Press Release: Culture Collective announces partnership with Age Scotland Orkney and creative practitioner Gabrielle Barnby
Gabrielle Barnby has received funding from Culture Collective to continue her creative partnership with Age Scotland Orkney. The new project Creative Lives & Creative Partnerships seeks to further develop and expand a range of creative opportunities for individuals connected to Age Scotland Orkney and the dementia friendly hub.
Last year’s successful creative sessions were met with great enthusiasm and led to an anthology of writing from the Age Scotland Orkney community with contributions from members of staff, friends, carers, family members and service users. Raindrops in the Fire: Conversations and Creative Writing from the Age Scotland Orkney Community and Friends has been freely distributed throughout the Age Scotland Orkney Community and beyond. Creative sessions focused on specific themes and used prompts such as old photographs of Kirkwall, spring flowers and Robert Rendall poems to stimulate a range of conversations and written memories, poetry and prose.
The new funding will provide more opportunities for creative conversations and writing as well as structured mentoring for staff to facilitate similar activities. The project seeks to widen access to creative experiences in the community and develop materials that can be used in a variety of settings including island wellbeing centres.
Gabrielle is excited at the prospect of the new funding. ‘This gives me a chance to really embed creative experiences within the amazing support provided by Age Scotland Orkney. I’m looking forward to working with Soibhan Robertson and all the members of staff in developing these new sessions. It’s a privilege to facilitate sessions that encourage conversation and bring out memories, and I love seeing how creative responses grow.’
Individuals who are interested in participating will be invited to join creative sessions beginning in October. A selection of new themes and activities are being developed which will form a portfolio of writing for participants to develop.
Culture Collective is a national programme supported by Creative Scotland exploring ways of working together, supporting artists and embedding the arts within community recovery from the effects of Covid-19. Shetland Arts (Shetland), the Pier Arts Centre (Orkney), An Lanntair (Lewis and Harris, Outer Hebrides), and Taigh Chearsabhagh (North Uist, Outer Hebrides) are working together as an ‘island group’ to share their experience and contribute to their communities.
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. It enables people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life. It distributes funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery. www.creativescotland.com 
Please use the following social media handles for more information:
| Culture Collective | @CultureColSco | @culturecolsco | |
| Creative Scotland | @CreativeScots | @CreativeScotland | @creativescots |
| Pier Arts Centre | @PierArtsCentre | @thepeirartscentre | @peirartscentre |
| Gabrielle Barnby | @gabriellebarnby | @gabriellebarnby | @gabriellebarnby |
| Age Scotland Orkney | @orkneyage | @AgeScotlandOrkney | |
| Age Scotland | @agescotland | @agescotland | @age_scotland |
The Orcadian, August18th, 2022
