We’re taking a different approach to our annual Year in Review and using this opportunity to reflect on the interconnected networks of community and culture in Dundee, across 2025 and beyond.
Usually we wrap up our December with a look back at the stand out moments and memories from Creative Dundee’s work across the year, celebrating the achievements of our small team, the events that have created joy, and the connections that have brought us closer to our community.
This year, in light of continuing funding pressures and cuts that could destabilise Dundee’s cultural and community organisations, we’re approaching this opportunity for reflection slightly differently.
With the deadline for Dundee City Council’s Budget Consultation for 2026/27 looming on Friday 19 December, we want to use this space for a final call to action and to highlight the threads that weave culture, community and creativity deep into the fabric of Dundee – throughout 2025 and, we hope, for many years to come.
“What would Dundee lose if key cultural and community organisations, spaces, or services were diminished?”
At the recent Have Your Say, Together: Budget Consultation Gathering that we hosted with UNESCO City of Design Dundee, we posed three questions to those who joined us across the day. We hoped to gain a more personal, realistic and honest reflection on the impact of the city’s cultural and community services. Perhaps unsurprisingly, what became clear through these questions was a heartfelt appreciation for the work of these organisations, the vital support they provide, and the undeniably positive effect they have on our city.
In answering this first question, participants shared with us worries of losing Dundee’s identity as a creative hub, wellbeing and employment support, safer spaces and opportunities for connection, support for young people, and an innate sense of care:
“Social cohesion – quality of life, safety, recovery of ambition for Dundee as a forward looking, connected contemporary city”
“Aspiration for young people to explore cultural and community careers”
“Confidence, creativity, community, connection – the lifeblood of being a human being”
“Hope, access, support, friendships and things that make life worth living”
When faced with the prospect of completing the budget consultation form, a recurring discussion was the inherently individualistic nature of the questions posed. Where those gathered with us at DCA naturally spoke of the broad social impact of organisations and what would be lost as a whole, the consultation put focus on the personal and asked only of the direct impact on the individual respondent.
This framing pits Dundee’s invaluable organisations against one another and demands that residents view these services as separate and siloed – a viewpoint that is counterintuitive to the very work they do. It is also determinedly focused on the present, offering no invitation to look to the future or to consider the impact these services might have as your life grows or changes.
Colleagues from third sector charities affected by the proposed cuts – including Barnardos, One Parent Families Scotland, and Hillcrest – also joined us across the day sharing their personal and professional perspectives on council plans. They spoke to the inaccessibility of the consultation, how it will ultimately exclude or overlook the people most affected by these cuts, and what service users would lose without their tireless work:
“People would lose key support which is vital for individuals and families. Organisations and community spaces help people in Dundee”
“Drugs and harm reduction, education and support”
“Support for young people and enabling them to thrive and feel connected”
They took the time to highlight the intertwined nature of our sectors and the often invisible and informal support networks that exist between us, from artists and makers working directly with community groups, to improved wellbeing for community members who have accessed creative spaces.
As one post-it response succinctly captured:
“Everything is connected, so we would lose more than we can imagine”
“Tell us about a moment, place, or experience in 2025 that connected you to Dundee’s community and creativity?”
Dundee’s creative and cultural organisations are intrinsic to the city’s identity and reputation around the globe, forming a core part of the council’s marketing and tourism strategy. The city proudly leads with its designation as the UK’s only UNESCO City of Design; DCA, Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre bring award-winning culture to the city and in turn share Dundee with the world; Verdant Works and Discovery Point keep Dundee’s unique history alive; and each year creative-led events like the Dundee Hooley or PechaKucha Night Dundee bring communities and visitors together.
Those who joined us at the gathering fondly remembered collective experiences, community-led productions and grassroots exhibitions, celebrations of music, art, and theatre, and coming together to learn something new across 2025:
“I experienced the best of society last year at a ‘Feel Good Friday’ class at Dundee Rep.”
“PechaKucha 2025 reminded me that there are brilliant, inspiring people doing amazing things all the time – we just don’t hear about them enough.”
“Dundee Tapestry exhibition coming back to V&A Dundee – there is so much detail in each panel and tells Dundee’s creative story, made by local creatives.”
“Enjoying dundee radio club’s listening fest while wandering the streets or in my flat – built in Dundee for Dundee, inviting anyone beyond to be part of it.”
“Going to a local community space seeing people coming together doing different activities in a safe space.”
These spaces and events form part of a decade-long regeneration for Dundee, and contribute more to our city than economic growth and tourism numbers. In 2025 alone, DCA welcomed over 3,600 school pupils to their free Discovery Film Festival, Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre’s Engage Programmes every week brought creative opportunities to 300 people of all ages, and our programmes have supported over 300 creative practitioners.
Through investment the council shows genuine care for the people that live, work and study here, and these experiences build community, belonging, wellbeing, and pride in a place that is uniquely ours. They shape our everyday.
“What do you hope Dundee’s community and cultural life will look like in 2026 and beyond?”
The threat of budget cuts and funding losses year-on-year necessitates working in crisis management. While our cultural and community organisations work for survival, the ambitions of the city and its residents are pushed aside. It was only last year that the city’s new Cultural Strategy 2024–2034 was launched, seeking to position Dundee as the “UK’s coolest little city” with arts and culture at its heart.
We all want to work towards a brighter future for Dundee and our capacity to plan and grow is shaped by genuine investment in longer-term thinking. We want Dundee’s future to be creative, inclusive, thriving, connected, and vibrant:
“Truly a city of design – with creativity celebrated across the city”
“Inclusive, cooperative and well-funded”
“More art, more design, more theatre, more dance, more stories, more stability for arts organisations and workers”
“Places for people to feel part of their community – connected to services, support and people.”
“Thriving! Supported! Acknowledged! Not constantly having to fight for a seat at the table.”
“Bold and willing to do things differently in order to do them better”
These hopes for the future are mirrored in this map of Dundee, beautifully illustrated by local artist Cara Rooney during Dundee Changemakers Hub’s ‘How to Fall in Love with the Future with Rob Hopkins’ event earlier this year.
Rob invited us to step into the Dundee of 2030 and ask the ‘What if…’ questions that could harness our collective power, envisioning a future for the city led by community and fueled by imagination.
The team at One Parent Families Scotland have stepped even further together, envisioning a happier, healthier 2050 for future generations.
A connected vision across sectors, communities and networks is clear with social cohesion, skill development, green infrastructure, and consistent investment in our people and place all represented. This future is possible and, when working together, it can be built by and for us all.
It is hard once again to feel like our year has been dominated and controlled by discussions of funding. To be continuously placed in competition with other city organisations – our colleagues and friends – and to devote so much time to what feels like the same conversation is demoralising. We want our work to be about celebrating our city and building a better future for the incredible creative community that is found here.
We know Dundee is under huge financial strain but cuts to cultural and community organisations are not the answer. Our sectors are connected and reliant upon each other. We directly contribute to and support residents’ wellbeing, build job retention and upskilling, lead on inclusivity and access, and help make Dundee the envy of other cities the world over.
If you resonate with the thoughts shared here, or you have been directly affected by the work of any organisation listed in this year’s proposed budget cuts, we hope you’ll take the time to make your voice heard and complete the consultation before Friday 19 December.
To those who have already completed the form, have shared kind messages of support with our team, or connected with us across the year in any way, we send a huge and heartfelt thank you. We couldn’t continue our work without you.
As we sign off for the year, our spirits are raised by the collective voice of our community and the organisations that stand beside and support us. We look forward to a new year and the opportunities that will bring us together again in joy, solidarity and hope. We’ll see you in 2026.
