2018 - 2019
WHALE Arts Annual Report
Welcome Introduction Chair of the Board, Michelle Herron’s Welcome: Our 5-year plan issued recently captures the purpose and focus of our brilliant team of staff, practitioners, members, volunteers and Board when it states: ‘We strive to work alongside our community and cultural practitioners to do more of what works, make this the best it can be and explore and test new ideas’. Continuing to deliver this in the last 12 months with a backdrop of reduced local authority funding is testament to the capabilities, skills and expertise in particular of the internal staff team. The Board continue to provide important support in the strategic and financial governance of the organisation and in ensuring the staff team have the resources they need to deliver a consistently high level of activities. Working alongside Leah and the team we are aiming to find the sweet spot between keeping control on the financial aspects of the organisation and ensuring we have enough capacity so that everyone can focus on activities that are appropriate for their skills and expertise. Our continued focus for 2020 is to secure longer term funding to allow our projects to be sustainable and to deliver the first year of our new strategic plan that I encourage you all to read. Sadly, for me this is my last Chair’s report, we are currently in the process of selecting a new Chair and hope to have them in place for the end of the 2019/20 financial year at the latest. For me it has been a privilege to be involved with WHALE and I am confident my remaining Board colleagues alongside Leah will deliver great things for our community in the future. I hope you agree with me when you read this report and see the fantastic photos that WHALE is an amazing community asset of which we all have a right to be proud of.
Chief Executive, Leah Black’s Welcome: It continues to be a privilege to work in Wester Hailes alongside a broad range of inspiring and hard-working residents and colleagues. Although art and creativity are our drivers, our work is collaborative and cross-sector and this is exemplified in projects such as Tasting Change and Creative Placemaking which you can read more about in this report. Some of my most enjoyable moments have been spending time on the first Tuesday of the month having breakfast with our members talking about ideas for the future and reflecting on successes of the past. We are committed to deeply exploring co-production across all our activities over the next period and the Members breakfast are just one of the ways we are pushing ourselves to work out what and how co-production works for us as staff and residents. I urge you to read our 5 year Strategic Plan which we formulated working closely as a team, board and with our members. A huge thanks to all our wonderful artists and makers; those who are local to Wester Hailes and those from further afield. All the creative people we work alongside are committed to our mission of firmly placing the community at the heart of everything we do and creating the conditions for them to become agents for change who will proactively co-design, participate in, support or lead quality creative activity at all stages of their lives.
Thanks to our: Artists, whose creativity and commitment is integral to our success: Oliver Benton, Michael Bowdidge, Mairi Brown, Camila Cavalcante, Paul Cowan, Fraser Gray, Rebecca Green, Frances Hawker, Rachael Hunter, Hannah Lavery, Sheila McCutcheon, Shona McInally, Isabel Molloy, Kirsty Rennie, Cat Sheridan, Lisa Thompson, Will Thornton, Elizabeth Waterson, Marie Williamson, Debbie Wright, Morvern Odling, Jennifer Allison, Kirstin Cunningham-Abrams, Karen Watts, Mirja Koponen, Gabriella Albornoz, Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich, Tom Flint, Tanis Grandison, Morwenna Kearsely, Bernie Reid, Laura Tully, Fraser Gray, Jess Orr, Katy Wilson, Max Alexander, Eleanor Thom. Volunteers: Dean Wright, Kevin O’Rourke, Taylior Munro, Allan Farmer, Fabien Merville, Edyta Gadzinowska. Board: Susan Gibson, Michelle Herron, Lorraine Johnston, Jean Munro, Martin Pringle, Grant Williams, Andrew McNiven, Charlotte Binstead, Denise Young, Margaret Stewart, Kenneth Fowler, Jade Jackson. Staff: Anne Monk, Craig Tyrie, Dawn Borthwick, Helena Barrett-Duncan, Jenny Salmean, Leah Black, Kate Griffin, Meghan Bidwell, Kirsty Frankland, Laura Delahunt, Jade Jackson, Michael Bowdidge, Rebecca Green, Kim Thompson, Fabien Merville, Taylior Munro, Laura Tully, Heather Hartman, Jill Scott, Kirstin Cunningham-Abrams, Rosie Priest. Photography by: Oliver Benton, WHALE Arts, Paul Cowan, Greg MacVean, Sally Jubb. Annual Report design by: Laura Delahunt.
