🤗 I hope this finds you well. I’m looking out of the window at the rainy streets of Leith as I write this. Happy summer! We have a number of updates for you, including introducing you to IAP’s brand new General Manager, Chloe Lyth. Chloe comes to us from Salisbury Centre in Edinburgh where she’s been Centre Manager and joins Nina and me in supporting & presenting a wide programme of arts projects. 

😃 Function Schmunction by Max Alexander at North Edinburgh Arts has begun weekly 1-to-1 sessions for autistic young people in the area at their newly re-opened building. This project has been made possible by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery in Scotland, and supporters of our fundraiser on JustGiving that took place at the end of last year. We are so grateful to everyone that has supported this beautiful project.  

📢 Function Schmunction will continue with a residency at East Park School in Maryhill, Glasgow after the summer, thanks to support from the Youth Arts Open Fund. We are now recruiting for an Artist / Playworker to support Max in the delivery of this project in late summer/autumn.  

🍉 Welcome to the Fringe, Palestine, a four day festival of Palestinian art and culture taking place at Portobello Town Hall from 12-15 August, has announced its full programme! Day tickets are on sale and individual show tickets will be on sale in the coming weeks. We are 6 weeks away from this now and still fundraising, if you can support us with a donation to the crowdfunder, purchase of a ticket or offer of a spare room to house an artist please do. 

🎻 In Govanhill, Glasgow, Joanna Young & collaborators continue to facilitate Multi-Sensory Movement workshops for elders at Dixon Community. Thanks to support from the Gregg’s Foundation and Glasgow Wellbeing Fund workshops continue and participants describe the sessions as “…better than my medication”  

🐳 Today we are announcing a new touring double bill of productions by Hazel Darwin-Clements supported by Splore: the North Scotland Children’s Theatre and Dance Network. Working with Andy Cannon, Fay Guiffo, Mamoru Iriguchi and Nik Paget-Tomlinson, Hazel will tour Maya and the Whale written and performed by Hazel and directed by Lewis Hetherington alongside a new interactive production for young audiences, Ideas Jukebox. We’ll be sharing more about both projects and tour dates in our next newsletter.  

👂 Today we’re also sharing a new audio work by Emily Nicholl & Ellen Renton, Wandering: On Sight and Sense-Making an audio-zine sharing some of their thinking and discussions around making live performance specifically for and by blind and partially blind audiences. You can listen to this on SoundCloud here. 

✨ I also wanted to share some insights from projects that we completed over the last year – these projects were developed as part of the National Lottery Extended Programme Fund and allowed us to work with artists to develop projects at various stages. We asked Arusa Qureshi to interview some of the artists we’ve been working with and include these here for you to get a sense of this programme and today we’re including links to two interviews Arusa completed with: 

  • Emily Nicholl & Ellen Renton on their Wandering: On Sight and Sense-Making audio-zine, recorded by Nik Paget-Tomlinson, and 
  • Niroshini Thambar on her work as Associate Artist in 2024

✨ We’ll have more for you soon on our upcoming programme, as well as more insights from last year. 

Take care, 
Mhari & Team IAP

PS – Thanks for supporting IAP. 

Welcome to the Fringe, Palestine
This brilliant and beautiful project led by volunteer artists and producers in Scotland is bringing artists from Palestine and diaspora to Portobello Town Hall from 12-15 August as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe! 

Please consider making a donation or buying tickets in advance to support, we are six weeks away and still have money to raise. Please support by: 

– Donating 
– Providing accommodation 
– Buy a Day Ticket

Check out the full and brilliant programme at FringePalestine.comPS – If you have signed up as a volunteer and have not heard from someone about this, please email volunteer@i-a-p.net

The image features a hand-drawn illustration in colored pencil with floral elements and text. At the top, a purple tulip and a pink poppy bloom are connected by a vine. Written in capital green letters, the text states, "AS A CULTURAL ORGANISATION IN SCOTLAND WE PLEDGE TO SUPPORT." The central focus is the word "PACBI," rendered in bold red letters intertwined with green floral patterns. Below this, the text in green continues, "THE PALESTINIAN CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL." The bottom of the image showcases a detailed pink flower on the left and a red tulip-like flower bending towards the bottom right. The artwork carries an artisanal touch and communicates a pledge to support a specific political and social initiative.

IAP is supporting Welcome to the Fringe, Palestine as part of our commitments to support the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
You can read our statement in support of PACBI here.  

IAP are currently seeking a Collaborating Artist and Playworker to work with Max Alexander on the Function Schmunction project. Read the job pack at https://www.independentartsprojects.com/work-with-us/ 

Thanks to the support of the Gregg’s Foundation and Glasgow Wellbeing Fund, Joanna Young’s multi-sensory workshop series for elders at Dixon Community in Govanhill, Glasgow will continue until autumn 2025. 

Audio-zine from Emily Nicholl, Ellen Renton and Nik Paget-Tomlinson on their thinking and discussions around making live performance specifically for and by blind and partially blind audiences. Listen here.

Blog: “What if we just imagined the world a wee bit differently?”
Blog: “making art no matter how basic or fully formed is an intrinsic part of the human experience”
Pictured (left to right): Nina Doherty (Producer), Chloe Lyth (General Manager), Mhari Robinson (Executive Director) at IAP’s office in Leith.  📸 Pamela Walker.