Mike’s KINDHUMANS residency is part of a much larger Arts project taking place in Moray run by the dynamic new collective, Arts in Moray (AIM): Culture Collective.

The collective is made up of Dance North, Moray Arts Development Engagement (M:ADE), the Moray Way Association (MWA) and Wildbird. Working together as part of the Culture Café network, the group will host at least eight artist residencies. Drawing upon associations of the word ‘collective’, the group will employ a new and radical approach to engaging a network of creative practitioners and communities within Moray. The collective’s approach is one of championing fairness, transparency, agency, equity and collaboration across its members.

Dance North Scotland led the successful application to Creative Scotland’s Culture Collective programme which is part of Scottish Government emergency COVID-19 funds supporting creative practitioners, organisations and communities to work together across Scotland to help shape the future of local cultural life.

Each creative practitioner will be working towards a SMART output with, and for, the local community, aligning with the Culture Café manifesto. Designed as a meeting place for those working in the arts and creative industries, Culture Café was founded in 2011 and brings over 500 like-minded people with cross-sectoral community groups and businesses, to network, share ideas, develop partnerships and support one another.

Each partner has expertise across different artforms (Dance North in dance and choreographic practice, M:ADE being multidisciplinary, MWA in walking art, and Wildbird in film and public art) and public engagement methodologies, which will result in a rich diversity across the residencies. 

Each residency will be non-prescriptive and inclusive, contributing to social connectedness across the region. Partners will work with the AIM Lead, and symbiotically with the Culture Café network, to enable the artists within their specific projects. 

• M:ADE will support three residencies adopting a place-based approach.
• Wildbird will deliver KINDHUMANS a thematic residency based around marginalised voices within the community.
• MWA will co-ordinate one residency also taking a place-based approach, but focusing on environmental, social and historical issues
• Dance North will prioritise a movement-led methodology for at least three residencies.

Stacey Toner, Director, M:ADE said: “The Culture Collective fund will enable us to not only be supporters of each other’s work but, for the first time, to embrace a dynamic of becoming formal collaborators; we are truly energised by the potential this brings to generate a positive impact for the people we work with and the wider regional arts sector.”