Partnerships :: Creative Dundee - Amplifying and Connecting the City

We develop strategies, engage communities, create and produce events. Our work is all about connecting people and developing collaborative projects.

Creative Dundee’s speciality is working in partnership with individuals and organisations to benefit creative communities, the city and its people.

Please get in touch if you would like any further information or to discuss working collaboratively, as we’d love to hear from you. Here is a snapshot of some of the local, national and international projects we’ve been part of:

We Amplify

We showcase and give a platform to voices within Dundee’s culture and creativity that are essential catalysts for positive change. In order to show how these sectors play a significant role supporting economic, social and cultural progress, we have developed tools and campaigns which engage communities.

We conduct research projects, evaluations, consultations, promote events from across the city on our digital platforms, profile creative makers in original features and engage with decision-makers on all levels to advocate for the creative networks in the city.

22.08.22

Creative Dundee’s Annual Activities Overview 2021/22

We reflect on our initiatives, new developments and everything else we’ve been up to over 2021/22. Alongside our four pillars, Amplify, Connect, Collaborate and Cultivate, that guide our work, we reflect on three defined key intersectional issues facing those in the city and creative industries in the development of all that we do. With our evolving understanding of these issues, these focuses are: Justice, Wellbeing and Sustainability.

08.09.20

We Dundee

We Dundee is a crowd-sourced platform which harnesses the voices of people, amplifying them and making them visible. It reminds us what an astonishing place Dundee is, and what remarkable people live and work here. We Dundee invites you to share your thoughts on our city’s future for now and for generations to come.

22.01.13

PechaKucha Night Dundee

Hosted by Creative Dundee in the city since 2011, it’s a simple quick-fire format – speakers show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. Always different, entertaining and inspiring; there is something for everyone at this event which first started in Tokyo in 2003 and has now grown into a global phenomenon.

11.10.21

Taking Space in the Creative Industries

We share recent research findings by Taking Space on the barriers to the creative industries that young women may experience and potential ways forward locally.

05.07.16

The Live Audit

Creative Dundee and Creative Edinburgh co-designed this evaluation tool to gain instant responses at events. The Live Audit enables us to gain insights and an understanding of the issues facing communities and their place. We’ve used this tool across a range of projects and events locally and internationally.

30.04.18

Culture Connects

Collaborating with Dundee Place Partnership, Creative Dundee researched the cultural and creative opportunities across the city over 5 months. Being present at community hubs, festivals and events, the research aimed to understand what culture means to people and where it happens across the city.

We Connect

We run regular and one-off events for people to meet and hear about activities happening locally, to have conversations about the future of the city, and to experiment with ways of working. We regularly connect people at Pecha Kucha Night and through our Amps network. We also champion the city’s vibrant creative industries and cultural activities by working closely with the UNESCO City of Design Dundee team, providing guided tours to interested parties, and producing the popular crowdsourced city guide: 99 things to Do and See in Dundee.

27.10.20

Ampersand+

Ampersand+ is a peer-support project designed to strengthen and make visible Dundee’s generous ecosystem of mutual support. It enables our Amps network in sharing knowledge, experience, insights, skills and ideas with one another, through time-based exchanges.

30.07.20

Dundee Guide

Dundee is filled with places that promote creativity and culture, on this page we have brought some of them together. From our crowdsourced guide to the city, to the many venues, hubs and heritage sites. Have a look below and start your list of what to visit next!

01.12.17

UNESCO City of Design Dundee

Dundee was awarded the designation of UNESCO City of Design in December 2014. Creative Dundee was part of the bid team and continues to collaborate with the team, supporting the designation as part of the partner core group. Partnering on events within the Dundee Design Festival programme, and collaborating with fellow Cities of Design worldwide.

27.11.18

Read the Act Locally Zine: Perspectives on Inequality

Act Locally: Today’s Fight for the Future of Equality was an event Creative Dundee ran and also an accompanying zine. Created specifically for the event, we commissioned the work of writers who shared their perspective on inequality as they see and experience it.

06.09.17

Where Should Dundee Be in 2053?

This event brought together inspiring ideas from a range of speakers across the city and beyond, who shared their short stories and provocations from imaginations of Dundee’s future. Topics explored the future of: culture, living, working, money, love, health, environment, play, communication and more.

15.05.17

Behind the Scenes Dundee Tours

Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) and Creative Dundee teamed up to run cultural tours across the city, giving people the opportunity to take in local cultural organisations and gain insider knowledge from behind the scenes.

28.07.14

Screen in the Square – Dundee

As part of Dundee’s Commonwealth Games programme, Creative Dundee filled the big outdoor screen in City Square with local films, animations, music videos, poems, images and more. From an open call for content we screened 36 films from a great mix of contributors – established film makers through to up-and-coming talent.

10.05.17

W R K S H P

A practical work base for designers and makers to work from and share their practice with other creative practitioners. WRKSHP featured a programme of practical workshops and demos by designers and makers as well as providing workbenches and desktops for shared working.

19.06.19

Pass The Mic: Stories from Creative Dundee

Creative Dundee’s own relationships and connections to the city over the years. The original blog provided an opportunity to share the fascinating, complex and organic creativity in and around Dundee.

