Hospitalfield is partnering with greenspace scotland to deliver the Angus contingent of a nationwide project, Remembering Together, a project to co-create memorials that will honour the people we have lost, mark what has been lost and changed in our lives and preserve the best of what we have learned and created together during the Covid pandemic.
We Want to Hear From You
We want to hear from you!
Phase One
About the project
Angus Remembers is the Angus region’s project for Remembering Together, a Scottish government funded initiative that has commissioned artists/creatives in every one of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas to co-create Covid memorials with people and communities.
Covid touches, and continues to affect, everyone in Scotland, and in the world. Coming together for this project has given and continues to give us some space to pause, to reflect and to consider all that has happened and is still happening.
Remembering Together is supporting many ways of being together and remembering the months and years; remembering those lost, remembering that we are all touched by this experience, remembering that for some who were experiencing inequality already, the impact is deeper.
Phase 1, Community Consultation, is now complete; Artist Practitioner Abbey Craig and Artist Lily Garget have worked with Angus Communities since early 2022, leading Phase One through the important consultation process. Through this process they have worked with the community to establish a set of ideas and values for what they would like to see as a memorial in Angus.
The community have made the decision that they would like to commission a series of benches and a memory/archive box. The benches are to be positioned in very specific places and the box, which should be portable, used to ‘keep’ items that trigger memories.
The benches and box will memorialise and honour the people we have lost but also connect people and celebrate how communities supported each other throughout the pandemic.
Phase Two
An update on Phase two of the project; Angus Remembers have successfully appointed a bench designer and a web designer through an open call recruitment and interview process, we received five applications and interviewed four. Mickey Fenton was successfully appointed as the designer for the benches, living locally he is a new career designer working with furniture and has a background in community engaged design, working with people with his project V//ALLIE, a user-centric project that explored skate boarding’s ability to reappropriate public and urban space by creating temporary and modular, skateboard-friendly street furniture and architectural interventions that could turn the exterior plaza of V&A Dundee into a more socially dynamic and lively space. Mickey showed a real understanding of Angus Remembers project . We look forward to working with him on the Angus Remembers benches. Mickey is beginning his process with a series of workshops with community groups.
We have also recruiter a designer for the website, Michela Zoppa, is a London-based graphic designer, researcher and art director, working between Italy and UK. She currently works as a freelance designer developingher independent practice as art director and researcher. Specialised in design for publishing, her practice engages with creative figures in art, design and fashion through conversations to redefine the boundaries and challenge the outcomes of communication, art direction and editorial design. Together with her design practice she’s a writer,
curating the online poetry collection “A Cloak for Abstract Thought”.
Mickey has now visited the five possible bench sites across Angus with Abbey and/or focus group members and will have initial designs to present to the community . On Saturday 18 November., 11am at Hospitalfield Arbroath, we are hosting a community drop in day at Hospitalfield to share initial designs and have feedback consultations.
Remembering Together Angus
Hospitalfield is partnering with greenspace scotland to deliver the Angus contingent of a nationwide project, Remembering Together.
Working with communities across Scotland, Remembering Together is a project to co-create memorials that will honour the people we have lost, mark what has been lost and changed in our lives and preserve the best of what we have learned and created together during the Covid pandemic.
As we near the end of the second year of the Covid pandemic, Remembering Together will commission artists in all 32 local authority areas in Scotland to co-create with communities, honouring the people we have lost and finding the ways we want to remember them. It is also about remembering all the ways Covid is affecting us. Offering a place to connect, to reflect and to create, Remembering Together is about creating together, being part of a process to commemorate those who have lost their lives, those who have experienced loss and change as well as celebrating the ways in which Scottish communities have come together during the most difficult times.
Throughout the pandemic, many public and third sector services and organisations in Angus increased their capacity and output, especially food banks and associated services. Community Planning Partners and the Third Sector have worked in partnership with communities, providing essential, practical support to those in need within a highly adaptable support network. Many of these people and organisations will have stories to tell and life changing experiences to share. We will look to tap into this wealth of amazing people in our communities and use this project to support their continued efforts in helping Angus recover from the pandemic.
Remembering Together will continue through 2022 and into 2023, offering a space to come together with others to share and process what Covid has meant, and continues to mean for communities across the country.
For more information on how to be involved email Abbey or Lily on angusremembers@gmail.com
Angus Remembers Team Phase 1
Project Lead
Abbey Craig is a freelance creative arts practitioner with a deep-rooted belief in caring communities that can help to enable every person. This includes always considering and raising awareness and understanding of perceived disabilities, including mental health and complex health needs, illness, death, dying and bereavement. With a degree in Drama and Education and a Primary PGCE, Abbey has experience working with children and young people, teaching and community education.
“Remembering Together is an opportunity to reach out to our entire Angus community and to give time to enabling the sharing of Covid-19 experiences, to empower everyone to be part of the Covid Memorial process and outcome…Our intention is to give as many people as possible the opportunity to be heard, to create their own memorial to their Covid-19 experience as we workshop, and to gather a tapestry of experiences and ideas to present for the 2nd phase of this exciting project.” Abbey Craig
Associate Artist
Lily Garget, graduating from Glasgow School of Art 2022, is a visual artist based in Angus. Lily has created work about landscape, time, and self through naturally dyed textiles and self-published zines. Her interests in capturing landscape and creating gathering spaces have also evolved to incorporate mild steel metalwork. Through anam creative, a Glasgow based collective of visual artists and musicians, Lily is expanding her practice to create work and opportunities for other young creatives. These elements come together to form a practice around creating networks based on artistic collaboration, exploration of place, and investigation of materials.
“Remembering Together, A Covid Memorial, speaks of a unique opportunity to represent, voice, and visualise individual experiences within the collective memory of the Angus communities over the past 2 years…We are committed to reaching and engaging as many communities as possible, and facilitating conversations and workshops which aid reflection, remembering, hope and healing for this part of the country.” Lily Garget.