Fabric: Collective Imagination X Community Organising

Updates: You can read more about this year's Fabric cohort at the end of this post and read post written by participants about each session in this blog series. If you are interested in taking part, watch this space for future Fabric journeys!

Are you looking to connect with people who share your values, in social and climate action? Do you want to make positive change happen within your neighbourhood or community? Are you in search of inspiration to develop your ideas, projects or actions?

This five month informal peer learning ‘Fabric’ could be for you!

We want to hear from people who are actively interested in the future of Dundee and want to share, reflect and imagine how collective action and creativity can shape a better tomorrow.

What is Fabric?

Fabric is an informal peer learning journey which will bring together a mix of 20 creative practitioners and community organisers to: 

• connect and share their knowledge, inspirations and ideas;

• meet with doers, connectors and leaders in and around Dundee;

• discuss how we can collectively make our place even better!

Fabric is led by Creative Dundee and this year’s journey is funded by and delivered in partnership with Dundee Changemakers Hub.

“We believe that it's in our collective interest to take a proactive approach to nurture the talent and values that will lead us to tomorrow.” – Claire Dufour, Creative Climate Producer, Creative Dundee.

Who is Fabric for?

Fabric is open to anyone who has made their life in and around Dundee and is actively interested in social and climate action.

We want the Fabric group to reflect the social, economic and cultural fabric of the city. You can apply regardless of the demographic you identify with, your job role, your creative practice or your role in your community – you might be a worker, volunteer, resident or leader in your community.

We will bring together 10 community organisers and 10 creative practitioners, developing shared knowledge and capacity to explore the potential of groups of people coming together to imagine and build the places they want to be a part of, beyond fixing what’s broken and seeking new horizons, new worlds, and new ways of doing.

What is Fabric offering?

The focus will be on community climate action and collaboratively shaping a better tomorrow – giving creative practitioners and community organisers the knowledge, skills, confidence and connections to fuel future work, actions or projects.

Throughout a series of four day long sessions, from November 2024 to March 2025, this informal peer learning journey will:

• create a safe(r) and inspirational space to meet, discuss and explore with other changemakers locally;

• offer time and peer support to reflect on your own strengths and ideas, and vision for the future;

• bring you on field trips to exciting places, to learn and get inspired from others projects;

• facilitate opportunities to better understand Dundee‘s strengths and challenges, and create new connections across the city.

“It could be that the neighbourhood, not the individual, is the essential unit of social change. If you’re trying to improve lives, maybe you have to think about changing many elements of a single neighbourhood, in a systematic way, at a steady pace.” – David Brooks

What are the practicalities?

This is a peer learning journey, meaning we’ll work as a group and co-create some elements as we go. But the structure we’ll use is:

• Four day-long sessions – these are opportunities to come together and hear from others on different topics, including examples on how creativity and collaboration play a vital role in creating spaces for communities to reimagine a future rooted in justice, care and collective action.

• During each session, we’ll also carve some time to share, create, play, explore and reflect, as a group and individually, through guided activities and provocations. 

• Lunch will be provided for all in-person sessions.

• The four day-long sessions will also include behind-the-scenes tours to various community gardens, and a field trip at the Scottish Crannog Centre.

• Between the sessions, we’ll also have optional opportunities to deepen connections with each other through one-to-one informal chats over a warm cuppa – we’ll pair people up randomly and invite the pairs to organise an informal meet-up at their convenience.

To maximise the individual and collective impact of this journey, we’re asking applicants to ensure they can attend all sessions – please check the below dates against your current commitments before applying.

Fabric is free to attend. Your time and energy is what you will bring to the journey.

Session 1: Play and collective imagination

Date: Thursday 21 November 2024

Times: 9.30am - 4.30pm

Location: Hapworks_00, 7 Castle Street, DD1 3AA

Session 2: Bring a chair, create the table

Date: Thursday 23 January 2025

Times: 10am - 4pm

Location: online

Session 3: Gardening for the future

Date: Thursday 20 February 2025

Times: 9am – 5pm

Location: visits to various community gardens

Session 4: From Dwellers to Changemakers

Date: Thursday 20 March 2025

Times: 8.30am – 6pm

Location: field trip to Scottish Crannog Centre, Dalerb, PH15 2NX

How to apply?

