10/10/2018  

Engagement Programme

Outspoken Arts Scotland Limited is undertaking a programme of outreach and engagement with cultural organisations in Renfrewshire over the next year.  This engagement programme is funded by Creative Scotland and the National Lottery Awards for All. The activity is as a result of the legacy of Paisley UK City of Culture bid.

We are an equalities and protected characteristics focused arts organisation that delivers work in the performing and visual arts. We wish to begin a process of engagement and project development with up to a dozen local community, voluntary and arts sector organisations in Renfrewshire to build a cultural programme of some social impact. Our organisation worked closely with Renfrewshire Council as a Creative Producer on the Paisley 2021 bid and have met and consulted with many groups in 2016.

From that process we recognised there are many arts and community groups in need of professional and meaningful collaborations with the wider professional arts sector outwith Renfrewshire. We also recognised that many communities in the area are in zones of multiple deprivation and have vulnerable people that require more recognition, support and regular arts activities to promote inclusiveness and better health and well-being. We wish to develop our work through a process of genuine engagement that fosters collaboration, leading to shared creativity and co-production that is truly empowering for all participants.

We have identified a dozen organisations we wish to collaborate with to develop new projects. Those are as follows:

1. Create Paisley, a local mixed arts/multi media youth charity
2. Erskine Music & Media Studios, Bargarran – a music and participatory arts for vulnernable people
3. H-arts – a local theatre company in Paisley which focuses on new writing
4. PACE Youth Theatre, Paisley largest youth theatre for under 18s
5. Disability Resource Centre – a local support project for disabled people in Renfrewshire
6. THCAR2 – Renfrewshire Council’s Heritage Arts programme – regeneration/social history
7. Paisley Arts Centre – a key venue and local co-producer – theatre
8. University of the West of Scotland – spoken word/music – young professionals
9. Diversity & Equality Alliance Renfrewshire – a network of local equalities groups
10. Thread Mill Museum – a local social/industrial heritage group in deprived East End of Paisley
11. ROAR Connections for Life – a participatory arts, health and wellbeing group for older people
12. STAR Project – a local arts/community group in Love Street, north side area of high deprivation

Part of our process will be engaging more deeply and regularly with the groups, their leaders and participants to identify shared interests, stories, dramas, everyday life issues and experiences and seeing where and how we can match the organisation to a like minded professional artist. These collaborations would then lead to the development of larger project which might result in performances, exhibitions, training, presentations and the like. This programme of engagement would be continuous, with regular meetings, workshops and creative development sessions to build capacity.  We will deliver the outcomes of this engagement process as part of our 2019-2021 programme.

For further information please contact our Creative Director mailto:steventhomson@outspokenarts.org

06/08/2018  

Make it Fabulous! 2019

COMING OUT IN 2019
Call for acts and participation in a brand new programme of events for LGBT History Month Scotland – February 2019.

To mark the 50th year since the Stonewall Riots (July 1969), Outspoken Arts Scotland wants to hear from acts, troupes, performers, artists and activists.

We want to capture what is to be LGBT in 2019 but we also want to remember where it all began and celebrate the fabulous explosion of LGBT culture since Stonewall, through Gay Liberation and Pride Marches. We want you to be inspired by and perhaps celebrate the wonderful troupes of artists who led the way such as Hot Peaches, Bloolips, The Cockettes and even London’s own Duckie.

If you have an act, performance, show or idea that could make us laugh, sing or cry we want to hear from you. Whatever your identity, be you drag queen, femme, dyke, diva, bitch, boy, bear, or ally or none of these- if you can get up on a stage and tell your story – we want to hear from you.

Send us some of the following things –
a headshot, CV, publicity materials, youtube or other social media or website links to your work. mailto:steventhomson@outspokenarts.org

P.S. Make it Fabulous!

Stonewall Inn, New York City, 1969

Hot Peaches, NYC