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“I don’t have to apologise, I don’t have to explain, we are accepted just the way we are, good days and bad days. Amazing” - Creative Adventures. participant.
“It’s been very helpful to me, I would say so for my health and wellbeing. I’ve kind of been going about as though I’m sort of not in the world, and I need to have things to do and that [Room for Art] was very helpful and I have enjoyed it”
- Room for Art participant.
“I really benefit from being part of this group as it gives me the scaffolding to release my creativity. It is the most socially encouraging learning environment I have ever been in” - Poetry Group participant.
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Our Impact
Across all of WHALE Arts’ activities
12,104 7,165 678
total
participations
total individual participants
Regular Sessions
21
people participated in regular groups, courses and activities
Holiday Projects, Events, Trips (WHALE and in other spaces and places)
3810
80
people participated in holiday projects and one-off events at WHALE Arts and in other places and spaces
One-Off Activities in Other Spaces and Places
2677
32
people participated in activities in other spaces and places
Of the 678 participants attending regularly this year: 92% live locally, in postcodes EH14, EH12 and EH11 50% were under 16
16% were over 55 of age 11% of participants identify as disabled 22% were from the BME community
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Working with Children and Young People
Highlights from our regular programme of activities included: INSPIRE Dance - The project was featured in the launch of the Cashback Grant programme partnership with Dance Ihayami. The show had an audience in excess of 150 and was featured in The Scotsman. Discover Drama with the Lyceum Youth Theatre - Through this project young people were supported to devise and perform new work shared with other Discover groups from across the city at a performance at WHALE Arts for friends and family. We used our learning from our Creative Adventures project to develop a new project Play Sense Create to deliver creative, sensory play sessions for children with disabilities and Additional Support Needs and their families. 40 x 40 - Young people from WHALE Arts, Wester Hailes Education Centre and Woodlands special school created installations of art, film and technology inspired by perceptions and experiences of colour in an exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery.
SmARTies Art Club - ‘My Edinburgh’ photography exhibition had a successful launch at the Museum of Edinburgh and was featured in a double page spread in the Edinburgh Evening News and had some fantastic feedback from visitors at both the museum and at WHALE Arts Centre. Street Arts - Young people got creative across the community with exciting and innovative arts and play sessions inspired by the ideas, experiences and interests of participants. Themes and activities included: bioluminescence, capoeira, photography, rap, collage, puppetry, poetry, sculpture, ballet, anthropology, chalk art, street circus, illustration, drawing with light, drama, portraiture and of course... zombie tag! Holiday Programme - Our holiday activity programme included performances and workshops with the Puppet Animation Festival, dance residencies with Dance Ihayami, Theiya Arts and Dancebase, Art Summer School, Circus skills workshops, performances and trips to the Fringe Festival for over 600 young people. Schools - Pupils from WHEC, Woodlands Special school, Canal View, Sighthill and Clovenstone Primary schools took part in workshops, activities, performances and programmes with our 40x40 project, film making, technology and creative play sessions and the Travelling Gallery’s exhibition ’Are Teenage dreams so hard to beat?’ Family Days - We explored creative play with holiday sessions across the community and delivered interactive programmes with partners including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s Room on the Broom concert, Lickety Spit Theatre’s Picnic and Play, science and art experiments with Explorathon ’18 with Napier University.
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Working with Adults
Our core creative programme for adults supports local people to enhance their creative skills, health and wellbeing while reducing isolation. Highlights in 2018/19 included: Arty Party - Supporting cultural bridging and reducing isolation amongst older people, the Arty Party went on a range of cultural trips to see performances including: Still Alice, Rebus and Calendar Girls among others.
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Digital Skills - Our Digital and Communities Lead delivered regular IT training and Online Job Searching sessions supporting local people; covering topics ranging from writing CVs, creating email addresses to signing up to an extras agency for films.
WHALE’s Without a Cause - Our community drama group wrote and performed ‘HELP’ a piece exploring participants own lived experiences of mental health. Performances took place at WHALE Arts and Stenhouse Baptist Church.
