Returning for the fourth year, UNESCO City of Design Dundee, in partnership with Dundee City Council, are searching for four designers or creative practitioners to create bespoke and unique ‘Christmas Trees’ as part of Dundee’s Festive Celebrations!
These trees will form part of a display located outside City Churches and rather than simply decorating a tree, the brief asks designers to create a tree which tells its own story. The project is seeking creative, unique, and eye-catching designs which respond to the concept of a central Christmas Tree in festive celebrations while celebrating the diversity of the winter period from different perspectives.
Considering the environmental impact of large-scale festivities, all elements of the tree and its decoration must be made from 100% reused or recycled materials. It is preferable that the tree’s materials are made from materials that are recognisable as having been recycled, and they particularly welcome trees made from waste household and everyday items.
This opportunity is open to:
Each designer or creative practitioner will be awarded £2,200 to cover all materials, production, installation and fees.
Deadline for submissions: 9am, Mon 22 September
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Our Amps network includes freelancers, students and people who support creativity in the city – including folks who work at some of Dundee’s cultural and creative organisations and institutions. Join us for a behind the scenes tour of RRS Discovery at Discovery Point!
Amps will be guided by the good folks at Discovery Point as we explore RRS Discovery – designed and built in Dundee in 1900 and currently being restored by the team. We’ll hear about the ship’s history, restoration and stories before time to connect and chat afterwards – grab a hot drink and meet other local artists, designers, makers and doers in the network.
Tickets are free, limited and available to supporters of our Amps network only. Booking is required, but if you’re unable to join us on the day, we’d be grateful if you could return your ticket so that someone else can attend.
Notes about access: the first half of this event is centred around boarding RRS Discovery – this includes steep step-access and varying light levels. The second half takes place inside Discovery Point. Anyone unable to or unsure about boarding the ship is most welcome to join us for either all or part of the event, which includes time to chat over refreshments. Assistance dogs are welcome. Information about access at Discovery Point is available via their website, Euan’s Guide and AccessAble. If you have any questions about access, please get in touch.
Discovery Point, Discovery Quay, Riverside Drive, Dundee DD1 4XA
Tickets are free and booking is essential.
This event is for Amps only – become an Amp and come along!
Event hashtag: #AmpsDundee
Not an Amps supporter yet? As well as opportunities including regular events, your work being profiled on our digital platforms and our Ampersand+ peer-sharing project, part of your Amps subscription goes towards our Community Ideas Fund!
Help us grow the Fund and make Amps more accessible by supporting a Pay It Forward subscription! Your contribution will help someone experiencing cost as a barrier to getting involved.
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Subscribe to our monthly News Mail Out for more events, features, opportunities and exciting content from Dundee!
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
In 1913 Dundee artist Ethel Moorhead smashed the windows of a police station and threw pepper in an officer’s face as protest for the right to vote. The year before, she broke the window of a car thought to hold the Chancellor of the Exchequer. She was imprisoned multiple times, including for arson and assault, for her actions in pursuit of women’s suffrage.
History is often distorted by politicians, institutions and the media: activists and social movements are praised in retrospect, despite being demonised and persecuted at the time. And we continue to see this cycle today, where opposing genocide can see you arrested and labelled a terrorist — but inciting fascist violence will not.
In 1969 the American TV show, Black Journal, aired an interview with Nina Simone. In the segment she speaks about empowering Black communities and the duty of artists. “We will shape and mould this country or it will not be moulded and shaped at all anymore,” she says. “So I don’t think you have a choice. How can you be an artist and not reflect the times? That, to me, is the definition of an artist.”
In 2024 I attended the event, In Conversation with Leena Nammari, organised by Art Workers for Palestine Dundee at Generator Projects. Nammari, a Palestinian artist living in Scotland, discussed her series ‘Stop — Enough — We Are Tired — Khalas — Bikaffi — Ta’ibna’, which comprises posters of Arabic words and their English translations. She spoke about linguistic resonance and the context of these words in Palestinian culture and history, particularly in respect of the Israeli occupation and ongoing genocide.
Commenting on her exhibition for Sharing Not Hoarding, Nammari urges us to recognise our common humanity, “We all have an obligation to engage and bear witness to the world we inhabit, to what we see and what we hear,” she says. “Simply, and with words, sometimes, that could be enough.”
