Creative Dundee

Our Story


We believe that creativity is an essential tool to shape our futures together and make a positive impact in our small but vibrant city. We think about our digital platform, events programme and partnerships as the scaffolding supporting the values and creative leadership that will make positive change possible.

Creative Dundee started in 2008 as a small blog. If you look it up, you’ll find that at its inception it shared the internet with some 120 million other blogs. It was a small seed in an overcrowded field. But it did have something unique – a community.

Dundee is filled with inventive, passionate and committed people. Many of the great creative projects in the city’s recent history have come from local collaborations and mutual support. Creative Dundee grew as a consequence of these shared goals; while our work has significantly impacted the local creative scene, it is also moulded by its needs, aspirations and talent.  

All of this is to say, our story is not just ours. Below we have compiled some of the highlights of Creative Dundee’s work in the city which, as you can see, has consistently been about collaborations and collective work.

Key projects from 2023

Media highlights:

Key projects from 2022

Media highlights:

Key projects from 2021

Media highlights:

Key projects from 2020

  • Hosted weekly virtual Amps Breakfasts from the beginning of lockdown, with the opportunity to see inside many temporary workspaces. 
  • Re-launched We Dundee, enabling residents to share their lockdown surprises and reimagine what the city should do next, after the pandemic. 
  • Launched The Full Picture programme which commissioned 4 artists to research the barriers to the creative industries locally and create an artistic response to them.
  • Created the spaces and partnerships to discuss critical topics of inequalities.
  • Ran our first virtual PechaKucha streamed live with speakers on stage at Dundee Rep Theatre.
  • Launched new website. :)

Media Highlights 2020

Oct 2020 – The Herald – Scots Black Lives Matter exhibition is destroyed

Oct 2020 – Options – British Council connects creative hubs in Malaysia 

Sep 2020 – Evening Telegraph – Crowdsourcing platform asks Dundonians to share stories of lockdown

Jun 2020 – The Courier – Two-year plan to save Dundee’s cultural and tourism industries in wake of coronavirus 

Key projects from 2019

  • Launched Pass the Mic, a publication highlighting our history and our relationship with the city and its creative communities. 
  • Hosted the largest Pecha Kucha Night in the UK at The Caird Hall, with 800+ people attending.
  • Ran the first ever Hubs for Good training programme on behalf of British Council, supporting creative hub leaders across Malaysia. 
  • Held the first InGAME Insights event, focused on AI for writers.

Media Highlights 2019

Jun 2019 – Future Scot – First public engagement event held at new home of video games R&D facility

May 2019 – GamesIndustry.biz – Dundee launches summer of games

May 2019 – RFI – Royaume-Uni: Dundee réécrit les règles du jeu vidéo (Dundee rewrite the rules of video games)

Mar 2019 – AOL – £100,000 funding boost for artistic links between Scotland and Japan

Mar 2019 – The Courier – International Women’s Day

Key projects from 2018

  • Joined Creative Scotland’s Regularly Funded Organisation network and celebrated Creative Dundee’s 10 year anniversary at PechaKucha Night Vol 20. 
  • Co-created PechaKucha Night Takeover with 25 young people as part of Scotland’s Year of Young People 2018. 
  • Toured hundreds of international journalists around the city as part of V&A Dundee’s opening programme. 
  • Organised ‘Act Locally: Today’s Fight for the Future of Equality’, a panel event and created a zine featuring perspectives on inequalities. 
  • A partner of Shpeel, designed by Biome Collective, shown at London Design Biennale.

Media Highlights 2018

Dec 2018 – Design Council – Dundee: Think global, act local

Oct 2018 – Creative Review – Redesigning Dundee: How Creativity is Shaping the City

Sep 2018 – Süddeutsche Zeitung – Underdog

Sep 2018 – The Courier – Groundbreaking £9 million gaming research centre to be established in Dundee

Sep 2018 – The Sunday National – Reactions to V&A Dundee are in

Sep 2018 – The Courier – Dundee games designers to showcase mental health installation at London Design Biennale

July 2018 – Creative Review – 50 Creative Leaders 2018

May 2018 – The Courier – Dundee Design Month: Pecha Kucha Night Dundee

April 2018 – Creative Scotland – Get to know: Creative Dundee

March 2018 – The List – Tay Time: how Dundee became the perfect home for the new V&A

Jan 2018 – The Scotsman – Dundee names one of the world’s most ‘design-savy’ cities

Key projects from 2017

Media Highlights 2017

Dec 2017 – The Evening Telegraph – Recovery Dundee wins fundraising event Dundee Soup 

Nov 2017 – The Times – V&A Dundee will boost Scottish economy

Nov 2017 – The Times – Scotland’s digital hub puts on its game face

Oct 2017 – The Courier – Dundee Matters

Sep 2017 – The Courier – Dundonians invited to imaging city in 2053

Jun 2017 – Creative Consultants blog – Spotlight on Dundee

May 2017 – The Evening Telegraph – Factory Floor theme for Dundee Design Festival

Apr 2017 – The Courier – Dundee Soup first community award goes to tea dance group 

