Autism Ideas in Midlothian

An exciting programme consisting of pitches, a zine-making workshop and a panel discussion from some of Scotland’s most interesting artists.

Unlimited, a commissioning programme for work by disabled artists, presents – ‘Community focus: Scotland’ and asks the question – ‘How do we generate and sustain our local communities? Perspectives from Scottish artists and organisers.’

This Connects events is supported by Creative Scotland.

[Note – The event will be recorded for the sole purpose of enabling a writer to reflect on it when penning a blog post about it afterwards. The recording will not be made public]

Schedule:

10.00am: ‘Pitch and Mix’ session – tune in to hear about the exciting works in progress of Scotland-based Unlimited artists: Ellen Renton, Emily Beaney, Lilith Cooper and Clara Weale. Each artist will present a pitch of their work (up to 7 mins each), followed by a Q&A session, where you can find out more. Don’t miss out on a chance to get a behind-the-scenes peek into what these artists will be sharing and touring later on down the line.

11.00am: Break

11.15: Zine-making workshop with Lilith Cooper – In Lilith’s words, zine-making is “an accessible, democratic form of art and media making”.

In this short, creative workshop, Lilith will guide you through the what, why and how of zine-making. We’ll explore different ways to create zines – both physically and digitally – before having some time to either make our own 1-page zine, or contribute a page to a digital collaborative zine.

To make the physical zine you’ll need an A4 piece of paper, a pair of scissors and a pen or pencil, and to make a digital zine it’ll be easier if you are using a laptop or desktop computer.

If you’d benefit from workshop materials in advance, want to have a go folding a 1-page zine at your own pace, or want to read some zines beforehand, they will be available at this padlet the week before the workshop: https://padlet.com/lilithjoycecooper/8rfsplxzs0s9tj2d

11.45: Break

12.00: Panel discussion – During this hour, our panel of 4 Scotland-based artists will give their perspectives on the question – How do we generate and sustain our local communities? On the panel, we have some of leading voices on community and disability in the Scottish arts industry:

Samar Ziadat (Founding Director of Dardishi. Former programmer at SQUIFF)

Raman Mundair (Writer. Artist. Playwright. Filmmaker. Activist; Intersectional Voices (IV) podcast)

Sasha Saben Callaghan (Artist. Writer. Campaigner; Co-founder of Not Going Back to Normal)

Aby Watson (Artist. Dance-maker. Practice-researcher. Facilitator. Performer; Founder of the Scottish Neurodiverse Performance Network)

Join us for an in-depth discussion on the value of community in disability arts; why networks are needed; the communities within the Scottish arts scene and barriers for Scotland-based disabled artists.

1.00pm: Break

1.30pm: ‘Pudding’ forum – Pudding is a forum that’ll enable you to better digest the knowledge gained from the day’s event. It is ‘the sweet spot between organisations and their audiences’. Use this time to connect with people that you’ve met and to continue conversations in a smaller space. The Pudding forum will be facilitated across several Zoom break-out rooms.

2.00pm: End

Each section of the event will have BSL and captioning: please let us know if you require BSL or captioning in the Pudding break-out rooms. The booking form gives you space to tell us about any access requirements you may have. We’d appreciate it if you could let us know at least a week before the event so that we can do our best to ensure that all access provision is in place.

For any questions about access or for support with the booking form, please contact Rachel on rachel@weareunlimited.org.uk or 07814198715 (SMS or call).

Unlimited is an arts commissioning programme that aims to embed work by disabled artists within the UK and international cultural sectors, reach new audiences and shift perceptions of disabled people. Unlimited is funded by Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales, Creative Scotland and British Council.