Posters by Leena Nammari, image credit Aileen Angsutorn Lees
As humans, our experiences, beliefs, emotions and actions shape how we move through the world (and vice versa). Impartiality does not exist. So, who has the privilege to be apolitical? Who benefits from staying silent? An artist that does not question, resist or advocate is not an artist — they are a brand.
In his 1963 lecture James Baldwin stated that what an artist creates says more about themselves than anything else. “Your responsibility as an artist… is to close the gap between what you see and what there is.”
Dundee has a rich history of activism, resistance and cross-community solidarity. In 1980, it was the first city in the UK to twin with a Palestinian city. In 2021, Dundee became the first Scottish city to recognise the state of Palestine. In 2023, artists and workers across the city’s cultural sectors came together to form Art Workers for Palestine Dundee as a local branch of the pre-existing group, Artworkers for Palestine Scotland. Nearly two years since their formation following the latest genocide, I caught up with the collective to talk about their experiences of resistance and change.
Art Workers for Palestine Dundee campaigns on and works with organisations in Dundee and the surrounding area to act ethically. It also organises community events, workshops and spaces to hold “more radical conversations than our institutions are capable of”.
Their advocacy work includes spreading awareness of and commitment to PACBI, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. “We’ve had lots of grassroot support for us and for PACBI, within and outwith the arts,” the collective tells me. As of publishing, over 200 Scottish organisations have endorsed PACBI including those across Dundee and the surrounding area, such as Generator Projects, Volk Gallery, Forgan Arts Centre and Creative Dundee.
But many larger organisations have not even acknowledged the ongoing genocide in Palestine despite calls from their audiences, staff, artists and partners. “We’d love to see deeper research from organisations, particularly on what PACBI is,” the collective says. “We are often confronted with a host of misinformation about what committing to PACBI means to their day-to-day operations. Do the research, ask the questions — open up conversations and make the commitment.”
The collective also tells me that many workers supporting PACBI and Palestine feel isolated because Art Workers for Palestine Scotland is treated as a “fringe” position. More support for grassroots initiatives is therefore needed, as well as more spaces for artist-led activities. “It’s been great to be able to work in a variety of spaces [like] libraries, artist-run initiatives, cultural spaces, digital radio etc.,” they add. “But we need to fund and support these spaces to ensure they continue.”
Community events held by Art Workers for Palestine Dundee
Artists and communities have a vital role to play in pushing for systemic change. By organising collectively, while also using our individual platforms, we can take tangible, effective actions to resist inequality and oppression. “We would encourage everyone to continue to show up in the spaces of solidarity,” says Art Workers for Palestine Dundee. “There are many ways to get involved in the struggle and in the movement to make change and to commit to the dismantling of colonial projects.”
We have seen many large organisations act defensively and with hostility, particularly in response to artists supporting liberation. Over the last year, artists have been harassed, de-platformed and attacked at the direction of institutions for exercising artistic expression and agency. Others have been silenced just because of their identity.
Many institutions have justified their behaviour under the claim that they must remain ‘objective’. But objectivity is a colonial standard, revered by institutions and the media yet impossible to apply in society, let alone the arts. This false pretence enables the authoritative voice, rooted in imperial knowledge and biases, to reinforce existing power structures. Being ‘objective’ never helps those who are oppressed, but this silence and apathy protects self-interest, in turn supporting the status quo.
In 1964, the release of the protest song ‘Mississippi Goddam’ pushed Nina Simone to leave the U.S. after the music industry orchestrated a boycott of her records. But this institutional suppression didn’t work — her song became an anthem of the American civil rights movement.
To disrupt systems of power, we must change how the arts sector operates: small close-knit networks of power held by institutions with no accountability to their audiences, staff, artists and partners.
Art Workers for Palestine Dundee urges institutions to adopt a healthier approach to feedback and criticism, and to open up to more meaningful opportunities for collective input. “We’d love to see organisations be more transparent,” they tell me. “Ego and organisational hierarchy [can be] eradicated — with a supportive and shared ethos prevailing into demonstrable action and activity.”
We must learn from the revolutionaries of the past and listen to those in the present if we are to build a more just future. In the words of Dundee musician and poet Mary Brooksbank, “I have never had any personal ambitions. I have but one: to make my contribution to destroy the capitalist system.”
Aileen Angsutorn Lees is a writer and multidisciplinary artist based in Perthshire. She is the founder of Decolonising The Outdoors, a creative and community project which dismantles narratives of dominating land and extracting nature.
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
The next deadline for the Visual Artist and Craft Maker Awards is here! These bursaries are designed to support and encourage creatives to live and work in Dundee, ensuring that creativity plays a vital and lasting role in the city and that creative practices thrive.