We recognise that application writing is unpaid labour – this is why we have aimed to keep this process to a minimum and offer applicants to answer the following questions in various ways, including: in writing or audio/video recording.

The application process is now close. Watch this space for furture Fabric journeys!

The main application questions (which can be answered in writing or audio/video recording) included:

• What will you bring to this Fabric journey? We’d like to hear more about you and how your work, creative practice or community involvement contributes (or would contribute) to climate and social action within your neighbourhood, community and/or Dundee. (250 words or 2 minutes max)

• What do you hope to get from this Fabric journey? We'd love to know a bit more about your motivation to join and how you imagine this peer learning journey will benefit your work, practice, or actions in the future. (250 words or 2 minutes max)

• Please share some words in support of your application from a friend or a colleague. (250 words or 2 minutes max)

We want to ensure that our application process does not present any accessibility barriers to potential applicants. If we can provide any assistance to support you through this process (or if you want to discuss alternative ways to show your interest), please get in touch with our Fabric Host, Claire Dufour: claire@creativedundee.com.

About your host

Claire is a Dundee-based people-lover, proud mum and deep thinker! 

Passionate about collaborative working and placemaking, she has dedicated her work to providing safe(r) and brave(r) spaces where we can learn from each other, and imagine and shape a better future together.

Claire was the project lead for CULTIVATE, a pilot project which supported and explored the role that creativity plays in unlocking imagination and agency for change, and the necessary conditions that create spaces for communities to reimagine a future rooted in justice, care and collective action.

She’s been developing and delivering Fabric since 2016, which aims to equip, connect and inspire people who want to make a positive difference in Dundee. This is the fourth edition of this collective journey, and many past participants are still actively connected with each other.

"I was new to Dundee when I joined the Fabric programme in 2019. It was such a great opportunity to meet other creatives and shakers in the city and beyond. We had a dedicated time and very special spaces to listen, share, reflect and dream together – and this sparked many friendships and collaborations for me. If you want to shake things up, in your practice or community, meet fantastic people, tap into collective power... I'd really recommend going on the Fabric journey with Creative Dundee." – Manuela de los Rios, Garden Coordinator, The Maxwell Community Centre and Garden.

Meet the Fabric cohort

Alexander Daniels (Alex) is working for Transition Dundee as Gleaning Coordinator. He helps to save food from waste at local growers / farmers – any surplus, leftover or outgraded produce. This includes organising volunteers and community groups to help with harvesting of the surplus produce and distributing the produce to local community food projects.

Cara Rooney is an illustrator and plaything maker based in Dundee. Through her creative practice, she encourages connection to nature and a sense of child-like curiosity through illustrations, workshops and live drawings — and hopes to influence change by connecting local people and children to their city and the nature around them. 

Eirinn Leigh Reay is a Scottish designer and 1/4 of Agency of None, a Dundee-based design agency. The projects that give her the most joy and satisfaction are those that involve designing for good. Her Instagram is @reay.el if you would like to see what she gets up to!

Ele Roscoe is a craftsperson and community artist, making ceramic sculpture and jewellery as well as illustrated zines in their own practice. As a community artist they facilitate workshops to support folks' wellbeing and mental health through exploring individual creativity in visual arts practice/making. They also run the Art Group at DIWC and are Hub Coordinator for Dundee Changemakers Hub. Check their creative diary at @kippleandpelf and on Etsy.

Elizabeth Ann Day (Lizzie) is a Dundee-based programmer and arts organiser, who specialises in the utilisation of non-traditional settings for works of contemporary art and design. In the position of Project Coordinator at UNESCO City of Design Dundee, she recently delivered Dundee Design Festival 2024, the festival's largest iteration yet.

Fatima Ishaq is a student, youth worker and activist; passionate about social justice, supporting others to reach their potential, and supporting communities to drive change. In her spare time, she loves exploring and connecting with nature!