We Cultivate

We help support the local talent and strengthen the values that will lead us to tomorrow. That’s why we have led the collective design of Dundee’s Creative Industries Strategy and developed Fabric, a creative leadership programme for the city. We have also been creating tools, designing and leading workshops, giving talks, locally and across the world, to help other communities set their own creative hubs and develop strategies for future sustainability and growth.

25.05.21

CULTIVATE

CULTIVATE was a regional leadership programme, running May 2021–Oct 2023, placing creativity at the heart of climate justice & developing action with local communities.

30.07.20

Fabric

A creative leadership programme for the city, which supports individuals who are passionate about Dundee and want to build on their creative leadership journey.

01.02.21

International Creative Economy

Creative Dundee’s team has collaborated with partners extensively in an international scale. We have shared the organisation’s work, ethos and impacts as invited speakers, facilitators and resource developers.

24.08.17

European Creative Hubs Network

The European Creative Hubs Network was a 2 year project which ran from 2016 – 2018, led by British Council, in partnership with seven European creative hubs from Greece, UK, Germany, Serbia and Spain. The aim was to help creative hubs connect and collaborate across Europe.

17.10.17

Dundee’s Creative Industries Strategy

Dundee’s first Creative Industries Strategy can be viewed, downloaded and even listened to online. Initiated by Creative Dundee on behalf of the city, it includes the ambitions of those working and studying in the city’s creative sector and the actions which should be taken to make the sector stronger from 2017 – 2021.

28.06.15

Creative HubKit

Creative Dundee and Creative Edinburgh were commissioned by British Council to develop the Creative HubKit – a free toolkit for people looking to set up a hub, cluster or network. It is made up of best practice examples, helpful experiences and tried and tested approaches from some of the most successful hubs in the UK and Europe.

26.11.20

The Full Picture 2020

Creative Dundee commissioned and worked alongside four artists, exploring the barriers within the Creative Industries in the city. The artists researched their chosen topics – health, literacy, race and representation, then created artworks based on their findings.

07.06.21

The Full Picture 2021

Over two months, we commissioned and worked with two artists, Tilda Williams-Kelly and David McLeish, exploring the theme of how we can build a local and collaborative climate justice movement.

15.03.16

Mass Assembly Dundee

Mass Assembly brought together 130 individuals who were part of creative hubs, collectives, networks and clusters from all locations, rural and urban. The forum aimed to build stronger connections across Scotland and beyond, as part of the inaugural Dundee Design Festival in 2016.

We Collaborate

We work alongside a wide range of cross-sector partners in order to deliver projects that are relevant to Dundee audiences and beyond. Over the years we have worked with partners in tourism, games, community development, academia, tech, healthcare and more.

01.06.21

Indigenous Materials Library

Collaborating with lead partner, MaticHub in Cebu, Philippines, we have been researching indigenous materials native to the Tay and wider region, with the aim to enable sustainable and responsible approaches when considering material choices.

15.06.21

Small Society Lab: Dundee x Kobe

Small Society Lab is an open project that explores city spaces of our future. During 2020, we collaborated with friends in Kobe to create space beyond the immediacy of the crisis to deeply consider our biggest societal challenges together, listen and learn from one another.

04.09.18

Shpeel: Biome Collective

Shpeel is an immersive interactive experience, created by Biome Collective, that starts a conversation about mental health and well being. The 360 virtual environment was created for the London Design Biennale to show how the tool allows young people to express themselves without using verbal communication.

25.05.17

The MIX IN: Cultural Tourism

The MIX IN was an evening event designed to inspire and develop collaborations around cultural tourism across the Dundee and Angus region. Hearing from a number of speakers on a range of cultural tourism topics, attendees discussed the issues and opportunities – current and future, urban and rural.

24.09.15

Maker Speed Dater

Make Works and Creative Dundee ran the Maker Speed Dater, a unique event that provided an opportunity for makers and manufactures to have a conversation, learn about what can be made in Dundee and maybe find that factory you’ve been searching for months!

28.04.16

Light Bytes – Dundee

Light Bytes was an initiative to stimulate innovation with creative technology across the arts, screen and creative industries, through a partnership involving Creative Edinburgh, Creative Dundee and We Throw Switches, in association with Creative Scotland. Through a series of events and curiosity awards, the initiative supported the development of ideas into small working prototypes.

15.06.15

Dundee x Mexico City: Small Society Lab

Artists, designers, technologists and citizens explored Dundee in a new innovative and collaborative way. During the Lab, two seemingly unconnected cities came together by running simultaneous events to share a crossing of cultures – Mexico City, a megalopolis with 22 million residents and Dundee, with 149,000 residents.

18.11.16

BOOST by Design

BOOST by Design was a programme for Dundee’s social enterprises who were keen to develop their understanding of service design, digital innovation and community building. Working with Dundee Social Enterprise Network, Creative Dundee ran Boost by Design for 16 local social enterprises in collaboration with local partners.

07.03.17

The Creating Care Forum

The Creating Care Forum was a one day workshop exploring the opportunities of collaboration between healthcare and the creative industries. Produced in partnership between Creative Dundee, Creative Scotland and the Academic Health Science Partnership in Tayside, the day featured case studies, discussions and practical workshop sessions.

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