Two levels of fixed bursaries are available and creative practitioners are encouraged to apply for the level which best suits their circumstances:
Previously supported projects include but are not limited to; development of skills and professional development courses; creative mentoring and residencies; researching a new body of work; experimenting with new materials.
These awards are supported by Creative Scotland through funding from the National Lottery in partnership with a range of local partners. The bursaries are managed locally by these partners, and this localised method ensures funding is fairly and equally distributed to creative people across Scotland. VACMA Dundee is hosted by Leisure & Culture Dundee.
VACMA want to hear about your work, ideas and experience. They will give priority to applications which clearly show:
Ensure you carefully read the Application Guidelines and Artist Checklist before applying. The deadlines for applications are:
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
The end of September welcomes the first outing of 2025’s Community Ideas Fund recipient project, Dundee Open Studios: The Jewellery Edition! Join them across two weekends (Sat 20–Sun 21 and Sat 27–Sun 28 September) as 22 jewellers at 10 venues in Dundee, open their doors and welcome you in.
Pick up your free riso printed map at locations across the city including V&A Dundee, DCA and The McManus. Discover where jewellery is designed and made, meet the makers, and learn about the tools, techniques and skills behind their work.
From bespoke commissions and remodelling heirlooms, to contemporary collections, education and public workshops — Dundee’s jewellers are shaping a vibrant scene that deserves to be seen.
Participating jewellers:
Venues:
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Dundee Fringe is back and taking up residence at its home in the Keiller Centre with a huge selection of shows that feature new theatre, hilarious comedy, live music and more!
Dundee Fringe was founded by theatre maker, producer and event director JD Henshaw, and has brought the best performances and events together in the city since 2021. This year’s Fringe will run from Fri 12 – Sun 21 September with returning local favourites alongside artists from across the UK. Keep an eye on their Instagram for updates.
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Creative Balance, led by We Are Here Scotland, is conducting Scotland’s first comprehensive research exploring how BPOC-led creative spaces can support mental health and wellbeing for racialised professionals in the creative sector.
Building on the invaluable insights shared by their 10-person steering group and case studies, they are now expanding this community-led research and calling for Black and Global Majority creatives and cultural professionals to express their interest in participating in group interviews.
There are two opportunities to join online interviews on Mon 29 September and Mon 6 October, alongside an in-person group interview in Dundee on Mon 22 September.
Key Details:
Expression of interest deadline: 5pm, Mon 1 September
We Are Here is a Community Interest Company with an aim to amplify the voices BPoC (Black People and People of Colour) in particular Artists and Creatives who reside in Scotland with opportunities to share their work, connect with each other, and have their voices heard within the wider art community.
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Contemporary arts event Present Futures comes to Dundee on Wed 10 and Thur 11 September! Over two days this special satellite edition of the festival will bring together a programme of performance, sound, film, visual arts and discussion curated by acclaimed choreographer Colette Sadler and produced by Feral Arts.
Now in its sixth edition, Present Futures Dundee will explore the complex entanglement and interdependencies of human and “other than” human as we enter collectively into precarious and unknown futures in the wake of ecological transition and crisis.
The two day festival will feature contributions from artists including SHHE, Bishop May Down, Farrah Fawcett, Laura Moorhouse, Ian Kaler, Samir Kennedy, Suk-Jun Kim and Colette Sadler.
The majority of the Present Futures Programme will be free but ticketed or a small ticket price. The performance double bill at Dundee Rep on Thu 11 September is ticketed on a sliding scale and you can choose what to pay based on your financial circumstances.
Present Futures Dundee is funded by Creative Scotland. Supported by Generator Projects, Dundee Rep, Scottish Dance Theatre, Dundee & Angus College, Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) and Goethe Institut.
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Forgan Arts Centre are seeking artists looking to develop an ambitious new project in collaboration with their communities, marking a new chapter in imagining An Arts Centre as a Garden – a shared, sentient ecology of people, plants, and ideas.
Taking place over 40 days between October 2025 – March 2026, the residency is rooted in the theme of Talking Forests, exploring intergenerational and interspecies exchange. They welcome proposals that connect with their neighbours, classes, allotments, garden activities and wider programme, and are interested in projects which can become part of the living fabric of the centre.
The residency is open to individual artists, as well as duos and collaborative groups of up to four. They are seeking artists with a collaborative and socially engaged practice, experience working creatively with communities, and an interest in environmental and ecological themes.
