Inclusive Futures

Making imagination visible

Often futures work is done by the same people in the same rooms. The networks, projects, events and platforms I’ve led have aimed to enable democratic, imaginative and practical visions of next.

Dundee needed a way to think collectively about its future with its residents. I co-created We Dundee in 2013, leading the idea and civic engagement, then revived it in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Working with city-wide partners and individuals, we created a crowdsourcing platform, which became a popular engagement space to gather visions from across the city. A mirror of the city’s ambitions, the ideas formed the basis of city plans for decision makers to act on, and the imaginative responses animated many vacant city billboards during lockdown.

The invite and space encouraged residents to contribute either digitally or in-person; the value was the platform’s ability to enhance a shared sense of belonging, highlighting patterns in complexity quickly, identifying what mattered, and creating a unique longitudinal record of civic imagination.

Many of these ideas went on to happen, and the engagement approach fed directly into Dundee’s successful bid to become a UNESCO City of Design, with thousands of ideas helping shape the city’s case.

Initiating Dundee’s first Creative Industries Strategy in 2018 then co-designing with a range of partners and practitioners over time, I’ve used open and accessible approaches with Small Society Lab, connecting internationally to explore small cities for current and future generations. The Live Audit is a rapid feedback tool used at events; and the 99 Things Guide, crowdsourced by people who live in and love Dundee, turns local pride into something shared, to benefit others.

Shaping what comes next means working across policy areas — climate and social justice, health and wellbeing, community wealth building, tourism, digital innovation, and placemaking — where creativity helps deliver what policy sets out to do.

Initiating & Stewarding

Infrastructure for complex times

I co-founded Creative Dundee as a blog in 2008, during the economic recession. Five years on, I took it forward — building it into an organisation that didn’t exist before creative place networks were familiar: responsive, connective tissue which amplifies the energy of a city’s creative ecosystem and crucially builds community.

Through a digital platform, network, events and social innovation projects, I’ve grown an agile multi-programme organisation with our small team and board to impact people in our place. My role has included strategic leadership & governance, programme design & delivery, team coaching, financial management & income generation, external relationships & partnerships, and civic advocacy & sector leadership.

With equity and access at the organisation’s core, over the years we’ve made visible and connected thousands of individuals, creative businesses, cultural organisations and collectives — enabling opportunities to build local community wealth, bringing significant investment into the city, and enhancing the city’s cultural reputation.

Working alongside councils, universities and civic partners, we’ve helped creative communities be heard where decisions are made — and recognised as central to the city’s future — with partnerships extending locally, nationally and internationally.

PechaKucha Night Dundee, introduced in 2011, became the largest UK event in the global series, with 400+ audiences. The cumulative effect of PKN over 15 years, like Creative Dundee’s own, is that whilst creative ecosystem infrastructure can often seem invisible, its activities, approaches and values are felt, shaping a place and community over time.

Creative Dundee are expert collaborators, generative investors and vocal advocates for creativity and culture – sustained for over 15 years, generating over £2 million into Dundee’s local economy, commissioning over 500 practitioners and building over 1,500 partnerships – its scale is proudly small and deeply rooted.

Research & Advocacy

Amplifying voices and action

Amplifying voices and activities through research, storytelling, then sharing generatively for broader impact was the initial idea for forming Creative Dundee – still important today, advocacy happens in a range of ways.

Much of this work makes visible people and forms of value that our dominant systems often miss. In 2025 I generated a series of features drawing on publicly available datasets highlighting the strengths of Dundee’s Creative and Digital Industries, the case for young people’s creative futures, and advocating, even when uncomfortable, what would be lost if public investment was cut. These pieces were read widely, helped secure project funds, and have also been cited as evidence in national announcements about investment in the region.

Creative Dundee’s work has consistently attracted interest beyond Dundee — referenced by governments, academic research and in UK / European policy papers as a case study for what place-based creative networks can catalyse, evidence and achieve.

As an invited speaker and facilitator across the UK, Europe, the Philippines, and Malaysia, I’ve advocated for the Creative Economy, Community Wealth Building, wellbeing and inclusive growth principles. I’ve welcomed the world back to Dundee, hosting many delegations to ensure the learning and exchange is always mutual.

Knowledge into Practice

Open tools made to travel

With a background in product and systems design, I enjoy developing tools and visual frameworks which generate learning and open access. I led the commissioning and development of Nesta’s first product, the Creative Enterprise Toolkit in 2011.

Working with the external design team we published the handbook, I built awareness through media and partnerships, raised online sales and created a global partnership to launch a series of translated editions and train-the-trainer programme. Thousands of people used the practical tools — helped by its innovative Creative Commons share-alike license, and understanding of how creative businesses really function.

In 2015 the British Council commissioned myself and co-author Janine Matheson to create the Creative HubKit. Communities have significant expertise and knowledge, so we worked with hub leaders across the UK and Europe to surface the expertise – sharing tested approaches, honest case studies, and tools that reflect how hubs function – community-driven, ever-changing, and full of possibility. A free resource, made by hubs for emerging hubs.

Other tools I’ve led have included Nesta’s Peer Mentoring; and in partnership with Unltd, the Rooted guide – open-source, free resources for creative practitioners and social entrepreneurs in later life – designed to reach people that mainstream support often overlooks.

How Resources Flow

Reshaping investment

Who gets resourced shapes community wealth. I’m interested in the architecture of opportunities – designing how resources move through programmes, funds, models and frameworks to reach people that conventional finance and support can often overlook. 

Designing funds from the ground up at Creative Dundee, we’ve shaped an annual community-powered fund enabled and selected by the Amps community since 2017; created experimental micro-grant programmes to support R&D; and run a national fund for creative networks on behalf of Creative Scotland.

I’ve generated mixed income streams and led bids securing Creative Scotland Multi-Year Funding for Creative Dundee since 2018. I’ve worked on European funds and CULTIVATE – an early, large-scale project which placed creativity at the heart of climate justice in communities – commissioning 81 creative practitioners, engaging over 2,000 people, bringing £516,000 of covid-recovery investment into the Tay region. As part of this legacy, I contributed to securing initial consortium funding for Dundee Changemakers Hub.

My earlier fund design and management experience included Starter for 6, which provided innovation grants up to £10,000 for early-stage creative businesses. The design of the Digital R&D Fund for Arts & Culture in Scotland enabled arts organisations to test new ideas with creative technologists through investment up to £100,000. Age Unlimited Scotland combined training with a grant fund, supporting social entrepreneurs in later life.