Mums into Business - We provided support, guidance, business advice and a free créche for highly creative and ambitious local mums, who face many barriers in terms of employment and access to traditional business support/ advice.
Let’s Dance! - Our popular Scottish Country Dance group met regularly at WHALE and put on a ceilidh for WHALE’s AGM in 2018.
Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) Music and Visuals - SCO launched its 3-year residency in Wester Hailes in partnership with us in October 2017. Local residents created an audio-visual installation which articulated participants’ own experiences of Wester Hailes. The installation was exhibited at WHALE Arts and The Fruitmarket Gallery.
Scottish Poetry Library & Open Book - Bimonthly poetry and creative writing sessions took place at WHALE Arts and the Health Agency. smART CRAFT - Adults with additional support needs engaged in regular visual arts sessions and worked in a range of media including: drawing; painting; and stop-frame animation. Stitch ‘n’ Time - Our long-running group engaged in a wide range of community projects including making blankets for the Wester Hailes Education Centre’s special unit, story bags for the WHALE Arts créche and a banner for the Procession March celebrating The Suffragettes. Let’s Create - A therapeutic art group for women, set up as part of the Tasting Change project, engaged in a range of creative activities including: mosaics; printing; soap making; candle-making. Included trips to the Edinburgh Tool library, Cramond beach and Scottish Parliament.
Film & Food Nights - WHALE Arts, Tasting Change and WHALE Community Cinema hosted four spectacular Film and Food nights together: ‘Coco;’ ‘Cool Runnings;’ ‘Moana;’ and ‘Zootropolis’. Movie-goers were treated to a delicious hot meal themed around each film. The Gardening Group - We have worked on a range of growing, planting and building projects which have improved the green space and community garden around WHALE Arts. Working With Words in Wester Hailes - began as a joint residency between Scottish Poetry Library and Open Book in 2018 and evolved into shared reading and discussion sessions with easy creative writing exercises. The WHALE Poetry Group read, write and share poetry or prose as part of a friendly and sociable group.
Community Projects
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Tasting Change was a highly successful multi agency partnership project set up to address issues of food insecurity in Wester Hailes. Taking the view that food insecurity is a problem that extends well beyond nutrition, the partners, Prospect Community Housing, The Health Agency, SCOREscotland, CHAI and WHALE Arts each took a different approach to addressing the problem while working closely together to maximise benefits for individuals. Create, WHALE Art’s strand of the project, chose to focus on four specific outcomes, increasing social connectedness, increased personal capacity, improved mental wellbeing and improved social circumstances (economic stability and food security). Alongside the two groups, Let’s Create and Mums into Business, Create was involved in a number of collaborative projects such as the highly popular Film and Food nights, numerous family playdays, Mums into Business markets and a range of outreach and celebratory events. Foodness Community Meal is all about shared food and friendship. Based in the WHALE Arts Centre, the meal is a collaboration between: WHALE Arts; Prospect Community Housing; SCOREscotland and Space Kitchen (formerly
The Broomhouse Centre). The free meal takes place every Friday 1 - 2pm and promotes healthy eating in a welcoming inclusive atmosphere. The Digital Sentinel is the community news website for Wester Hailes and is led by WHALE Arts. The content is created by staff and local residents who report news, opinion and events which are relevant to people living here. Any resident is also able to submit and comment on content. The Digital Sentinel was established by a consortium of local organisations and individuals with the idea of recreating a digital version of the old community newspapers The Wester Hailes Sentinel and the West Edinburgh Times. Wester Hailes Community Trust (WHCT) is a collaborative organisation that supports genuine community-led development in Wester Hailes. WHALE Arts is one of the founding members of the Wester Hailes Community Trust. Along with Prospect Community Housing Association and WHCT, we co-led on the Making Places: Westside Plaza programme, working with the City of Edinburgh Council and architects Harrison Stevens to implement the construction of a community designed Civic Space at Westside Plaza. 10
Creative Placemaking
Creative Placemaking is moving into its third year and delivers a comprehensive programme of community-led activities using placemaking encompassing both creative arts activities and permanent artworks to harness the creativity, skills and assets of local people in the 7 distinct neighbourhoods that make up Wester Hailes. Highlights from 2018 and 2019 included:
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Artist Commissions - We continued to work towards the launch of 6 new artist’s commissions, building on the success of the community mural project undertaken at Michael’s Shop in Hailesland in 2018. These include potential murals at the Calders and at the WHEC underpass, a photographic commission working with young people at the Youth Agency in Dumbryden, and a new community trail/art installation at Clovenstone Community Centre and Primary School.