Key Details:
Deadline for applications: 12noon, Mon 1 September
If you’re interested in this role and would like more information, or would like to apply but feel there are barriers limiting your ability to do so, please get in touch with their team by emailing curator@forganartscentre.co.uk.
Forgan Arts Centre is a rural home for the development of traditional and contemporary art and craft and community activity in Newport-on-Tay, North East Fife. The centre was established by local-residents in 1974 and they remain community-led to this day, with representation from local people at all levels of the organisation.
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Returning for its 17th edition, Take One Action Film Festivals have announced their 2025 theme, Real Utopias, and an inspiring programme bringing communities together to harness the transformative potential of film and storytelling for collective change.
The festival will arrive in Dundee from Fri 7- Sun 9 November exploring a more just and liberated future through stories of communities taking renewable energy into their own hands, decolonising a library, celebrating trans joy, paying tribute to local radical histories and more. The programme promises glimpses of utopian futures already within reach and explores how we can grow these futures in Scotland, together.
To make their events more accessible, Take One Action operate a sliding scale ticket policy with attendees choosing what to pay based on their personal circumstances from £0-£20. When you pay a higher price for a ticket, you help subsidise a ticket for someone on a lower income.
Real Utopias Dundee programme:
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
DJCAD’s Cooper Gallery are looking for a new Event Production Assistant to join their small team and support the production and delivery of the public engagement programme for their 2025–2026 exhibitions.
The is an exciting opportunity for an early career producer, curator, or artworker to develop their hands-on skills and experience in all aspects of contemporary art event production, from planning and coordination to delivery and evaluation.
The Event Production Assistant will be focused on the production and delivery of The Ignorant Art School Sit-in Curriculum #5 events programme and the public events programme of the 2026 spring exhibition.
They are looking for a motivated individual interested in working with Cooper Gallery’s distinctive approach to public event production and whose practice in the arts would benefit from this experience. A keen interest in contemporary art and visual culture with a desire to develop a carer in the arts sector is a must.
Job Details:
Deadline for applications: 5pm, Sun 24 August 2025
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Supported by Help Musicians, the Scottish Government’s Youth Music Initiative through Creative Scotland and Youth Music, the Sound of Young Scotland Award exists to drive Scottish music of the future by giving an annual award to a young and emerging artist to facilitate the creation of their debut album.
The winner of the Sound of Young Scotland Award will receive a funding package worth up to £10,000 to support the recording and production of their debut album, with previous winners including No Windows, Berta Kennedy and LVRA.
2025’s funding package includes:
Applying artists must be aged 18–25, be a Scottish Artist with an active career of at least 1 year, and not have previously released an album or have significant backing from a record label, publisher or private investor.
Applications close: midnight, Fri 22 August 2025.
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Subscribe to our monthly News Mail Out for more events, features, opportunities and exciting content from Dundee!
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) join forces with Ninja Kiwi and Abertay University for the next Drop in and Play, bringing you the latest and most exciting works-in-progress from local game developers and studios.
This year, there’s also a special twist to the event with an exclusive opportunity to get hands-on with games from Abertay University’s 2025 DARE Academy! The DARE Academy games design competition gives six teams of talented students the opportunity to spend the summer creating their own game with support from expert mentors. Students work together across a range of disciplines to create game prototypes – all of which will be available to play at Drop in and Play.
With a selection of games to suit every taste, Drop in and Play offers an afternoon of FREE entertainment and inspiration, suitable for gamers and newbies alike aged 10+.
When
Sat 30 August
12–4pm
Where
DCA Meeting Room & Ground Floor
Dundee Contemporary Arts
152 Nethergate
Dundee, DD1 4DY
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
The DJCAD Masters Show returns for 2025 with over 80 students across ten varied programmes displaying dynamic, innovative and imaginative work across the university studios and Cooper Gallery. With exhibits ranging from fine art, animation, and curatorial practice to items designed with health, innovation and functionality in mind there is so much to explore.
The show is free and open to the public from Sat 23 to Sun 31 August, with a late opening on Thu 28 August until 8pm. Several free events will also be running alongside the main exhibition, giving insights into study at DJCAD, and opportunities to hear from existing students about their work.
When
Sat 23–Sun 31 Aug, 10am–4pm
Late opening: Thu 26 Aug, 10am–8pm
Where
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design
13 Perth Road
Dundee
DD1 4HT
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Head to Angus and the sprawling grounds of Hospitalfield for their Summer Festival and a day celebrating the food and drink production of Angus, alongside a diverse programme of workshops, talks, art and live music.
