Tag: The Fife Carers’ Collection

Some Good News about Our CARE Products

We launched our CARE products – items designed by adult and young carers in Fife while working with artists – in Dec 2019. This time last year (almost), we would have expected to have showcased them at several selling events by now. However, as we all know, Covid-19 struck with a vengeance in the early part of 2020.

As our staff have been working from home, it’s only now that we’ve got the online shop up and running more or less as before. To celebrate, we’ve created some special packs from a selection of the CARE products, and these come with a slightly discounted price!

• Pack 1 – one each of the 100% cotton tea towel, the A5 recycled sketchbook, & the A6 recycled sketchbook (price £16; should be £17.50)
• Pack 2 – one each of the A5 recycled sketchbook & the A6 recycled sketchbook (price £7; should be £7.50)
• Pack 3 – one of each of the 2 solid perfumes, Woodland Walk and Fire Dance (price £22; should be £24)

You can also purchase these items available singly! Plus, we are able to offer a small number of candles, scented with the Fire Dance and Woodland Walk perfumes (devised by the adult carer group in Kirkcaldy). Everything has been produced in small batches; so when they’re gone, they’re gone!

Find full details about all The Fife Carers’ Collection products on our website.

Read about the CARE Making for Good story through its online exhibition.

We are hugely grateful to The Robertson Trust who is supporting this project.

Fife Contemporary – Covid-19 Update

It’s hard to believe in some ways that we’re now into our 7th month since lockdown began in late March. The stockpiling of toilet rolls, tins of tomatoes and pasta has eased as most of us have got used to a different rhythm to life and we truly hope it’s not about to start again.

Fife Contemporary has been more fortunate than venue-based arts’ organisations who rely heavily on ticket income to keep all the wheels turning. However, we have had a major exhibition (Lines from Scotland) stuck in limbo – it was only open to the public for a matter of days before lockdown began. We’ve also had to cancel various public events, which is of course a great shame.

But we’ve found other ways to keep busy…

Online content – it’s virtually the way to go

If you follow our social media or receive our email newsflash, you’ll hopefully have noticed that we’ve been adding much more content to our website. Here’s what’s new so far:

• Lines from Scotland Online – INSIGHTS 1-10 (featuring some of the participating artists & curator Amanda Game) available now and several more to look forward to!
• Care Making for Good – an online exhibition to celebrate the first Phase of our project with Fife carers.
• Fife Portraits for LGBT+ History Month 2019 – to mark Fife Pride which was to have taken place on 4 July, we published this online exhibition of photographic portraits made last year by 2 LGBT+ youth groups in Fife.
• 100 Buttercups Education Pack – inspired by Laurie Clark’s beautifully drawn flower portraits & featured as part of Engage’s Children’s Art Week 2020.

There is more coming shortly to this web space, including the next in our series of Materialise exhibitions, supporting recent craft & design graduates/new makers.

And there’s more!

If you receive our newsflash, you may have noticed a change of content and style. This was partly in the pipeline anyway as our Artist Development Officer Stefanie Cheong took over the reins from me on 1 April. But with supporting artists still at the forefront of what we do, lockdown meant it was important to focus on how artists are surviving – see her new Artist Stories’ series.

Our blog now includes a variety of posts from Diana and Susan and more On This Day content from Arlene.

Looking forward

We are continuing to plan with our partners and are delighted (relieved?) that Lines from Scotland re-opened safely at DCL&G in Dunfermline in mid-August. In addition, we’re looking at blending virtual experiences with real ones, and how we can continue to reach audiences with Craft Pods’ exhibitions.

Join us for a celebration of Black History Month on 29 October 2020 on Zoom.Meanwhile, keep safe and well, and please get in touch with us by email or social media as we continue to work from home.

– The Fife Contemporary Team

CARE – Launched at Bowhouse in December!

Many thanks to everyone who came along to support CARE. Products will be available to buy on our online shop from January 2020.

Fife Contemporary has been working with several groups of carers in Fife on an exciting project this autumn. The fruit of everyone’s labour can be seen (and purchased) at Bowhouse on 15 December 2020!

The Fife Carers’ Collection is a collection of high quality, original gifts designed for you with care and imagination by Carers in Fife. Carers contribute so much to our communities and the Collection has provided them with a rare opportunity to take time out to focus on themselves and their creativity.

Members of the Fife Carers’ Centre working with poet and perfumer Rebecca Sharp have blended essential oils to produce their unique calming and inspiring scents, Woodland Walk and Fire Dance, for candles and solid perfume.

Junior Young Carers from Glenrothes have worked with ceramicist Gavin Burnett and artist Alan Grieve to create quirky drawings and characterful porcelain pots. Our branding was developed by designer Maeve Redmond from a concept devised by the Young Carers’ Focus group in Lochgelly.

Income generated from sales will be used to support more creative projects by Fife Carers.

We are hugely grateful to The Robertson Trust who is supporting this project.

Fife Contemporary will be running a stall at Bowhouse (near St Monans, Fife) on Sun 15 December 2019 (10am – 4pm) with other art- and craft-based companies, all selected by Tea Green Events.  On sale will be a selection of the products created as a result of these artistic collaborations: ceramic items, scented candles and solid perfumes, and printed goods featuring some of the Young Carers’ drawings.

From the beginning of 2020 we’ll be cracking on with phases 2 & 3 of the Fife Carers’ Collection; so stand by for updates on what happens next! We’ll also be adding stock to the online shop in January!

Follow CARE – The Fife Carers’ Collection on Facebook and Instagram.