Creative Stirling started life in 2012 as a small collective of creatives working together to support grass-root arts and culture in Stirlingshire. Our challenge was to achieve this at a time when funding for the arts was disappearing like snow from a dyke and change was the only sure thing for the cultural landscape of Scotland. With open minds and hearts, we did what our local creative community asked for, creating a lively and eclectic programme of projects, pop up events and exhibitions. In the six years since our humble beginnings, we have worked with hundreds of Stirlingshire’s young and emerging artists, makers, designers, musicians, writers and performers. We have delivered an enormous variety and number of creative events in uncharted places in and around our city. We are here to encourage and support local talent and to offer something new and creative, for all our community to enjoy. To this end, in 2016 Creative Stirling became a Scottish Charity that operates as a social enterprise. The ‘Made in Stirling’ store is a community gallery, workshop and shop, which is where people can easily find and engage with Creative Stirling. What started life as a pop-up project has had six relocations within Stirling City Centre, refining and growing how we work along the way, to support a collective of a hundred strong, local artists and makers. The ‘Made in Stirling’ store continues to evolve as new people come on board. It is the cornerstone upon we will continue to build Creative Stirling into a successful social enterprise.

Demand for more community events and projects and a lengthening waiting list of artists looking for space to show and sell their work, illustrated the need for Creative Stirling to scale its activities. In November 2018, with the help of our artists and makers collective, business partners and our friends in the community, we opened our doors at 44 King Street to our new Creative Hub in the heart of the City. In a matter of weeks, an empty retail outlet was transformed into our new collective shop, community gallery, workshop, venue and event space. Our vision is to extend Creative Stirling’s reach into the community. Ideas that are on the table and for which we are actively seeking funding, are a community kitchen and café, capital for equipment for makers workshops and a children’s learning space. The hub will be a creative space that welcomes people in and where practical support for creative enterprise and local talent will be available. It will be the HQ for the Stirling Place Partnership, project managed by Creative Stirling, supported by Creative Scotland and Stirling Council working with the Stirling Cultural Partners.

We realised early on that Creative Stirling had scope as a broader force for good. Within the community we had become a known and trusted place where people would connect and be able to participate in artist-led projects and creative workshops and enjoy performances, talks and screenings. This was recognised in a Creative Scotland Report that concluded that Creative Stirling was the only creative artists network studied, that could show social alongside economic impact with 100% of people attending the Stirling focus group agreeing that - ‘Creative Stirling has broken down the barriers and is making the creative sector more available to the local community.’ The innovation foundation, NESTA, confirmed this link between economic and social outcomes in their report, Creative Nation: How the Creative Industries are powering the UK’s Nations and Regions (2018).