Author Archives: Amy-Dee Watson

Kirkcudbright Festival of Light

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Creetown Initiative has been engaged by Kirkcudbright Development Trust to manage the development and fundraising of the Kirkcudbright Festival of Light. The Festival will be held on 5 – 14 October 2018, celebrating the opening of the new Kirkcudbright Art Gallery; a £3.1m publicly-funded, public art gallery, which will house internationally significant collections in the former town hall.

Kirkcudbright’s Festival of Light will create a contemporary and vibrant atmosphere by bringing together an eclectic range of performances, visual art installations and locally created projects pointing to a fresh and dynamic future for the town and its regions. The Festival of Light will illuminate Kirkcudbright by becoming an artwork in itself. Reflecting the history of “The Artists’ Town”, the Festival of Light will generate a unique programme of engaging and accessible events providing opportunities for visitors, local people and artists from throughout the region to work together to celebrate and enjoy the unique nature of Kirkcudbright’s creativity and location.

Opportunities for Artists

The Festival of Light offers many opportunities for artists throughout the region to come together and work collectively on celebrating creativity and light. These opportunities include the offer of several artist commissions and co-creating a gallery project on the theme of constellations and stars. Alongside bespoke performances by international artists and companies the work of local artists will shine throughout the Festival as Kirkcudbright invites local people, artists and visitors to engage with enriching memorable experiences.

A Town-Wide Project

Central to the Festival, working with local schools, writers and artists the Festival of Light will create a town wide light project, Luminosity bringing young voices to light in cooperation with Kirkcudbright’s more established narratives. Local venues, businesses and communities are likewise invited to engage with these fresh perspectives offered by an international programme of performance and visual events.

The international performance programme includes:

  • Site specific light events around the town
  • Luminosity, a writer-led community driven town-wide lighting installation
  • Celebratory finale event on the last evening
  • Innovative performance and film events throughout
  • Gallery events
  • talks and speaker events
  • Concert presented by an International Orchestra
  • International soloist recital
  • Local choirs working together with international artists
High-Profile Festival with a Local Twist

The Festival of Light will utilise local venues including St Cuthbert’s Church, SilverCraigs Caravan Park, Kirkcudbright Swimming Pool, The Whitehouse Gallery, Kirkcudbright Art Gallery, The Tolbooth, Selkirk Arms, Cochrane Hall and The Station House. The high profile festival will be enhanced by a joint marketing initiative with the Wigtown Book Festival.

Design Work for Ballantrae

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Creetown Initiative has created some design work for Ballantrae Trust, to promote their youth Easter programme of activities and events. Ballantrae Trust, in association with Adventure Carrick, Girvan Community Sport Hub, Ayrshire Rural Touring Network and Elizabeth Tindal Freelance Ranger, is co-ordinating and promoting an exciting programme of events for young people aged 3 – 17. It is part of the Year of Young People 2018 national celebrations.

Big, Bright and Bold

With a broad selection of outdoor adventure activities, theatre events, sports, science-based activities, expeditions and mountain biking on offer, we decided to go big, bright and bold with our design theme! We created a booklet style leaflet and vibrant poster, which should appeal to young people and their parents – or at the very least, catch their eye to read further and find out more!

Creetown Initiative has carried out poster, leaflet, brochure, logo, flyer and corporate design work in-house for home-based projects, as well as for clients and external community organisations. Please contact us if you are interested in finding out more about our design services.

Portfolio of Projects

The Easter Programme of events for young people in Ballantrae is part of Ballantrae Trust’s developing portfolio of projects for the whole community, businesses and also for visitors and tourists. Some of their projects include the Smugglers’ Festival, the Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink on 9th and 10th June 2018 and the redevelopment of the play park and recreation area.

Ballantrae Trust Engages Creetown Initiative Project Officer

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Creetown Initiative is pleased to be working with the newly formed Ballantrae Trust as their Project Officer, for the next 9 months. Ballantrae is a lovely coastal town located in South Ayrshire, with views across to the Ailsa Craig, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Arran.

Exciting Portfolio of Projects

The Ballantrae Trust was formed from the local development group and we will be helping the trust to take forward their exciting portfolio of projects. Some of their projects include the Smugglers’ Festival, the Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink on 9th and 10th June 2018 and the redevelopment of the play park and recreation area.

