February News
Thursday 28th January 2021
Like many organisations, Out of the Blue’s operation is fundamentally impacted by COVID-19 and the need to stop the spread of the virus.
Whilst we eagerly await the opportunity to reopen to the public and adapt our opportunities for participation, we have applied for funding to support Out of the Blue and the people we work with.
We have been awarded funding from the Historic Environment Recovery Fund which aims to support organisations and help to support the recovery of Scotland’s historic environment sector from the impacts of COVID-19. We are using this funding to improve the A-listed Drill Hall infrastructure, by fixing our roof and improving our ventilation system.
COVID-19 has affected organisations within Out of the Blue’s creative industries network especially hard; organisations that consistently provided opportunities for others to share and develop their interests and creative practice.
These ‘enabling organisations’ often do the unheralded, unseen work supporting people to participate, often over a number of years. Each week, prior to COVID-19, the enabling organisations within Out of the Blue have supported the participation of over 1000 people, of all ages.
In addition these enabling organisations worked with nearly 200 individual artists each year, and supported 250 young people starting out in their chosen career. Importantly they do not just develop opportunities for the present artist, they are also developing the next generation of creative talent.
Out of the Blue have received funding from Creative Scotland to run ‘Future-Proofing The Enablers’ as an action research project to utilise the collective experience and intelligence of the enabling organisations – supporting their businesses to adapt and recover, whilst generating ideas and shared plans of how we can develop future opportunities for creative participatory activity.
Lastly, thank you to everyone who has supported us and our artists through these turbulent times. We look forward to seeing you again when we can.
