Reflections from our first workshop

[Written by Emma Coffield]

This time last week Gareth and I visited sunny Dundee for a workshop and panel event at the DCA. We were also invited to visit the Outer Spaces studios in the Wellgate Centre. A huge thank you to Alina, Armida and Imogen for taking the time to show us around. What started as a quick 30 minute trip rapidly became a much longer tour of the site as we made our way through the various spaces available - and up the non-functional escalator! There was so much to see and think about. The experience has really informed our thinking around space provision in the city, so thanks again for making the time for us.

Next up, we ran back across to the DCA for a quick lunch and to set up the first of our five workshops.

As this was our first workshop, we were very keen (and a little nervous, truth be told) to see how the planned activities and materials might work. I'm a fan of open-ended questions - but it is always a bit of a gamble! Luckily, it appeared that everyone had lots to say and share with us, and we've now got mountains of sticky notes, photographs, audio recordings and more to work through. Again, we wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who came along for participating in such a open and generous way, and to the DCA staff and Creative Dundee (and Eilish in particular) for hosting us and doing so much to make everyone feel welcome and heard in the room.

After the workshop we had a quick break and then participated in the final panel event run by Creative Dundee, where I joined Katherine Murphy and Laurie McInally and Dana Leslie (from Original Copy - find out more here: https://www.instagram.com/originalcopycollective/) to talk about all things space related in the arts. A genuine pleasure!

Now that we're back, we're catching the rest of the team up with our trip, starting to wrok through the information, and thinking about the next few workshops and events. We'll have news on that front very soon - so please do come and say hi to us!

*Photographs from Creative Dundee, reproduced with permission

Last modified: Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:17:17 GMT