Howdy
🤗 I hope all is well with you. I have been turning off the news, and been walking through the park on my way to work. It’s a treat for the eyes to see all the autumnal colours, golden sunrises shining through the trees and to watch dogs scamper & play. Wholesome stuff.
🍂 It seems an interest in and connection with nature threads through the work of many of the artists we work with. I look forward to sharing some of this with you in future newsletters. For now, I’ll share a little of what we’re up to now and next:
🌊 This week, ‘The Sea and I’ (short film) was presented as part of the Scottish Dementia Arts Festival 2024 in Edinburgh. And yesterday Dance Artists Joanna Young & Saffy Setohy shared a multi-sensory movement workshop for people living with or working in Dementia, Arts and Care.
🚐 We’re on tour at the moment with One of Two by Jack Hunter. The show is being presented in schools with huge support from the Theatre in Schools Scotland programme that’s supported by Imaginate & National Theatre of Scotland. Jack and Susan McWhirter (Technical Stage Manager) have spent a week and a half in Orkney and Shetland. Today they’re in school in Aberdeen and next week they’re off to Berlin where they’re presenting the show at the RAMBAZAMBA Theater as part of NO LIMITS Festival. (I don’t know why everything is in capitals.)
💰 We are fundraising. Aren’t we always? This time our whole board of trustees are joining me in a 24hr Board Games ‘Marathon’ to raise funds for our future programme, specifically the return of Function Schmunction, Max Alexander’s fantastic play space co-created with autistic folk. See below for details, including some information on why we’re having to fundraise now.
Take care,
Mhari & Team IAP
PS – Thanks for supporting IAP.
Photos of Max Alexander in a Function Schmunction session.
Photo: Geraldine Heaney. And IAP’s board of trustees.
We are raising money for our future programme
Our trustees & I are going to be completing a 24hr board games ‘marathon’ to raise funds for a project that celebrates play for folk who are often told that they don’t play properly or find mainstream play spaces inaccessible.
Function Schmunction is an interactive play space made especially for, with & by autistic people of all ages. Developed by Max Alexander and co-created through lots of 1-to-1 play sessions with autistic people exploring what play meant for each of them. The resulting play space was presented in Edinburgh in 2023 and feedback was really incredible.
There’s loads more about the project, including a short video about what makes it really excellent and meaningful here.
Why are we asking for support now?
Delays in funding outcomes from Creative Scotland (from October 2024 to end of January 2025) and an intensely competitive context for grants funding across the UK, mean we’re really unsure what our future looks like.
We don’t know what we’re going to be able to achieve from 1st April 2025. All 10 staff contracts including those of 7 part-time artists end on or before 31st March.
We’ve submitted multiple applications that are awaiting outcomes and have many more planned but there is no guarantee of success and a limit to how many we can complete while also delivering performances, developing new projects, and supporting our staff team.
If we don’t ask for support now, we could find ourselves unable to deliver any projects next year, or having to close the organisation all together. Essentially, it will be like starting out all over again, which after almost seven years feels especially daunting.
The truth is that we’re only one small organisation out of 281 arts organisations whose futures are unknown due to delayed funding decisions, a 4 year delay to core funding, and declining budgets and sources of funding across Scotland causing stagnation and decline.
The wider impact on freelance artists, creative production & arts workers who earn their living through the arts is enormous. There is no emergency funding now yet the arts are at risk of collapse.
IAP exists to collaborate with artists and communities to enable new creative projects to come to life. Function Schmunction is just one of those projects.
If you’re able to help with even a small donation, please visit:
https://bit.ly/IAP-fundraiser
Enormous thank you to everyone who has liked, shared & given so generously so far. You are such stars! We’re already at 30% of our target!