🤗 Howdy folks!
❄️ I don’t know about you, but I am in a state of ‘Year End Readiness’ and looking forward to switching my brain off for a wee while during the winter break. Before finishing up for the year I wanted to take a little time to reflect on the year, its highlights and learning and share them with you here.
👉 For IAP, 2025 has been a cracker of a year with highlights including:
✨ Becoming a multi-year funded organisation and breathing in to a period of personal job stability and all the wellbeing benefits that come from that. Hugely grateful for all the artists and workers who have collaborated with us and built the track record that made this critical support possible.
🧮 Recruiting our General Manager, Chloe Lyth, who joined us in the third week of June and instantly went into major organising of Front of House staff rotas and event management for Welcome to the Fringe.
🕊️ Signing PACBI and joining forces with the other organisers of Welcome to the Fringe, Palestine, to produce a 4-day mini-festival of Palestinian creativity in August. We issued over 1,600 tickets to 20 events featuring 35 performers and artists. The entire project was made possible through donations from over 450 people and organisations, and the work of over 70 volunteers.
🏅 Noting that 3 staff members have been employed or engaged with us part-time for the last 4 years. Thank you to Associate Artists Max Alexander, K Biff Nicolson and Producer Nina Doherty for working with us throughout that time
🥳 Presenting Max Alexander’s Function Schmunction project at North Edinburgh Arts and at East Park School in Glasgow and recruiting Artist & Playworker Amy Conway to join Max in delivering 80+ sessions for young people so far this year.
🐳 Working with Hazel Darwin-Clements, Fay Guiffo & Mamoru Iriguchi and Lyth Arts Centre to present and tour Maya and the Whale and Ideas Jukebox to tour across North Scotland this autumn.
🙏 Sharing Emily Nicholl & Ellen Renton’s one-off podcast on making performing arts projects for blind and partially blind audiences, On Sight & Sense-Making recorded this time last year by Nik Paget-Tomlinson.
🪷 Continuing Joanna Young’s programme of Sensory Workshops for Elders at Dixon Community in Glasgow, where participants say you can “forget all your worries”.
🌳 Artists Kirstin Georgia Abraham & Conor O’Donnell continue Kirstin’s research into developing outdoor arts activities for neurodivergent families on currently at the Ecology Centre in Fife until March.
🎤 Supporting Associate Artist Biff to further research We Dream Here, their neuroqueer cabaret space for neurodivergent and LGBTQIA+ folk this autumn.
👥 Working with Ettijahat in Lebanon to deliver online workshops for performing arts organisations in Lebanon, Palestine and Syria as part of the Maharat programme. An absolute privilege to connect with people making arts projects happen there.
🇵🇸 Working with volunteers on Welcome to the Fringe, Palestine was so wonderful – the people who gave their time were incredible and their hard work led to the project being nominated for a Creative Edinburgh Festivals Award and being featured as number 7 in The List Magazine’s annual Hot 100.
✍️ Reflecting on 2024 and through blog posts written by the excellent Arusa Qureshi on work by Kirstin Georgia Abraham, Jack Hunter, Emily Nicholl & Ellen Renton, K Biff Nicolson, Niroshini Thambar, and Shiori Usui.
😴 No wonder I’m knackered. That is a lot.
🙏 I’d like to say an enormous thank you to all our supporters: artists, audiences, donors, friends, funders, participants, partner organisations, trustees and workers: you are magic! Special thanks to everyone who works with us, supports us with their time, ideas, efforts and expertise. You make all this possible.
🎈Our funders & supporters this year include Creative Scotland, National Lottery, People’s Postcode Lottery, Youth Arts Open Fund, Imaginate, Oily Cart, Gregg’s Foundation, Glasgow Adult Wellbeing Fund and the hundreds of folk who supported our Function Schmunction fundraiser and the Welcome to the Fringecrowdfunder. We are deeply grateful to you all.
✌️Wishing you a gentle winding down and a peaceful 2026.
Take care,
Mhari & IAP Team
PS – Thank you for supporting IAP!
Independent Arts Projects gratefully acknowledges support from Creative Scotland