Common Ground

The project is dedicated to bringing diverse communities together through arts and culture; creating an empowering environment for underrepresented groups, individuals and refugee communities to collaborate and organise; and more broadly diversifying the arts and creative sectors.

Current Projects

Flavour

Flavour is a series of food-sharing workshops and activities held in Common Ground. Cooking practices are a method of connection, collaboration and story-telling. Come along to share your favourite recipes and to learn about different food cultures while celebrating the creativity of cooking.

Common Ground Festival

Our first ever edition of Common Ground Festival took place in June 2024. Working with valued partners to deliver a varied programme, the festival showcased the work of artists within our communities and featured exhibitions, film screenings, performances and more.

Space

We run a space which hosts a variety of social and creative activities. Some of these are organised internally and others with partner organisations, groups, or individuals within our community. Common Ground is used in a range of ways, from serving as a hub for community drop-in sessions, to being a space for creative gatherings such as clay workshops. The space is designed to provide a safe, social environment to break isolation, increase connectivity and facilitate collaborations among individuals, the wider community and the creative arts.

Project & Programme

As well as the physical space, Common Ground also consists of a programme of events and activities, ranging from community workshops to celebratory gatherings. We aim to support and collaborate with individual creatives and refugee-led groups and projects. We work with partner organisations to deliver creative workshops, and hosted the first ever Common Ground Festival in June 2024 which celebrated the work and practises of artists in our communities.

If you have an idea for an event, workshop or activity that you would like to collaborate on, either as an individual or as part of an organisation, please get in touch with us at commonground@cca-glasgow.com.

Background

Common Ground was developed from CCA’s open-source model. This approach lays the foundations for the project’s open and mutual practice with forced migrants, refugees and those in the asylum process to develop the autonomous use of the space and direction of the project. In our first year, we focused on widening engagement through our consultation and collaboration with community members and a variety of local groups and organisations across Glasgow. Since this period we have been working to develop a core year-round programme in order to provide more creative opportunities for communities across the city.

Our vision

Over the next two years, Common Ground aims to

• Cultivate and develop a thriving social space for connection, creativity and collaboration
• Improve access and participation through a range of information and group work sessions covering social, cultural and creative arts activities
• Foster wider public engagement through partnerships with a variety of refugee-led and local community groups, projects and organisations
• Support the development and implementation of social and cultural activities led by communities

Partnerships

Common Ground has worked with many organisations and community groups to create sustainable partnerships built on shared values. Since opening the space, we have focused on developing our network and establishing partnerships which have taken many different forms, from shared activity delivery and facilitation, to providing support to community groups, individual artists and organisers. We are looking forward to expanding on our partnership working in 2024 with different projects taking place across Glasgow. If you think you or your community might benefit from partnering with us at Common Ground, please get in touch.

How to get involved

If you are interested in working together, would like to find out how to participate in any of our activities, or are just seeking more information about Common Ground then please contact us via email at commonground@cca-glasgow.com, or give us a call/message on 07756 288837.