Our Communities Programme Director, Noëlle Cobden, reflects on her first 12 months leading our year-round work in Edinburgh, the Lothians and beyond. Read on for her highlights of a strange year, how we pivoted our communtiy work to the digital realm, and the importance of connection to everything we achieved in 2020.
Citizen Goes Online
Last week we launched The Citizen Collective, an online creative writing initiative for young people across four local high schools. We’re also starting an online writing group for adults in North Edinburgh and Musselburgh
Looking back: Spotlight on Citizen Events
In this blog, we highlight three Citizen events from the August 2020 Book Festival Online which examine what ‘community’ means in a time of crisis
Precious objects inspire Citizen writers
Listen to the work of two of our Brunton Citizen writers, where they take precious objects as a starting point for a piece of reflective writing.
Where Dandelions Go: the film
Here we’re sharing in full the story written by children and families from North Edinburgh, in collaboration with Craigroyston Primary School, North Edinburgh Arts, and our Communities Writer in Residence, Eleanor Thom.
“A citizen is…” – your responses in poetry
Discover a new poem, Citizen, created with ideas from our Stories & Scran participants, put together by Leyla Josephine
Creative challenge: turning fridge magnets into poetry
We challenged our Citizen collaborators to create some poetry using 30 randomly-allocated fridge magnet words. Here we share Karen’s response to the challenge and tell you how you can give it a go at home.
Stories & Scran: A Special Citizen Event
Our first ever virtual community meal – cook along with us at home!Tune in on Thursday 27 August at 7pm for Stories & Scran, an event with a three course meal catered by Scran Academy. If you’d like to cook along with us at home, scroll down to find the recipes below. It’s not long now until our Stories & Scran …
Enjoy Edinburgh International Book Festival from your own home
A spotlight on three Citizen events from our August 2020 programme, which aim to help us understand the meaning of community in the time of Covid-19.
Musselburgh’s Hidden Treasures – Making Stories from Stones
Discover a collection of stories in film, inspired by a game where families in Musselburgh hid and found ‘Story Stones’. Created by Eleanor Thom.
Teaching Children to Fail
In this Guest Blog, Leyla Josephine reflects on her time as Schools Writer in Residence for Citizen.
The Keys to Our Lives – a Citizen Podcast
In this podcast, two Musselburgh-based groups join together through poetry and discussion. We invite you to be part of the conversation by submitting your poems, songs and pictures exploring what the theme means to you.
Summer 2020 – Communities Update
An update on where we are with our Communities Programme: Citizen, Story Nation and our Online Festival, in Summer 2020
Announcing Story Nation
Find out about Story Nation, part of our Communities Programme which engages long-term with Prisons, Hospitals and Care Homes.
Musselburgh: Write Where You Belong!
Our Citizen Communities Writer in Residence Eleanor Thom is leading a series of 5 workshops involving writing, stories and crafts in The Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh over the next few months! We want to know about residents’ experience of life in the area and your ideas of home, community and belonging.
Shelf Life
Citizen Writer in Residence Eleanor Thom reflects on the sharing shelf at North Edinburgh Arts – a community resource helping people in need access food and other essential items – as Christmas and a momentous General Election approach.