Name: MUD: Artist Development Day
Start: 2026-11-21T09:30:00+00:00
End: 2026-11-21T16:30:00+00:00

In November 2025 furniture designer and artist Simon Whatley and new maker Mike Delaitre started working closely together to design and build a new two-person seat for communities across Fife. The seat, which they have given the title Vessel, is designed to encourage conversations between strangers and to foster greater understanding between people from different cultural backgrounds and communities.

The online exhibition is an opportunity to learn more about the whole project, from how Mike and Simon teamed up and worked together, through the design and build of Vessel, to how it was launched to the Fife African and Caribbean Network.

Explore the Vessel Online Exhibition here

Vessel is the result of four months of research and gathering resources, then four months of design development, learning, mentoring and further research and collaboration. Finally, after a three week period of building and workshop time, Vessel was launched with an opening event and Nyabinghi Nia drumming workshop led by Mike at Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries on Saturday 13 June 2026.

Now complete, Vessel invites people of all cultural backgrounds to use the bench and feel empowered to have open discussions about their lives and experiences. The bench carries with it the combined energy of its varied design elements, inspirations, materials and construction methods used to make it. Above all it is imbued with the sense of comradeship and collaboration, born of many and various deep conversations between its two makers, Mike and Simon.