Our Values

Mission

Outspoken Arts Scotland features year round and seasonal work by artists and communities with the protected characteristics.  As a diverse community of arts activists we are currently interested in work which references cutting edge social issues such as creative learning for young and vulnerable people, stories of migration and asylum, issues affecting LGBT people, disability, ethnicity, creative ageing and social health and well-being. We focus on the development of new voices and emergent talent and explores stereotypes in the contemporary arts.  We create genuine professional opportunities for the work of our artists and communities to be enjoyed by wider audiences across Scotland.

“the achievement and celebration of equality through the arts with a particular emphasis on the lives, work, and experiences of people with the protected characteristics.  We wish to engage, advocate, and work with people from diverse communities and we will do this by promoting, presenting, and producing social, cultural and educational activities.”

Who it is for

We represent diverse communities and recognise that equality, equal and human rights are now very much the focus of mainstream society, civic and organisational culture and our shifting sense of identity plays an increasingly influential role in this. Yet we also recognise that people with the protected characteristics have sometimes come from the margins of society where they have felt less than accepted, sometimes abused and neglected. That often informs their work, their attitudes and their interests.

Our Strategy

  • to bridge the gaps between the different tribes, behaviours and create intersections between the places of creative activity and interest.

How we will do this

  • We work with an informal collective of programmers and curators.
  • We are interested in radical, independent, activist, counter-cultural voices.
  • We aim to embody practice that engages and encourages reflection on what unites people.
  • We want our organisation to be a reflection of the work artists wish to make matched alongside the needs of partners’ organisations and wider audiences.
  • We want to be seen as multi-generational.
  • We wish to curate programmes which create art, develop community, and build a sense of identity and solidarity.
  • We wish to support emergent artists at the start of their career, established artists who have made new work, and afford opportunities to foreground new trends, new scenes and new movements.

This is an extract of our mission, vision and programme aims.  For further information please refer enquiries to our office.  contact@outspokenarts.org