Dundee Commons Festival is a week-long celebration and investigation of the commons as it relates to Dundee. There will be daily talks, bread-making, walks, workshops, exhibitions, and performances.

We ask, what would Dundee look like, sound like, feel like, taste like, and smell like if the city were a commons? How would we relate to one another? What values would sustain us? And what sort of support structures would we need to create a common future?

At a time of immense change, both locally and globally, the festival provides a framework to join together, reflect on, and respond to some of these questions.

All events are free and everyone is welcome.

Morning workshops and weekend events are suitable for all ages – with appropriate adult supervision or consent.

The hub space – and many of the events – can be found at Roseangle Commons, Dundee West Church, Lower Hall, 132 Perth Rd, DD1 4JW – enter via Roseangle Arts Cafe.

Selected highlights:

Monday – Friday 9.30 – 10.15 | Roseangle Commons
Daily Bread with Claire Briegel
An opportunity to make bread together and reflect on the day’s theme.

Monday 24 – Friday 28 August 13.00 – 14.00 | Roseangle Commons
Lunchtime talks

Monday 24 August: Andy Wightman, Land as Commons – How Half of Scotland was Privatised.
Tuesday 25 August: Mike Small, Food as Commons – Creating a Restorative Food Culture
Wednesday 26 August: Lesley Riddoch, People as Commons – Community Empowerment and Local Democracy
Thursday 27 August: Cornalia Sollfrank, Digital Commons – An Inspiration for New Forms of Sharing and Collaboration in the Arts
Friday 28 August: Gesa Helms and Leigh French, Art as Commons – Culture, Communication and Democracy in Scotland

Monday 24, Wednesday 26 & Friday 28 August 14.30 – 17.30 | Discovery Point
Design in Common Action
Workshops offering participants the opportunity to engage in the co-design and planning of Dundee Waterfront Development.

29 August 11:00 – 21.30 | City Square & Roseangle Commons
Public Space and performance
An all day dance and performance event in Dundee City Square followed by an evening of poetry, spoken word and dance entitled Flow! Commons.

Monday 24 – Sunday 30 August | Roseangle Commons Gallery Space
If the City were an Orchard by Sarah Gittins
An exhibition of screenprints exploring the biodiversity commons of an Orchard City.

For the full programme and to sign up to workshops, visit Dundee Commmons Festival.

More: Website

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Find more events in our weekly bulletin here.

Get involved:
We Are Unfinished Artists invites all craft workers, artists and makers to submit discarded works and also join them in creating new pieces from their collected fragments.

From September, they will be running weekly workshops at mac Birmingham where people can bring submissions, work on any pieces that spark their interest, and help to construct the final exhibition. If you would like to sign up to the workshops visit the mac website.

Find out more:
Website

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

After becoming official we installed a pop up shop & workshops day in summer 2010 at Brixton Village. Working with adults & children we discovered a knack for tailoring workshops to the public with a strong emphasis on drawing & image making. As a group we’ve always had a strong idea about using pared back design to communicate visually & engage the public.

So far we have had the immense pleasure to work with Tate Britain, Design Museum, House of Illustration, Ministry of Stories & British Library on a range of projects. When given the beautiful main hall of Tate Britain we threw ourselves into making a giant three metre long Toblerone shaped drawing board which we scrambled together in one of our gardens the night before. Thankfully it all paid off & we had an incredible jam-packed day making an underworld illustration on what can only have been one of the most stinking hot days of the year.

Since then we’ve worked continued to work on a variety of projects from window displays, pop up shops & most recently our upcoming show ‘Fathoms Deep’. A couple of months ago we put out a nautically themed brief asking people to pitch their ideas for Fathoms Deep. We had an incredible response and had to whittle down well over 100 submissions to just nine illustrators who we are really excited to be working with. We are over the moon that the show will be held at the Hayward Gallery for three weeks this May as part of ‘This Is Not A Pop Up’ series.

As Zombie we are fortunate that among us we have a real variety of skills from handyman to organiser extraordinaire keeping us on our toes & making us a bit of a many-headed beast. On top of that it always helps to work with your pals.

Visit Zombie’s website here.
Follow them on Twitter here.
Find them on Facebook here.

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