Asking Questions. Seeking Answers.
During August, a ‘can-do’ attitude from the City of Edinburgh Council and other gatekeepers to cultural provision creates the temporary illusion that any available space in the city can be a venue.
Morvern Cunningham makes the case for spreading cultural growth throughout the city all year round.
It’s not all doom and gloom. Local communities have found inspiring new opportunities in lockdown. For Sceptical Scot, food writer Jonathan Trew ventures into the heat of a a virtual kitchen bringing cultures together
Arts and culture are at a turning point, says Morvern Cunningham, facing the risk of returning to a kind of normal that we saw pre-pandemic. Only this time, the normal we are heading back to is likely to be worse than before.
As the post-Covid reckoning approaches, who is going to ‘own’ the rebuilding of services, community capacity and employment to which both UK and Scottish governments are formally committed?
This is not about being a “technophobe” but about material facts of life: many people do not have access to the internet because they can’t afford the equipment or have to choose between find the cash to go online and buying food
The reality of life in lockdown hits home in a powerful report by Philippa Kemp, communications manager of the Edinburgh-based charity Multicultural Family Base. But it also raises hope. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Government could learn from local community enterprises responding with astonishing speed and efficiency to get help and food where it is needed most – including NHS staff on the frontline
What will the new normal feel like when the pandemic is over? Can we come together to look after the most vulnerable, can we continue to use technology ingeniously, interacting to support communities?
‘..with so much promise offered by new economic democratic agendas such as new municipalism, communities can have a key role as partners with the state against the cosh of market liberalism and declining public services.’
