Remembering Together Midlothian: Co-creating Covid Community Memorials
Artists and creatives sought to support Remembering Together Midlothian, a co-created COVID community memorial for reflection, remembrance, hope and healing within communities.
Midlothian Community Memorial
Midlothian communities and Greenspace Scotland are seeking expressions of interest from artists and creative practitioners of all disciplines for Phase 1 of Remembering Together, Scotland’s Covid Community Memorial, in Midlothian. This invitation for expressions of interest opened on 31st March 2022 and will close on 25th April 2022.
Remembering Together Midlothian
Remembering Together is a national programme that brings together communities and artists/creative practitioners in collective acts of reflection, remembrance, hope and healing. Managed by greenspace scotland, and supported with £4.2 million provided by the Scottish Government, memorial projects are being co-created in every local authority area of Scotland as communities work with artists/creative practitioners to honour those that have lost their lives to Covid-19 and reflect on their own experiences.
Call out to artists and creatives
The role of the artist/creative practitioner will be to work with people in ways that are inclusive and relevant with the emphasis on co-creation. Programme partners began issuing callouts to artists and creative practitioners in January 2022, in all disciplines, for expressions of interest in phase 1 of the programme. Phase 1 is when ideas and opportunities will be developed with communities that could include not only gardens and physical structures but also work that is digital or can exist in many locations. These ideas will be realised in phase 2 of the programme, beginning later in the year.
A learning plan has been developed to support artists in communities and to acknowledge that we are working in a diversifying Scotland and in a climate emergency. The pandemic is not over, we are living in times of change, and as such co-creating with care is a fundamental value supporting the programme.
Remembering Together Programme Manager Kim Simpson says:
“Remembering Together will create space to reflect and remember all that we are experiencing during the Covid pandemic, while reconnecting within our communities and inspiring hope and healing. At greenspace scotland, we feel deeply honoured that we will co-create this programme with communities, artists and partners across the country. While the memorials themselves will be important, the process of co-creating them, together, with those who are most affected by the pandemic feels deeply meaningful. We look forward to supporting the many ways that memorial making emerges in communities across Scotland”.
Expressions of Interest for Remembering Together Midlothian
If you are a local artist or creative and are keen to be involved with this brilliant project in Midlothian, you can find out more about Remembering Together on their website or download the Midlothian brief for this project.