Creative Scotland Community Arts Award (part 3)

It's important to note that Creative Scotland's awards includes a category for Community Arts. This is a far from uncontested area - author Mark Ravenhill had a brief swipe at the emphasis on outreach over art - and frequently disappears beneath the cultural radar, due to its smaller scale and different set of outcomes: the emphasis on the journey of the participants rather than the quality of a final performance makes critical interpretation difficult.

Funding community arts is a later addition to the portfolio of organisations like The Arts Council: it is often characterised as a feature of New Labour's 'instrumentalism', which stresses the need for art to have a social impact. When the UK first systematised funding after World War II, the emphasis was on supporting the "high arts" - ballet, opera et al - in the hope of broadening access and encouraging excellence. Once New Labour accepted Thatcherite ideals, it linked funding to the potential for social change and inclusion. 

In the past decade, there has been an explosion in the number of arts organisations that are interested in community building, and the actual arts are used as a way develop new interest groups, encourage personal development and possibly expand audiences. Whatever the political implications, it is tough to critically assess these projects in the same way as the latest script from Mark Ravenhill, so the activity of these groups can be marginalised.

In short, it is encouraging that Community Arts are being recognised in these awards. The three candidates are a snapshot of the diversity of issues that community arts address, although it is far from definitive.

Elderflowers – Run by health charity Hearts and Minds, this project used performing arts to overcome issues faced by elderly people with dementia.


Nothing About Us Without Us Is For Us – The brainchild of artists TS Beall and Matt Baker, the public art event used obsolete technology to hurl communications across the River Clyde in Govan. 

This was part of Glasgow International Art Festival, suggesting that even the high arts - GI is full of conceptual visual art - are including community projects. That's unsurprising in Glasgow, since the idea of Social Sculpture has been important for the past twenty years.


The Zombie Project – Gave kids from the Ferguslie Park area of Paisley the chance to write, direct and star in their own zombie film and comic project.