Making deeper connections

Clare Brennan, curator and lecturer in visual arts practice, offers some insight into her project that will inspire a city

Our project, Weave was born as a result of the cultural activity happening at Abertay University’s Hannah Maclure Centre – a unique facility offering events and exhibitions, while also bringing international work to a local audience.

Abertay is keen to play a part in enriching Dundee’s culture and putting the city on the map.

As a university we want people to have more than just a typical student experience, but to find people that share their passions.

That means Dundee in turn becomes a more liveable and attractive city for students to come here and make this city their home.

But we need to make our facilities accessible, and with this in mind, last year we evaluated the Hannah Mclure Centre to see if it was achieving the best for our students and for Dundee.

Across two days we worked alongside local design agency Open Change in a public consultation with students, staff, cultural agencies and academic partners.

From the simply practical to the more creative, we explored the variety of issues that had arisen in terms of accessing the space, such as the simple fact it was on the top floor of the students’ union.

People felt the space was too far out of the way, that it was often forgotten about, and that it was difficult to tell whether they had permission to enter the building in the first place.

With this feedback in mind we took the decision to develop a new programme that had more visibility and was easily accessible, while still playing a part in Dundee’s cultural scene.

That new approach is Weave by Abertay. We have created a programme with various strands that is flexible and will respond to the needs of our students, staff, public audiences and the wider city.

One of the new parts of our programme is a monthly talk series called Platform, held at Avery & Co on South Tay Street. At Platform we invite creative professionals from across the globe, as well as the talented folk from Abertay, to share their practice.

The programme now focuses a lot more on some of the university’s strongest disciplines, such as computer and digital arts.

It is hoped that by giving creatives a stage on which to share their ideas and art we can inspire the people of Dundee.

We intend to use the less conventional spaces the city has to offer in the hope that an informal setting allows for people to feel more creative.

Local artists are a prevalent feature of Dundee’s cultural scene. Events such as Pecha Kucha Night and Make/ Share, both run by Creative Dundee, are excellent examples.

With Platform we really wanted to capitalise on our position as a university with a global reach and the ability to attract some of the best international artists and designers to the city to connect, network and inspire.

With that perspective and as a UNESCO City of Design, Dundee is plugged into some amazing international networks, and through those we can contribute an exciting events programme which will give those networks a deeper meaning.

At Weave we also recognise that some of the most exciting things happen when different disciplines work in tandem and when people come together.

Weave will be a programme which can nurture those relationships and make tangible those connections and collaborations between creative practitioners here in Dundee and across the world.

Platform takes place on the third Thursday of every month.

Details on the next event can be found at:www.abertay.ac.uk/visit/ weave-by-abertay or by searching for @WeaveAbertay on Twitter.

Clockwise from top: Inktober – one of the main events; the Weave team; the Silvery Tay-Haired Women event with Kate Clayton; and Platform.