I am currently exploring how collaborative models of working can release potential in artists; both in individual practice and the work we create together. All of this is informed by my studies on the MA Art and Social Practice at the university of Highlands and Islands.
My work as a theatre-maker is engaged in bringing audiences into the performances in a more active role. I see enormous potential in this work to build more meaningful relationships between art and community through placing community within the artmaking itself. It is a fusion of performance and engagement that happens through a careful facilitation, varying from project to project, of promoting dialogue between artists and communities. It is a unification of my skills as a facilitator and a theatre maker, and I am excited to grow this through Incubation, a series of projects that look to the future with hope, and recollect in 2021.
Bandwidth places design as a co-leader in the devising process. This means that we involve set, costume, and projection design in the creation of new work, instead of bringing in a designer once we know what we are making. Bandwidth is made up of myself, Kenneth MacLeod, designer, and Laurie Motherwell, playwright, and we work together to find innovative new ways of staging work. Our production of NoMa is continues its development in January 2021, and recollect will be made with Dundonians as part of This is for you, Dundee at Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre. This collaborative way of working results in mid-scale, cross-artform productions that use movement, text and a push towards the highly-visual spectacle. Eventually, it is intended these projects will tour nationally.
In Movers Group, by placing participants in the leader role of an artist development programme we have created a warm, focused space for sharing, exploring and maintaining movement practice. This promotes strong connections between art and people, people and topics, and arts and community. This work is focused on providing free, personally sustainable development opportunities for artists as a place to connect through art during lockdown. It is through small changes in the masterclass model that we are empowering artists to develop new and innovative movement-based practices across Scotland.
Header photo: Michael Kelly
Photos, top to bottom: Nataile Songer
Milly Reid
