Partnerships :: Creative Dundee - Amplifying and Connecting the City

We are expert collaborators, generative investors and vocal advocates for creativity and culture.

Our work is all about connecting people, engaging communities, and developing collaborative projects.

Since 2008, we’ve worked with more than 1,280 partners, commissioned over 500 local creative practitioners and businesses, and invested over £2,000,000 into Dundee’s creative communities.

We forge partnerships, locally, nationally and internationally, to go further and faster together. Our recent projects include work in creative economies (InGAME; Creative West Wales), social and climate justice (Dundee Changemakers Hub; Scottish Community Alliance), creative networks (British Council; Creative Edinburgh), and more.

Keep reading to find out more about the projects we’ve been part of or get in touch with our team if you would like to discuss working collaboratively – we’d love to hear from you!

Creative Economy Leadership

Creative Dundee leads with investment in people. We equip creative practitioners and communities to thrive in increased uncertainty through platforms, support, skills, spaces and resources.

We showcase the significant role the sector plays in supporting economic progress and engage decision-makers at all levels in advocating for the city’s creative networks.

Create:Networks

Launched in June 2024, Create:Networks awarded funding to enable groups, organisations and creative practitioners to build new or develop existing local creative networks as enablers for sustainable creative communities in Scotland.

PechaKucha Night Dundee

Hosted by Creative Dundee in the city since 2011, PKN runs in over 1,300 cities around the world. Always different, entertaining and inspiring; there is something for everyone at this quick-fire event where speakers show 20 images, each for 20 seconds.

Fabric

Fabric is an informal peer-learning journey to share, reflect, and imagine how collective action can shape a better tomorrow. In each iteration, a selected group have come together to share their knowledge, inspirations and ideas, meeting with doers and connectors in Dundee and beyond.

Indigenous Materials Library

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

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.

Amps & Ampersand+

Amps is a community of people who make and cultivate creativity in Dundee. We meet regularly, online and offline, to share news and ideas, discuss current issues, and collectively build on the future of the city. Ampersand+ is a peer-to-peer support project that enables Amps to share their knowledge, experience, insights, skills and ideas.

International Creative Economy

Creative Dundee’s team have collaborated with partners extensively on an international scale. We have shared the organisations work, ethos and impact as invited speakers, facilitators and resource developers.

InGAME

InGAME was an ambitious research and innovation programme based in the heart of Dundee’s vibrant videogames cluster aiming to drive sustainable innovation and growth. It was led by Abertay University, in partnership with the University of Dundee, the University of St Andrews and a network of partners.

Dundee’s Creative Industries Strategy

Dundee’s first Creative Industries Strategy (2017–2021) was initiated by Creative Dundee on behalf of and with the city. It was co-designed with those in the city’s creative industries sector and the local and national agencies who support the creative industries.

Placemaking

We curate, organise and convene events and projects which build connection, a sense of belonging and social capital across the city’s communities, creative disciplines and cultural partners.

Our website acts as a creative archive for the city, preserving over 15 years of Dundee’s cultural and creative industries activities and events, offering a valuable resource for our communities and inspiration for collaborators.

Hapworks

A lack of space is limiting the growth of Dundee’s creative sector. Hapworks, led by Creative Dundee, aims to advocate for and establish a network of long term creative spaces which encourages collaboration and provides the security needed for the creative sector to grow, take risks and reach its potential.

99 Things to See & Do in Dundee

With the help of the people who know and love the city, Creative Dundee produce a crowdsourced 99 Things Guide sharing and celebrating the truly unmissable places, hidden gems, and wonderful experiences Dundee has to offer.

Fair Growing Green

Fair Growing Green brought new life, fresh produce and events to the former bowling green at Fairmuir Park as part of Dandelion – an ambitious community growing project, creating thirteen unexpected gardens as spaces to sow, grow and share.

Community Ideas Fund

This fund gives Amps supporters the opportunity to team up with each other and develop new creative collaborations that will have a positive impact in Dundee. They pitch their idea to the rest of the Amps community, who vote on which project they’d like to see come to life, with Amps subscriptions directly contributing to the fund.

A illustration of gallery space, with two small wooden benches sitting either side of a wheelchair. All three chairs face towards a screen, with the text on display saying "Open to All? Exploring Access in Dundee's Cultural Spaces. Part 3: Continual Inclusion"

Open to All?

A three-part series exploring accessibility in Dundee’s cultural spaces, aiming to offer an introduction to how better access benefits everyone and speaking to people with access needs and those working on access in our cultural institutions.

Digital Content

Providing a platform for the city’s news and events, alongside curated original features from our team and Dundee’s creative networks, the Creative Dundee website is a valuable resource for the city and its communities.

Social Innovation

Collective leadership is key to Creative Dundee’s work. We support people to imagine and act together, striving to improve current conditions and future opportunities for creative practitioners and city residents.

We create inspiring spaces to visualise tomorrow, sharing perspectives, harnessing experimentation and encouraging community leadership to shape equitable, inclusive futures for all.

Dundee Changemakers Hub

Designed and delivered by a collective of five local community organisations, the Hub responds to the needs of local communities by amplifying existing local networks and action, and testing new ways of working together. The Hub is part of a growing national network of Climate Action Hubs funded by the Scottish Government’s Climate Action Fund.

CULTIVATE

A regional leadership programme, running May 2021 – October 2023 led by Creative Dundee, for creative practitioners and local communities to collaboratively explore new ways of embedding creativity at the core of grassroots collective action for climate justice, across the Tay region.

Ripple Effects

Ripple Effects: Reflections and Learning from CULTIVATE is a collaborative report with learning partner tialt, exploring key learnings from the pilot project and insights into six of the commissions, focusing on the creative practitioners and communities who undertook them.

We Dundee

A crowd-sourced platform led by Creative Dundee 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 anyone to share their thoughts on our city’s future for now and for generations to come.

Small Society Labs

An open project which explores the development and understanding of the small city of the future. Over the years SSL has worked with residents and local and international partners to explore themes of democracy, making and digital value, through to placemaking and serendipitous communities.

Care in Creative Practice

As part of the University of Dundee’s Festival of the Future, this in-conversation event aimed to explore centring care in creative practice to encourage new ways of thinking, making and living. It also premiered a short film from sound artist Andy Truscott, sharing the ties between creativity and mental health.

Creative Dundee