The Covid Community Memorial programme is gathering momentum as the team connects with local authorities and potential delivery partners across the country. Partners in each local authority area will soon be seeking expressions of interest from artists to receive a grant to work with communities to explore how they want to remember this time and honour all those affected by Covid. With almost all of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas now on board, local delivery partners are thinking about how they will design the brief for artists to work in their communities, looking at how they will engage those in rural, urban and island settings in the co-creative process.

Initial callouts for expressions of interest from artists in many local authority areas in Scotland will be issued from November 2021. Artists and creative practitioners with experience of co-creative practice are encouraged to look out for these across their networks and can get in touch with the team for further information on the commissioning process.

With the support of the Programme Manager and Project Officers, programme partners and their commissioned artists will actively seek to connect with those people in their communities that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic or are experiencing barriers to access and participation.

Taking a co-creation approach between artists and communities may not lead to the kinds of memorials we expect. Rather than working in community ‘consultation’, the Covid Community Memorial Programme is a process of co-creation; the commissioned artists and the communities they work with will be able to express ideas that are important to them, in artistic and creative ways through a relevant, aware, welcoming and honest dialogue.

Later this month, we’ll be launching a dedicated website where each local authority area of Scotland will have its own page so that people can connect with co-creation in their area. The website will also include programme information, news updates and learning resources created as the programme develops and available for organisations and artists working in co-creation practices.

Read more about Scotland’s Covid Community Memorial Programme

For more information
Contact: Kim Simpson (Programme Manager), Carla Almeida (Project Officer), John Saich (Project Officer)