You’ve heard of the village butcher, baker and candlestick maker right?

well what about the village artist?

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The Village Artist was a radical new arts project, specifically tailored for the people and places of Bowling Village West Dunbartonshire. Funding was received in 2019 and allowed this project to be the inaugural project of Hydra Arts.

 

In early 2020 the global Covid-19 Pandemic swept across the world, affecting communities and individuals in the profoundest of ways.

 

Hydra Arts decided to reframe the village artist project to meet this changing context.

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Throughout 2020 with an entirely community focused art and creative output, this year-long endeavour sought to legitimise the role of the ‘artist’ in village life, especially at a time of community and social crisis.

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During this time a wide range of accessible artistic and creative events and workshops were offered to the residents of Bowling Village, to both identify and continue to support the kind of arts practice that already existed in the village, and to give people a creative output during the pandemic.

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Through this project Hydra Arts began to interrogate the role and skills of artists during a crisis, and what we can do to service our local communities.

 

We created opportunities for people to create ceramics in their home, attend creative writing sessions, and learn how to use charcoal as an illustrative medium.  

 

Hydra Arts worked with Steven Anderson, Martin O'Connor, Nic Green and Peter McMaster to deliver this work.

 

We finished the project through collaborating with Action Old Kilpatrick in a new hyper local project that gave birth to The Old Kilpatrick Players and Hydra Arts first public performance made with and for the local communities. 

 

This work was supported through funding from Creative Scotland's Open Fund. 

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