For other community redevelopment projects we have carried out, please click here.

 

Creetown Initiative Engaged to Fundraise for Moffat Beechgrove Sports Pavilion

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Creetown Initiative has been engaged by Beechgrove Sports Partnership to fundraise for a new sports pavilion at the Moffat Beechgrove Sports Pavilion site. There is a larger sports hall behind the pavilion with badminton courts, small gym and an indoor bowling facility. Next to the pavilion there is an outdoor bowling green and outdoor tennis courts. However, the pavilion building itself is small and in poor condition and a brand new facility is required, with upgraded toilets and kitchen facilities and to act as a club house and function venue.

Beechgrove Sports Partnership has been formed from a number of different sports groups in Moffat who have come together to work to improve the pavilion, including Beechgrove Lawn Tennis Club and Beechgrove Bowling Club. They have engaged us to develop a fundraising plan and carryout this work.

Click here for other sports related projects Creetown Initiative has worked on.

£1.44m Secured For Johnston School, Kirkcudbright

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Creetown Initiative has successfully secured £180,000 from The Robertson Trust on behalf of Kirkcudbright Development Trust for the redevelopment of Johnston School in Kirkcudbright, taking the current funding total up to £1.44million! Other funders for this community-centred project include The Big Lottery, Heritage Lottery Fund, The Holywood Trust, Dumfries and Galloway Council and Historic Council.

Community Activity and Resource Centre

The former Johnston School was closed in 2009 when the new Kirkcudbright Primary School opened. Exciting plans will see the redevelopment of Johnston School into a community activity and resource centre, with many different elements designed to provide facilities and opportunities for the whole community. This includes a youth work wing, Police Scotland contact space, childcare venue, business/office spaces, general room/venue hire for community groups and organisations and also a state of the art Dark Skies Visitor Centre.

Click here for more information about the redevelopment of Johnston School.

Feasibility Study for Castle Douglas Community Centre

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Creetown Initiative is pleased to be able to work with the Management Committee of Castle Douglas Community Centre, to provide a feasibility study. This feasibility study will investigate whether the Management Group should take over ownership of the community centre building. We secured this contract in early December and work will begin on this very shortly.

Castle Douglas Community Centre is currently run for the community by a voluntary management committee, however Dumfries and Galloway Council still retain ownership of the building. There are 29 groups that use the centre during week days 10am – 4pm. There is also a conference suit available for hire with tabled seating for 30+ people and included in the hire is the use of a TV, DVD Player, Flip chart and Whiteboard. To date, the Management Committee has applied for and received funding from The Holywood Trust, The Village Halls Improvement Scheme and The Galloway Association of Glasgow which has enabled a part re-decoration and refurbishment of the centre.

Kirkmichael Community Action Plan

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Creetown Initiative has been engaged to develop a Community Action for Kirkmichael, on behalf of Kirkmichael Community Council. Kirkmichael is a parish 8 miles north of Dumfries with a population of around 683 and the two main population areas are Nethermill and Parkgate. Kirkmichael is entitled to wind farm benefit funds and we are creating a robust Community Action Plan to research, analyse and draw up a plan to report the best ways to use these funds to improve the community and local area.

For information about other community action plans we have carried out, please click here, or contact us.

Coldstream Community Action Plan

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Since March 2016 we have been working on developing a new Community Action Plan for the community of Coldstream, in the Scottish Borders.  The plan is being designed to provide a researched, up-to-date understanding of Coldstream, and to propose appropriate actions for improvement and regeneration within six broad fields: Tourism, Retail, Industry, Young Families, the Elderly and Community Capacity.

Vibrant Community

Coldstream has a vibrant community and fascinating history, with over 60 community groups.

Photo credit: Jason Patient

The town is roughly midway in journey time between Edinburgh and Newcastle upon Tyne and on one of only five arterial roads crossing the length of the Scottish-English border. Coldstream is centre to a surrounding agriculturally fertile and historic region. Following doscussions in 2016, Coldstream Community Trust and Coldstream and District Community Council, formed a steering group. With four representatives from each committee, the group guided the production of a new new community action plan, for which, we have been engaged.

Please click here for examples of other community action plans.