18.03.25
For our second edition of Creative Base, we’re turning the spotlight on the folks found behind the scenes – the producers, facilitators, curators, connectors and meddlers – bringing together Dundee’s creative communities, building the platforms to share their work, and driving the conversations and actions that push the city’s cultural future forward.
We’ve asked them to share some insights into their work, what it means for them to be working in Dundee, and what could be improved to ensure a better and brighter future for creative practitioners in the city. In the spirit of collective working and ‘passing the mic’, we’ve also asked each practitioner to share other Dundee-based creatives whose work they admire, are inspired by, or just think you’d like to know about!
Original Copy is an artist-led collective dedicated to fostering collaborative spaces and supporting local artists. Through exhibitions such as Instructions Not Included (for art facilitators) and Freshly Pressed (for recent graduates), along with sketchbook open days and art x club nights, we aim to amplify diverse voices and cultivate community-driven projects – embracing art as both a critical and communal tool.
When Laurie (co-founder) moved to Dundee in 2018, she felt she’d discovered Scotland’s best-kept secret, while Dana (co-founder) grew up here, witnessing its transformation first-hand. Dundee is undeniably a thriving hub for art and culture, and we’re committed to building on its creative legacy – we want to ensure it remains accessible, inclusive, and deeply connected to the community. We love Dundee!
Affordable spaces. There’s a real need for accessible, well-maintained studios where artists can work, experiment, and collaborate without financial strain. Also, more creative interdisciplinary spaces that connect art with Dundee’s communities. Beyond that, many emerging artists struggle to find opportunities to stay beyond art school. More funding, residencies, and long-term support structures would help retain and grow Dundee’s vibrant creative scene.
Robyn Scanlan (City Flowers Garden Studio) – we love the work Robyn is doing in Dundee. She is a powerhouse of fostering community engagement and keeping creativity accessible, while championing similar values to Original Copy!
Calum Rennie – a curator, writer, and arts facilitator building meaningful connections across Dundee’s creative landscape. His passion is admirable and his work is impactful… yet he remains incredibly humble about what he does! (@calum_r)
I’m a writer, poet, speaker and facilitator – my approach is multifaceted but centres the intentional disruption of oppressive structures. Specifically, those that reside within us and distract us from reclaiming our wholeness. I’m interested in deconstructing and decolonising normative modes of knowledge production to invite us to shift our gaze towards the natural world, the dream space, embodiment and ancestral wisdom.
To date, much of my work has been outside of the city, this year, I am looking to ground myself more geographically and establish some firm roots here. It is essential that I do this work here so that all children, but especially those from global majority communities, feel a sense of ownership and belonging. So, that they can also go on to create and represent the rich, diverse, culture present here in Dundee.
Dundee has huge collective potential to be more inclusive, equitable and champion talent that doesn’t sit within the narrow confines of whiteness. I don’t believe we are there yet but we continue to work, disrupt and hold onto hope.
Acknowledging and then confronting the fact that not all folk are having the same communal experience may allow voices, otherwise invisibilised, to be heard and celebrated.
Nicola Wiltshire is an English painter based in Dundee after completing her MFA from DJCAD in 2014. Her work is represented by New Blood Art and Select Gallery London. Her paintings are unique and bold as she makes paintings on patterned fabric using strong and vibrant colours.
I love the way she mixes contemporary themes with historical technique creating eye-catching and truly beautiful pieces. Dundee is a brighter place with her here! (@nicola_wiltshire)
Fi Bailey is a multidisciplinary artist based in Dundee since 2022. She studied creative writing and writes mainly nonfiction about care, mental health and disability.
I first came to Fi’s work through her ‘write to be known classes’ and her warm, calming and therapeutic approach to facilitation made me feel at home and I left the space feeling nourished. I’m excited to see what other creative forces Fi will bring to Dundee.
Website / Instagram / Facebook
At dundeemusic.uk, we celebrate music in the city, highlighting Dundee gigs, bands and releases. We join the dots between all of these in an interactive way: I used to be an engineer, and enjoy exploring how things work and connect. For the past decade I’ve been a self-employed musician and tutor, music is a big part of my life.
For over twenty years I’ve been involved with the Dundee music scene, as audience member, musician and promoter. The current site traces its roots back to 2006 when I first started gig listings, since then it’s grown: thousands of gigs, hundreds of bands and releases, with even more connections between artists past and present in the Dundee Music Map.
