2024, it’s been a blast!

Reflecting on 2024: A Year of Creativity, Community, and Collaboration at Creative Stirling

As we approach the end of 2024, we’re reflecting on what has been an extraordinary year for Creative Stirling. Together with our partners, we’ve delivered impactful projects, hosted incredible events, and fostered creativity within our community.

Here are some of the highlights from this year:

Our 2024 Highlights

We started the year with the Cyber Resilience Animation Project, a collaboration with LGBT Youth Scotland’s Digital Team funded by Cyber Security Scotland. Young participants learned animation skills in eight workshops led by David Galletly, Sam, and Alan from LGBT Youth Scotland. They produced a fun, game-style animation teaching cyber security essentials like strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and updating devices. The friendships formed during this project continue, with four participants regularly volunteering with us. Find out more here.

In Lavender Lives, a year-long partnership with LGBT Youth Scotland funded by Youthlink Scotland, young people explored creative expression through workshops in board game design, comic book creation, ceramics, SFX, queer mapping, and more. A highlight was their visit to the Glasgow Print Studio. The project culminated in incredible outputs like the ongoing Comin’ Oot board game, which continues into 2025 with new funding and partnerships. Find out more here.

At the Young Carers Action Day in March, we hosted a creative careers fair in partnership with Stirling Young Carers. Young attendees explored animation, fashion, illustration, ceramics, radio, DJing, and videography with incredible professionals David Galletly, Carina Rose, The Dandy Tiger, Sean Hall, Abbie Lois, Jade Diamond, The Penned Guin, Radical Weavers, Jamie Alexander, and Stirling Community Radio.

We had another fun year with Stirling Champs! We absolutely love spending time with all of the Champs young people. A couple of highlights this year were the Summer Fun Day (paint archery was very memorable) and their Christmas Prom (so many balloons!). It’s been a blast.

One of our youth volunteers, Matthew, supported us to deliver a fun creative project with Allan’s Primary School for Stirling 900. We celebrated local heritage with poetry and shadow puppet theatre about the famous Stirling Wolf!

In September, we supported Stirling’s first-ever Pride by running the youth space at the Pride Pit Stop event. This collaboration with LGBT Youth Scotland and Stirling Pride offered team-building activities, photography, tie-dye, animation, board games, and more, ensuring young people were at the heart of this historic celebration.

We also hosted our Rainbow Resilience exhibition, featuring a selection of work from our Lavender Lives project. During the running of this exhibition, we were delighted to share more LGBTQIA+ stories with Queer & Now, a week-long installation during the Rainbow Resilience exhibition in partnership with Shaper Caper. It showcased the work of 10 queer artists exploring identities from the 1980s to today. The accompanying artist talk sparked valuable discussions among young people about LGBTQIA+ history and current challenges facing the trans community.

Another key event was Making a Scene: Real Jobs in Film & TV, delivered in partnership with the National Film & TV School Scotland. This event introduced attendees to careers in the film and TV industry, featuring professionals Judith Milne (NFTS Scotland & Assistant Director), Chris Maxwell (streadicam camera operator), Jackie McCraith-Smith (locations), Aris Anastassopolous (sound), Elle Wilson (costume) Jamie Lapsley (Art Department) and Colin McLaren (screenwriting).

Throughout the year, we held Creative Youth Assembly gatherings to inspire young people with talks and workshops from talented artists and organisations. This initiative, part of the National Lottery-funded Community and Media Matters project, continues to grow and evolve.

Speaking of Community and Media Matters, the project has excelled through this year! We have attended many pathways and careers fairs throughout Forth Valley to promote the work we do. We have also delivered 10 courses, working in partnership with local schools, community groups, and more.

This year, we also welcomed Jamie, our Community and Media Matters intern! Jamie has been running a weekly radio show, writing blogs, and learning how to use our new (donated) film cameras! In addition, we continued to welcome new youth volunteers, some of whom are volunteer radio presenters for Stirling Community Radio and others supporting our creative and community projects (including our Comin’ Oot board game). Over this year, we have been strengthening our commitment to empowering young people through creative and community opportunities, one to one support, and networking.

Looking Ahead

As we wrap up 2024, we want to thank everyone who made this year so remarkable—our partners, volunteers, artists, and supporters. Your contributions are invaluable in helping us create better futures for young people and communities.

We’re excited to continue this journey into 2025, with plans to build on our successes, launch new projects, and support even more creative talent.

From all of us at Creative Stirling, we wish you a joyful holiday season and an inspiring New Year!

Discover more about our work and partnerships here.