector strategies and ecosystem through visiting creative spaces, witnessing best practices, and meeting stakeholders.
Small Society Lab is an open project exploring urban spaces of our future. Labs are collaborative, experimental and playful – always focused on connecting people to consider issues relevant to city life. During the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020, Creative Dundee brought together creative practitioners from Dundee and fellow UNESCO City of Design, Kobe, to create space beyond the immediacy of the crisis to deeply consider our biggest societal challenges together, listen and learn from one another and foster a shared sense of what the future holds for our cities and their residents. This project was enabled by British Council’s UK/Japan Season 2020.
Creative Dundee developed and facilitated the first Hubs for Good capacity building 2 day training programme, for 17 established creative hub leaders across Malaysia. The creative and cultural sectors play a significant role supporting economic, social and cultural progress, therefore creative hub leadership is critical to the success of our cities, regions and towns globally. During this practical workshop, we focused on developing leadership skills, explored the broader impacts which creative hubs generate, and developed strategic approaches for future sustainability and growth. Short video here.
Developed and delivered a workshop programme focused on the methods of connecting, promoting and nurturing creative communities to create positive impacts on city development and generate long term positive change. This one day workshop was attended by artists, designers and city officials keen to develop the network to support local creative professionals and work towards the development of a creative industries strategy.
Creative Dundee worked in partnership with Creative Edinburgh as the UK partner in the 2 year project, European Creative Hubs Network. The project aimed to enable creative hubs to connect and collaborate across Europe through forums, peer exchanges and practical resource sharing. British Council led this project with six European creative hubs, supported by the European Commission’s Creative Europe programme. Creative Dundee supported the initial project conception, developed and led workshops and spoke at the regular forum events.
As part of the project, Creative Edinburgh and Creative Dundee developed a two day masterclass on future proofing creative hubs, which saw 40 leading creative hub leaders from across Europe visited Dundee and Edinburgh in October 2017 – this considered the future of network leadership skills, though practical sessions and peer sharing European practice.
Mass Assembly was a one day forum held in Dundee, exploring the future of collective working for creatives and the places they are based, it brought together 130 people who are part of creative hubs, collectives, networks and clusters from all locations, rural and urban. Creative Dundee and Creative Edinburgh joined forces in May during the inaugural Dundee Design Festival to run the forum. We also developed and ran this Live Audit on the day – a collective snapshot of what the landscape looks like for creative hubs at this point in time. More about the forum can be viewed here.
Creative Dundee and Creative Edinburgh developed the content and co-wrote The Creative HubKit on behalf of British Council. This toolkit is for people looking to set up their own creative hub, diversify an existing hub, or understand the hub movement from an outside policy perspective. The toolkit has been made by hubs for emerging hubs, and has now been translated into several languages and used around the world, as part of British Council’s extensive Hubs programme. The HubKit can be downloaded here.
Creative Dundee was cited within this case study on Dundee which highlighted best practice in cultural and creative industries support across Europe, by Culture for Cities and Regions, part of the Creative Europe programme. We co-hosted a 3 day study visit to Dundee by a European delegation, with Dundee City Council – the group took part in site visits, talks, workshops and attended the city’s cultural events.
Creative Dundee has informally supported a number of networks to emerge and grow. In 2017 we were commissioned to lead the refresh of Creative Renfrewshire, introducing new events, digital focus and supporting the organisation with the recruitment of new Board Directors. In 2015, we launched Perthshire Creates, working with Perth & Kinross Council, local creative practitioners and creative businesses, following a series of workshops, developing a digital platform and establishing this new creative network.
In 2015 we were part of an independent review commissioned by Creative Scotland and conducted by EKOS, on three creative city networks, Creative Dundee, Creative Edinburgh and Creative Stirling. Each network is independent, focusing on their own distinctive aims and objectives tailored to each of the three cities. The review can be downloaded here.
We have been invited speakers and facilitators at a number of events including: Culture and Creativity for Western Balkans, Second Philippine Creative Industries Summit, ASEAN Creative Cities Forum in Manila, Philippines; Communities of a New Future: South East Asia; Digital Lab for Creative Hubs in Ukraine; Creative Hubs Forum in Lisbon; Creative Hubs Skills Workshop, in Madrid, Spain; Ulyanovsk Cultural Forum, Ulyanovsk, Russia; Skopje Creative Hub Conference, Skopje, Macedonia; Crowdsourcing Summit, Warsaw, Poland; Bandung, Indonesia; and Belfast Culture Forum, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
We’ve welcomed people from all over the world to Dundee and shown the city’s vibrant creative industries scene and cultural activities. From European and Australian policymakers, international arts leaders, tech experts, to international travel bloggers, we try to ensure people can experience what makes Dundee’s scene special. We have also toured hundreds of global journalists around Dundee over the years, including in the run up to V&A Dundee opening!
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