by Jan-Bert van-den Berg Artlink’s Curious Routes is one of the strands of work that inform the ground-breaking REALITIES projects, funded by the UKRI Mobilising Community Assets Programme. Jan-bert van den Berg is the community-embedded researcher for the Edinburgh Hub. Through grassroots creative practice and interaction, we support individuals to share interests that establish networks of wellbeing. These will create a ripple effect of shared experiences that seeks to influence necessary change in how public structures tackle health inequalities.    During the first pandemic lockdown the power of community action came to the fore. Neighbours looked out for each other, communities came together [...]

by Alan Marshall, Kimberly More and Helena Tunstall The characteristics of the neighbourhoods we live in have the potential to impact our health, wellbeing as well as other social outcomes. Existing evidence often focusses on area deprivation with less consideration of positive aspects of community that are valued by residents. Such neighbourhood assets might include access to nature, strong feelings of belonging and trust in neighbours or a willingness to give time for broader social good within the neighbourhood. In response the Index of Community Assets team within REALITIES are working to co-develop, collate, and validate a set of neighbourhood measures on community [...]

Harnessing Nature for Recovery: A collaboration with Ninewells Community Garden Chris Lim, Senior Lecturer in Design and Making Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee As part of REALITIES, Ninewells Community Garden is developing a nature-based activities programme aimed at supporting people in recovery in partnership with academics, particularly a transdisciplinary team at the University of Dundee. Located within a 18th century arboretum on the grounds of Ninewells hospital in Dundee, Ninewells Community Garden (NCG) is a volunteers-led initiative that has been serving the community for over a decade. The idea of a community garden started in [...]

A Blog by Sam Rowe, Creative Expressions Coordinator at Bethany Christian Trust In January 2025, Bethany Christian Trust’s Creative Expressions department began drama workshops in a Scottish Men’s Prison to explore the participants’ experiences of neurodiversity and health/social systems. Our aim is to collectively write a piece of theatre that reflects these experiences, that can later be produced and toured to other prisons, conferences and training events. This project follows on from the work we have been doing in the Scottish Criminal Justice system since 2020 (or 2016, for the departments coordinator prior to joining Bethany). This follows three main strands (i) devised performances [...]

‘In Motion’ podcast is a collaboration between North Lanarkshire Council Community Learning and Development (CLD), New College Lanarkshire and the University of Edinburgh. Students Laila Abdul Kadir, Bócan Romer and Dylan Elliot interviewed participants on CLD summer daytrips on the subject of creative health and barriers to participation, with the goal of developing new projects, events and relationships with communities. Listen.... The Producers “Hi, I’m Laila, a sound student currently taking a gap year to explore various aspects of the field and gain more experience. My interest is in sound design and editing. My work on the [...]

Carers Creatively Taking Time To Explore Our Landscapes Through Photos To celebrate Carers Week (5 – 11 June 2023) North Lanarkshire Council Arts Development Team have produced a Photo eBook of nature photography which was created by BAME carers groups over the past year as part of the Art is Everywhere project, in partnership with Lanarkshire Carers. We started off meeting these community members online to discuss their experiences then they were sent a self-care pack with lip balm, hot choc sachet, notepad pen and candle. Included in the pack, was a scenic photo hunt adventure to capture pictures when they were out [...]

Complex Systems, Wicked Issues and Big Ideas: Where do we start, where do we end? Art is Everywhere and REALITIES lead, Dr Marisa de Andrade, was asked to speak to the United Nations (UN) Development Programme in September 2023. Here’s what was Marisa was thinking in the lead up to the event…. [Marisa’s internal monologue to her Publisher/Editor/Funder/Manager etc] “I need to find an entry point that REF will accept and humans, non-humans and more-than-humans will flourish… (I’m very glad no one’s reading this).” For about 10 years (I think – time’s just a non-linear construct), I’ve been collaborating with various international (WHO, [...]

In the spring of 2021, I was invited to assist on a global health project, supported by the Scottish Funding Council Global Challenges Research Fund grant, that sought to address key pervasive health inequities in Brazil through the use of innovative creative methodologies. The project afforded me the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills I had developed from the recent MSc Research in Health Humanities and Arts  course I completed at the University of Edinburgh. I was hired as a research assistant on the project; which partnered the University of Edinburgh with the Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Universidade Federal do Rio [...]

How can we radically change the way places in Scotland are planned?  How can we re-imagine the future of Scotland?   These questions have been on our mind as we’ve been inspired by the power of art and artists coming together in North Lanarkshire through Art is Everywhere. We asked Jim MacDonald, CEO of Architecture & Design Scotland (A&DS) for his reflections… As someone nearly said once, places have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody. Sadly, that’s not really how we do things which means not all of our places do work for [...]