The festival aims to create shared moments of learning, discussion, dancing, food and joy, with a focus this year on the theme of Pollination and what we can creatively learn from microscopic plant matter. The arts and events programme has been curated with Laura Mansfield of FEAST Journal, alongside a live music lineup curated by SHHE.
Standard tickets are priced at £18 with camp site reservations available for £10 and children under 12 able to attend for free. Tickets allow access to all the events, workshops and music throughout the day.
When
Sat 9 August
11am–10pm
Where
Hospitalfield House
Westway
Arbroath
DD11 2NH
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Immersive Arts is a groundbreaking UK-wide programme designed to help artists develop their practice using immersive technologies (virtual, extended, and augmented realities), working to break down barriers and making what can be an exclusive field of practice much more accessible.
With £3.6 million in funding available between 2024 and 2027, they’ll be supporting over 200 artists across the UK and providing the opportunity to explore, experiment, or expand how they work within this exciting field.
If you’d like to find out more about immersive tools and how they can be applied to your creative practice, or are interested in applying to the fund and would like to find out more, Immersive Arts are running a free Inspiration Day in Dundee on Mon 15 September for artists from all backgrounds, art forms, and career stages.
Applications close, Mon 29 September 2025.
How to apply:
There are three funding levels available and applicants should apply for the full amounts available in each (ie £5,000, £20,000 or £50,000). You do not require match funding to apply.
Deadline for all applications: Mon 29 September 2025
Immersive Arts is run by a collaborative consortium of ten partners who are embedded within the UK’s immersive arts and research communities, and committed to creating positive change in the sector – Pervasive Media Studio, University of Bristol, Cryptic, Nerve Centre, Wales Millennium Centre, Watershed, Crossover Labs, Unlimited, XR Diversity Initiative, and Immerse UK.
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Based on the popular Detroit SOUP model with a local twist, Dundee SOUP is a micro-funding event celebrating and supporting creative community projects in Dundee.
Dundee Changemakers Hub are returning to the SOUP format, bigger and better, with three funding pots of £1000 to help climate and social justice ideas have a greater impact for people across the city. The first of four SOUP events will take place on Wed 23 July, covering projects for Central Dundee (Maryfield and Coldside) with SOUPs for Dundee East, West and North to follow later in the year.
If you have an idea or a project that needs some support, this is your chance to pitch for £1000! Pitch submissions close at midnight, Tue 15 July with presenters selected and notified by Thu 17 July.
Come along on the night to share some food, hear five short presentations from local people with creative ideas to benefit their community, and vote for your favourite project. The event is free to attend with the opportunity to add to a donation pot which will be split between two of the remaining projects.
Dundee SOUP – Changemakers Dundee Central
Wed 23 July, 6–8pm
CANVAS
Ure Street
Dundee, DD1 5HZ
Dundee’s Changemakers Hub is being designed and delivered by a collective of four local community organisations: Transition Dundee, The Maxwell Centre, ScrapAntics, and Uppertunity, offering support, events, workshops and micro-grants to connect and amplify collective community action.
The Hub is part of a growing national network of Climate Action Hubs funded by the Scottish Government’s Climate Action Fund, which aim to build local awareness of the climate emergency, develop local plans, help groups take up funding opportunities, and contribute to a Just Transition.
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
Game designer Claire Morwood and creative producer Susie Buchan are bringing together anyone curious to collaborate and have some fun at Fuse Jam! 5. This weekend-long event invites participants to make whatever a ‘game’ means to them – whether you make them all the time or you haven’t tried yet.
Each group will be given a theme to spark ideas and time together to create a digital or physical game, before coming together to share their work in progress or finished game. People of all skill levels are encouraged to join, including complete beginners!
Fuse Jam! 5 is free to attend but booking is required to secure your spot.
When & Where
Fri 1 Aug, 5.30pm–7.30pm: Dundee Central Library, Steps Theatre
Sat 2 Aug, 9.30am–5pm: Dundee Central Library, Creative Central area
Sun 3 Aug, 11.30am–5pm: ScrapAntics, Community Space, Level 2 Wellgate Centre
In order to ensure the team-forming accommodates everyone, please aim to arrive promptly on Fri 1 Aug.
If you would like to support us in creating even better content, please consider joining or supporting our Amps Community.