Apr 2017 – SunStar Manila – Manila to showcase ASEAN Creative Cities 

Apr 2017 – The Courier – Saint-Étienne’s International Design Biennale: a great example of social innovation initiatives

Mar 2017 – The Scotsman – Dundee’s digital sector growth outpaces rest of UK

Mar 2017 – The Courier – Host of top speakers at Pecha Kucha

Feb 2017 – Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce – Cultural Tourism In Dundee receives boost from Scottish Enterprise

Feb 2017 – The Courier – Breathing new life into Dundee’s historic buildings

Key projects from 2016

  • During Scotland’s Year of Architecture, Innovation and Design, supported the Local Heroes pop-up at Edinburgh Airport showcasing contemporary Scottish design, through an events programme alongside Creative Edinburgh.
  • Launched Fabric Dundee, the city’s peer leadership programme to also develop a creative industries strategy for the city.
  • Ran the Mass Assembly forum with Creative Edinburgh during Dundee Design Festival.
  • UK associate partner in the European Creative Hub Network project.
  • Partner supporting V&A Dundee’s Northern Lights show at the Victoria and Albert Museum. 
  • Launched our Amps supporters project with the Community Ideas Fund.

Media Highlights 2016

Nov 2016 – RSA – Dundee designing the future, drawing on the past

Nov 2016 – InspireD – Dundee’s Creative Spectrum

Nov 2016 – Committee for Geelong – Winning from Second (p28)

Nov 2016 – FX Magazine – Something in the city

Nov 2016 – Walking Heads – Creative cities built on can-do culture

Sep 2016 – The Courier – Creative forces behind a city on the up

Aug 2016 – Scots Magazine – Northern Lights shine on Scotland’s top designers

Aug 2016 – The Skinny – Local Heroes celebrate Scottish design

Jul 2016 – Design Week – Scottish design is fresh, playful and exciting

Jun 2016 – Creative Cardiff – #34: Creative Cardiff @ Mass Assembly

Apr 2016 – It’s Nice That – Dundee: the UK’s new creative capital?

Mar 2016 – Design Week – Dundee launches design events programme

Feb 2016 – British Council – Spotlight on Creative Dundee

Feb 2016 – RSA – Blog: I love Dundee

Jan 2016 – Emily Luxton Travels – Creative Dundee with Blogmanay

Jan 2016 – The Courier – Dundee has the write stuff for the Blogmanay travel writers

Key projects from 2015

Media Highlights 2015

Nov 2015 – The Courier – European Commission visitors to learn role culture and creativity has played in Dundee 

Nov 2015 – Fold Latvia – A toolkit for emerging creative hubs 

Oct 2015 – The Courier – International visitors learn how Dundee has become a District of Creativity

Aug 2015 – The Scotsman – Creatives help spread sector message round Europe 

Aug 2015 – Press and Journal – What do Dundee, Amsterdam, Berlin and Barcelona have in common?

Jun 2015 – British Council – A tale of two cities: Digital Futures UKMX

Apr 2015 – SURF – Ingredients for a creative city

Mar 2015 – Holyrood – Design for life – the potential of Dundee’s V&A museum

Feb 2015 – The Times Business Insight – Wind in their sails: experts assess the future for Dundee

Jan 2015 – The Courier – Creative cities welcome Dundee to the UNESCO design club 

Jan 2015 – The Courier – International design status caps another successful year for Dundee

Key projects from 2014

Media Highlights 2014

Dec 2014 – The Independent – Dundee: The ‘City of Design’ that’s pushing the boat out as a cultural and creative powerhouse 

Jun 2014 – Creative Scotland – Creative City Networks

May 2014 – The Courier – Ignite Dundee festival launched with live game design demo 

May 2014 – Creative Scotland – From blogging to bridging the gap 

May 2014 – Sunday Herald – Vic Galloway – Take back the city

Apr 2014 – The Metro – 12 reasons Dundee is the best city in the UK

Key projects from 2013

  • Created the crowd-sourcing digital platform and campaign, We Dundee.
  • Hosted This Much We Know, an event which looked back and heard from those who had made Dundee’s cultural scene happen.
  • Ran Stop, Collaborate and Celebrate, a Christmas get together with a difference!
  • Established Creative Dundee as a not-for-profit organisation, no longer just a blog…

Media Highlights 2013

Nov 2013 – The Courier – Dundee’s Pecha Kucha Nights becoming more of a talking point

Aug 2013 – BBC News – Campaigners urge public to outline vision for Dundee 

Apr 2013 – Creative Boom – Creative Cities: Dundee a regular city feature of creative scenes in the UK

Mar 2013 – The Courier – Website launches search for ‘hidden secrets’ of Dundee

Creative Dundee was created and ran as a blog, which started in January 2008.

2011/12 – Hosted the Creative Dundee Office Christmas Party 2011 and the Creative Christmas Showstopper 2012.

May 2012Launched the first crowdsourced guide to Dundee

Nov 2011 – Held the city’s first ever Pecha Kucha Night Dundee, during NEoN Digital Arts Festival.

Jan 2008 – The blog’s intentions were set out in the first ever piece shared online: The Future Home

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