Last summer we hosted a music scene survey, gathering input from music fans. Several themes emerged including collaboration, and I began setting up a music scene collective. A funding application was unsuccessful, though I went ahead anyway with a newsletter, networking events and covered costs of hundreds of gig posters. It would be great to grow this, supporting more musicians.
It’s hard to pick just two, I know so many people working creatively in the city!
Pete Smith – one of the finest Dundonian singers and songwriters, you need to listen to his album “First Class Outcast” and learn about the city and people from someone who knows them well! We first met at a community guitar group Pete was leading several years ago, and have been friends since, playing lots of music together.
Prisma Stream – with a fresh experimental album “Crimson Marvels” about to release this year, Lea Mattia blends stunning vocals, field recordings, instruments and electronica to create a unique soundscape! We have worked together on the new album during the past few months in 2nd hand studio, my new recording space in the heart of Dundee.
Website / Hubworld Linktree / Fergus Linktree
HELLO, I’m an events coordinator for Hubworld Scotland, an open community network for the games industry in Scotland running since 2023. We run an event every month ranging from educational talks nights and networking meetups, to cross country game show nights. We do our best to support members of our community through initiatives as well, my favourite being our Artist Spotlight where we hire an artist from our community to make up the branding of our bi-monthly event with their own style, sauce and creativity.
I never thought I’d be here two years ago. It has been a wild journey, but it’s taken me to meeting so many wonderful people and creating so many unforgettable nights. I love it.
Dundee is the place to be! It’s the place I’ve called home for the past nine years but its also such a huge hub for game development in the country. There are sooooo many indie developers, studios and companies based here making global hits, not to mention the people here are so lovely and interesting (no offence Glasgow and Edinburgh).
VENUES, as an events boy getting the perfect venue is the bane of my existence. We need more cool spaces! We have been looking for the perfect place to hold our annual festival in Dundee for ages and haven’t had any luck. This is not a joke pls message me if you know somewhere fun.
Hubworld is exclusively run by artists, so I’m going to plug the folks who have worked in-house as part of the team past/present because they’re brilliant and need more recognition.
Mallaichte – our resident in-house artist who is responsible for creating the majority of the branding for most Hubworld events and you can see why. He’s been on the team since the very beginning and does a hell of a job creating unforgettable artwork.
Melina Garcia Ayala (Creative n Chaotic) – Mel is one of the most driven folks I’ve met in my life and I’ve had the pleasure of working with her twice previously. It’s so cool to see where she is taking her business.
Go buy their art!
In my role as facilitator of Local Art Club, I work with venues, life models and collaborators to produce regular art classes as well as many special events and some workshops here and there. Since walking into the pub three years ago with a vague idea of drawing with others and making some new friends, Local Art Club has taken on a life of its own I couldn’t have imagined. I am so grateful for all of the support I’ve had over the last three years from incredible collaborators and organisations, and of course Creative Dundee!
Running the art club in Dundee has been a great pleasure for me. As a lifelong Dundonian, I have watched this city transform into a creative hub that punches above its weight not only in the UK art scene but internationally. To have contributed a tiny piece to the new creative landscape of Dundee has been such an exciting experience. I love to see art students, hobbyists and accomplished artists and designers work alongside each other in the classes and forming new friendships over a mutual love of drawing.
I think that it could be really helpful for artists beginning their careers to have more access to support and learning about the business side of art. We should all be more open with each other about what it means to make a living as an artist.
I would really love to shout out Art Angel, the work that they do in Dundee to support people living with mental health difficulties is fantastic and such a great resource for the city.
I am also a huge fan of Marvelesque burlesque group, who have been a fantastic collaborator of the art club for the last three years. They have been incredibly professional, kind and talented. Their commitment to inclusion within burlesque and the focus on confidence and self-empowerment is really inspiring.
The Dundee Artists Database is a free to use and free to search database for artists to use, they fill in their details and hopefully people can find them to offer them work, or they can find other artists to help cultivate communities.
Within the context of the DAD, I – the MUM of DAD – don’t do much. I intentionally set it up in a way that I knew wouldn’t take much tending to, and I liked the idea of it being quite low-fi. Once a year we have Daddycon, which is a bit of work, and is a reason for all the Daddies (artists appearing on the database) to come together in a non-networky and silly kind of way.
It means a lot for the DAD (or an artists database in general) to happen in Dundee. I think as someone not from here originally, I definitely feel a need to give back to Dundonians who’ve made my life easier. I’m happy that the DAD is a living document and record, to give people from all sorts of communities and backgrounds a way to say they were here and this is what they were doing. It does mean a lot to have this happen in Dundee as the gentrification accelerates.
