It's always exciting to be in at the beginning of something new, and especially so when it's to explore a new stream of work alongside an organisation you already know and admire. No surprise, then, that I'm thrilled to be part of the new Fun Palaces Makers' network for the coming 5 years, with a specific remit to explore systems change for community-rooted creative and activist movements. I've been a long term participant, champion and ambassador for Fun Palaces, a year-lon

Once in a while, the dream freelance opportunity comes along. For me, this was the opportunity to support Derbyshire-based community arts charity Junction Arts as they reached their 50 year milestone. This is a commission to support the brilliant Junction Arts team as they look back on their impact over the past half century, and think ahead about what comes next as they look to the future. A fascinating role, made all the more powerful for me by the fact that I'm a former pa

I was at an event this month where we were asked to get to know one-other by finding a partner and describing an early cultural memory. It was lovely to hear people's stories of panto, of street performance, of music and dance. For me, though, it's always been books. A delightful thing about this photo is that the tape in my walkman is almost certainly an audio book. The library has always been a happy place, a place of incredible abundance (all those books! for free!), the a

Over the coming twelve months I’m spending one evening a week at my local college, training to be a florist. Whilst I have no plans to make this into a career, I’m fascinated by how floristry - typically quite a genteel, unthreatening kind of hobby - might tie into my wider interests, especially around equity, community-building and activism. I’m wondering whether there might be opportunities to explore a practice of floristry that's explicitly connected to an anti-racist, fe

After taking on the interim role of Director at Culture Counts last autumn, I'm thrilled to be staying put - in one of two newly-created Co-Director roles. I'll be working 2.5 days per week on advocacy work to support Scotland's arts, heritage and creative industries, alongside brilliant Co-Director Joseph Peach. The rest of the week I'm continuing to (happily) freelance, focussing on community arts and participatory projects, and work with a focus on social impact. I'm curre

I'm thrilled to have been accepted as a digital participant at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69). I'm looking...

Many thanks to the David Hume Institute for inviting me to speak at their February Breakfast Briefing. The event reflects on the latest...

It's always a little anxiety-inducing to see your words in print, but I'm actually really proud of this opinion piece in today's...

I was invited by think-tank Culture Commons to write a guest blog for their work on "the future of local cultural decision making" - a "major four-nations research and open policy development programme to explore how devolution and increased local decision making might impact on the creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem in the UK". I used the opportunity to reflect on my personal and professional experiences of grassroots, community-rooted creative activity, and on the

I was recently invited to contribute to the 'Week in my life' feature by Prolific North magazine - which aims to 'celebrate, connect and...

I'm delighted to have been appointed as Interim Director of Culture Counts , a network of Scotland’s arts, heritage and creative...

One of my motivations for freelancing was to have less of a binary division between work and pleasure. I wanted to be able to integrate...

Project coordination is one of my very favourite things to do. I'm super-organised, find getting things done incredibly satisfying, and...

Earlier this year, we heard lovely news that Culture Collective had won The Stage's award for Community Project of the Year. After 2.5...

In June 2024, I made and gave away 50 mini bouquets of flowers to celebrate and remember campaigners who've made our world a better...

I'm fascinated by flowers. They have such a rich cultural tradition of connecting people and marking our key life events. We buy and give...

In November 2023 I was delighted to be invited to present at the 15th anniversary of Creative Dundee's PechaKucha Night. Featuring a...

At the beginning of last year, I took part in a fascinating women’s history tour of Edinburgh, led by the brilliant Ruth Boreham. We...

As we come to the end of 2.5 years of delivering the Culture Collective programme, I've been reflecting on the process of bringing...

The end of October 2023 sees this round of Culture Collective funding come to an end. The opportunity to work as Programme Lead for the...