Francesca Bibby is currently a curator at V&A Dundee and previously worked in exhibition curation, rapid response collecting and artist residency facilitation at various museums and galleries in Manchester. Her independent research explores climate resilience and the development of sustainable design methodologies through nature-based solutions, traditional knowledge and cross-disciplinary collaborations.

James Morwood is a game-maker and artist, part of Bit Loom and Biome Collective. Fascinated by play in the everyday, recently he's been drawing fantastical crowds and crafting branching zines. James enjoys volunteering with Tinderbox youth games club, Stobswell wee forest and Transition Dundee's gleaning project. Find him at https://jctm.neocities.org. 

Kirsten Wallace is passionate about sharing the power of design through community learning and outreach, and is one of two Project Coordinators for UNESCO City of Design Dundee. Outside her role, she fills her time with as many creative outlets as she possibly can, from sewing to singing!

Manuela de los Rios is an interdisciplinary artist, community gardener and organiser based in Dundee. She works creatively with people to make our neighbourhoods and cities better places for nature and people to thrive in. 

Rhiannon Rose Moore (Rio) works with communities on a variety of projects, most recently the Wild in Art Sculpture Trails as an Artist Coordinator. She enjoys bringing together artists and making them a group, sharing their stories so that they can feel comfortable learning peer to peer, but also being inspired by each other. Her work is varied, from Messy Play practitioner, Shamanic Practitioner, Artist/Sculptor, Community Organiser and Face Painter. As a consequence she meets a lot of people and enjoys creating Space for Play and Creativity.

Robert Cook sees himself as a ‘background worker’ and has served in roles (mainly clerical or financial) that enable others with a more creative streak to be active in their roles – bringing his lived experience to enable others to grow through the life issues they face as they seek reassurance and to grow in confidence. He looks forward to rejoining as a member of the CRF panel for his local area, which sought to improve the well-being of residents through funding local projects and initiatives. He's also been part of men's groups (including Andy's Man Club), giving peer support.

Rod Mountain and Suzanne Scott (WhimSicAL LusH) are developing 'Toadstool trails' as a playful way to get young and older people outdoors having fun together in spaces close to home, connecting with nature. They are forming partnerships with the Dundee Botanic Gardens, RSPB, NHS Tayside, Maxwell centre, Education Scotland, Eden Project and the RSA. Keep a lookout for a 'Toadstool Trail' popping-up near you! https://whimsicallush.co.uk/🍄-the-toadstool-trail-🍄/

Sandy Grene: Having been a freelance community facilitator for the last 30 years, setting up Scrap Antics was to enable me to work as part of a team sharing knowledge and enabling the creation of so many more projects with different community groups. I love my role and the celebration of the people who we interact with on a daily basis.

Shona Cherry is Hub Coordinator at Dundee Changemakers, and has been working in sustainability, mainly in food and drink, for 6 years. Her work-life of over 30+ years has taken her through many industries, sectors and roles, and led her to return to a role supporting and serving the incredible people of Dundee.

Skye Sutherland is a community-centred designer focused on enhancing health and well-being through creative, inclusive practices. Her work often blends traditional design practice with digital technology, fostering exploration and growth. She's dedicated to driving social impact and environmental justice through innovative design solutions that empower and connect diverse communities.

Suzanne Scott (WhimSicAL LusH) is an artist and illustrator based in Dundee. Her work spans illustration and the creation of murals, sculptures, and interactive art installations, often featuring whimsical themes inspired by nature and folklore. She loves being outdoors, having fun! Check her work on www.whimsicallush.co.uk and connect on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest & Etsy: all @whimsicallush.

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Led by Creative Dundee, this year’s Fabric journey is funded by and delivered in partnership with Dundee Changemakers Hub – designed to foster collaboration and imagination through a series of peer-learning sessions, with a focus on community and climate action, in which participants are invited to explore creative ways of shaping a more just, sustainable future.

Read more about Fabric and this year’s programme in this blog.