Transition Dundee/The Wardrobe – I think they’ve done a great job of making a point of saying why and how reusing clothing is important and how it can be fun, and I love that they make a point of re/introducing skills like sewing and mending, and are helping people with general skills.
Art Workers for Palestine Dundee – AWFPD attend the marches and demonstrations in support of Palestinian liberation but also have a programme of free events including screenings of Palestinian films – and sometimes even Palestinian baked goods – where Palestinian artists, creatives and voices are platformed. They also have loads of resources available in Generator Projects and have made resources widely available in loads of different forms to make learning about Palestinian liberation and decolonisation in general really accessible to anyone.
SBWN Linktree / Bluesky / Website
I’m the Events and Editorial Manager for the Scottish BPOC Writers Network (SBWN), a professional development and advocacy organisation for writers of colour in Scotland. We provide platforms for Scotland’s BPOC writers at all levels of experience to be published and paid, connect with fellow writers, and discover new avenues for pursuing their creative journeys and finding their unique voices.
I’m also a comics and pop culture critic specialising in overthinking the ridiculous, pulpy, light, and violent, and an intermittent performance storyteller. My hope is to play some part in reviving critique as its own form of creative nonfiction, illuminating the unexplored depths of cultural output that’s too often taken for granted.
It’s really exciting to be part of a creative community where there’s room for less conventional forms of artistic expression. In a city whose biggest creative claims to fame include DC Thomson, Rockstar Games, and William McGonagall, there’s less pressure to conform my practice to a preset mould and more scope to pursue the particular combination of elevating marginalised voices + writing literally thousands of words about throwaway issues of comic books that characterises my creative ethos.
More platforms and networks for writers of colour! Dundee is quite a good place for radical creative practice, as demonstrated by organisations like Generator, but – as I’ve learned through my work with SBWN – there’s a sizeable quantity of Black writers and writers of colour in the city who could really use spaces and opportunities to foster more community, solidarity, and connection.
I’d like to give a big shout out to two creative practitioners whose work fills an important space in Dundee’s – and Scotland’s – artistic landscape. They take their craft seriously in ways that engage with and showcase the artistic potential of contemporary, accessible genres and mediums. Also they’re delightful people!
Nailah King – horror writer specialising in Black women-led witchy stories, fellow Scottish BPOC Writers Network committee member, and founder of copywriting/digital storytelling agency The Content Witches.
Elena Lam – visual artist working in digital and traditional formats, with a focus on fantasy and animals. Her work is influenced by a real passion for classic 80s/90s comics, manga, anime, and video games.
I’m not sure what I would call myself, a practitioner? Really I’m a part time latte artist attempting to keep a performance art practice after graduating art school, who is also on the committee of the amazing Artist Run Initiative Generator Projects. I think whilst I figure out the title of what it is exactly I do, I would describe it as a meddler (more of a good enthusiastic meddler than an interfering one).
Dundee is the first place I have truly lived in, outside of my place of birth. Leaving school, no one I knew came to Dundee for Uni really, so I have been able to make Dundee my own. There is such a great community of people all doing similar things in Dundee. I have a great love for this place, now hopefully I can help keep it flourishing!
New independent exhibition spaces, music venues, and DIY spaces often struggle with consistent funding and support, meaning people are less likely to feel like they can get involved. More backing for these spaces could help keep Dundee’s creative scene diverse and dynamic. But we must also constantly encourage radical democracy and involvement. Keep artists in Dundee!!
CAPSoc – Contemporary Art Practice Society at DJCAD. They are really out here doing stuff! I was part of the committee for CAPSoc in my 4th year, and since then I have watched them flourish into the best group for supporting artists and students with opportunities in Dundee. So proud to see it and long may it continue!!
Monica Madas – The first time I heard Monooka sing it purified my soul. Then I discovered more about her practice when she undertook a residency at Generator. The way she blends music with movement, puppetry and drawing is absolutely gorgeous!
I must also add my fellow Generator Committee members are phenomenal; Isla Valentine Wade, Oli Valentine Kemp, Persephone Russell, Declan McCourt and Mhairi Anton.
Huge thanks to everyone for taking the time to share with us! Don’t miss our first Creative Base feature, spotlighting more of the talented folks who have made Dundee their creative home.
Find out more about Dundee’s creative scene in our Collectives in the City series exploring the city’s grassroots creative projects and organisations, shop local with our Makers Gift Guides, or browse our blogs for more in depth insights from the city’s creative practitioners.
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