Film workshops - We worked with Wester Hailes Education Centre and Screen Education Edinburgh to run film-making workshops with young people. WHEC Filmmakers made a series of films: Changing Perspectives; Demon Hunters; The New Girl and a 30th Anniversary Film for Prospect Housing. Film and Moving Image Festival - The Creative Placemaking project led on Wester Hailes first Film and Moving Image Festival: Changing Perspectives in autumn 2018. This was inspired by the recent digitisation of the WHALE VHS Archive and the partnership with Screen Education Edinburgh to run multiple film making courses for young people from WHEC. The festival was a community-wide event showcasing archival, community and artist film and moving image work. The festival took place over October half term and included multiple screening events, workshops and an outdoor projection trail at Westside plaza. Working with schools - As part of an ongoing project with Edinburgh Art Festival and artists Walker and Bromwich at Canal View Primary School, we supported the artists to bring their artwork ‘The Dragon of Profit and Private Ownership’ to the school. Through this process we ran an art club for families after school, dance lunch club with P4-7s, 2 workshops with P6s and the coordination of the parade. The school was
gifted photographs of the parade which are displayed in the school lunchroom. Tinker Town - A den building village developed by City of Play. We worked with them to bring the project to Canal View Primary over the summer holidays, with support from With Kids, Edible Estates and Canal View Primary School. Summer Play Days - These were led by Creative Placemaking with a range of local organisations in summer 2018 building up towards a big National Play Day event at Clovenstone Community Centre. Collaborative creative activities - Working with Heathervale Secure Childrens’ Unit we have delivered a number of creative activity sessions for residents. Interactive consultation sessions - Informed a design for a new playpark at Westburn Quarrybank with Prospect Housing and City of Play. Men’s Makers Group - We set up and launched a new Men’s Making Group which facilitated a space for local people to work on individual and collaborative making projects. Community activities - We organised a very successful community litter pick for Westburn Woods with volunteers from Napier University.
With Thanks to Our funders and donors: National Lottery Community Fund, the Heritage Lottery Fund, CEC Health & Inequalities Fund, CEC Holiday Activity Fund, CEC Children & Families, BBC Children in Need, Creative Scotland, Cruden Foundation, Edinburgh & District Fine Arts Society, Festival City Theatres Trust, Lothian Buses, Nancie Massey Trust, Awards for All, Prospect Community Housing, RS Macdonald Charitable Trust, Scottish Government, South West Neighbourhood Partnership, Corra Foundation, Peoples Health Trust, European Social Fund through Scottish Government, Scottish Book Trust' Live Literature, City of Edinburgh Council Local Events Fund, Cashback for Creativity, The Robertson Trust, Wester Hailes Community Trust.
Our Partners: SCOREscotland, Business Fives, Wee Replicators, Dads Rock, About Youth, Arty Party, Clovenstone Community Centre, Dance Ihayami, Edinburgh Napier University, Capital Theatres, Living Well Wester Hailes, New Caledonian Woodlands, NHS Lothian, NUStart, National Museums Scotland, Prospect Community Housing, Royal Lyceum Theatre, The Health Agency, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Starcatchers, Wester Hailes Community Council, Wester Hailes Community Trust, Wester Hailes Library, Scottish Poetry Library, Open Book, Screen Education Edinburgh, Art in Healthcare, With Kids, Edible Estates, Puppet Animation Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, EPIC Assist, Fun Palaces, Edinburgh Art Festival, Calders Children’s Zone, Dance Base, Museums and Galleries Edinburgh, The Youth Agency, The Broomhouse Centre, CHAI, Edinburgh Lothian Greenspace Trust, Edinburgh Tool Library, City of Play.
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WHALE Arts Agency is a company limited by guarantee (SC180118) with charitable status (SC020305)