Filtering by: CPG
Oct
8
6:00 PM18:00
CPG, CPGculture

Cross Party Group Culture and Communities

Next meeting (and AGM): Wednesday 8 October 2025, 6-8pm, and will be held online. 

We are delighted to welcome memers of the Cross Party Group (CPG) on Culture and Communities to this next online meeting . The Cross Party Group on Culture and Communities encourages the exchange of knowledge and understanding between the Scottish Parliament and arts, culture, heritage, and historic environment communities.

This event marks our AGM, so we will briefly review the year and re-elect key post-holders. After that, we will continue our ongoing exploration of "big ambitions" for culture and communities in Scotland. This meeting will explore some questions that have arisen in earlier meetings of this group around understanding impact.

Key themes are likely to include:

  • the balance between piloting new ideas and sustained funding for ongoing initiatives,

  • articulating the impact of preventative activity,

  • ‘what counts’ as evidence (and how that might tie to power and privilege within the sector),

  • how we capture, share and understand impact in different contexts,

  • how we create space for risk and experimentation, and

  • the possibilities for artistic and creative approaches in evaluation

Guest speakers include Aala Ross from Regenerative Futures Fund, Claire Sivier from TIALT and Olivia Turner from the University of Edinburgh's IMAGINED project. To kick off our discussions and inspire our imaginations, we're thrilled that we'll be joined for this event by Ashley Douglas, who will share an extract from their book The Lass and The Quine, the first original LGBT+ inclusive children's book published in the Scots language.

Convener: Foysol Choudhury MSP

Secretariat: Culture Counts

Booking to attend

Please book a (free) ticket to attend this event here. You must be a member of the CPG Culture and Communities to attend. If you are not already a member then please join the group here.

A note on timings

We anticipate this event running 1800 until 1930. We have scheduled the meeting slot until 2000 in case Scottish Parliamentary business on the day delays the start time.

Access

The event will be live captioned.

Contact details

If you have any questions about the event, the Cross Party Group, or any access requirements to enable your attendance, please contact Kathryn Welch: kathryn@culturecounts.scot

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Game On: Supporting Scotland's Games Industry
Feb
23
7:00 PM19:00
CPG, Events

Game On: Supporting Scotland's Games Industry

The Cross Party Group on Creative Economy encourages the exchange of ideas and learning around the development and support of the future creative economy. The group will consider support for creative economy in Scotland, exploring barriers to success and highlighting any potential solutions.

This meeting of the group will focus on the Scottish Games Industry.

Speakers TBC

MSP Members of the group are:

  • Claire Baker MSP (Convener)

  • Sarah Boyack MSP

  • Foysol Choudhury MSP

  • Maurice Golden MSP

  • Michael Marra MSP

  • Jenni Minto (Deputy Convener)

  • Mercedes Villalba MSP

  • Beatrice Wishart MSP

PS We're not allowed back in the Parliament yet, though once we are, we aim for you to be able to choose to attend in person or online.

Register

Registration is now open to members on Eventbrite.

Cross-Party Groups are open to anyone in the sector; if you have not signed up already, here’s the membership form.

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Communities' Cultural Recovery
Jan
19
7:00 PM19:00
CPG

Communities' Cultural Recovery

The Cross Party Group on Culture & Communities encourages the exchange of knowledge and understanding between the Scottish Parliament and arts, culture, heritage, and historic environment communities. Registration is open to Members of the CPG. If you’d like to learn more about joining, visit our CPG webpage.

Convenor: Sarah Boyack MSP

Secretariat: Culture Counts

This first meeting of the group will focus on how culture has supported communities throughout Covid-19.

We have three guest speakers who will provide a snapshot of the amazing work that's been carried out in communities over the past 20 months.

  • Hazel Wotherspoon Toonspeak Young Peoples Theatre

  • David P Scott Freelance Artist and Photographer

  • Shona McCarthy Edinburgh Festival Fringe

There will be an opportunity for group members, guests and MSPs to ask our presenters questions and we will also have time for a general discussion.

MSP Members of the group are;

  • Clare Adamson MSP

  • Claire Baker MSP

  • Sarah Boyack MSP (Convenor)

  • Foysol Choudhury MSP

  • Michael Marra MSP

  • Jenni Minto MSP

  • Sue Webber MSP (Deputy Convenor)

If you would like to add anything to the agenda, please email jennifer@culturecounts.scot by Friday14 January if possible.

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday 19 January.

PS We're not allowed back in the Parliament yet, though once we are, we aim for you to be able to choose to attend in person or online.

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