Catalyst Conference returns in 2022 with #CultureisNotaLuxury featuring high profile panel of experts including Dame Evelyn Glennie
- Taking place online the conference seeks to create new partnerships across heritage, arts, public space, and education, and urges individuals and organisations to sign up
- Pay-what-you-can scheme means conference is accessible to all, across all sectors
- Investigating the role that culture plays in recovery and renewal the Catalyst Conference is organised by award winning Curated Place with support from Creative Scotland
Curated Place is excited to announce the return of the Catalyst Conference in 2022 to investigate the role that culture plays in recovery and renewal.
Thanks to support from Creative Scotland, and keeping speaker and participant comfort front of mind, this year’s conference will take place online on Friday 11 February, meaning individuals and organisations from across Scotland, and indeed further afield, are being urged to sign up and be a part of the conversation. Operating a pay-what-you-can scheme Curated Place hope to ensure that everyone from all sectors can attend.
In Scotland’s Year of Stories #CultureisNotaLuxury questions how the language of culture is used outside of the arts and culture sector and how those within the sector can better influence people’s values and understanding. By understanding the impact that culture has on wider society including the economy and the health of our workforces, and by engaging the right people through the right language, organisers believe this can be achieved, not only in Aberdeen but anywhere.
Featuring a panel of expert speakers from the arts, education, heritage, tourism and business sectors, the Catalyst Conference interrogates the role of culture in the wake of the pandemic, asking who speaks for change and how the sector goes about delivering it. #CultureisNotaLuxury brings together arts and activism with those that hold the levers of power and seeks to create new partnerships across heritage, arts, public space, and education.
This year’s expert panel includes Dame Evelyn Glennie – internationally renowned musician and Chancellor of Robert Gordon University – Danny Forster – architect, TV host and producer/director – Khaleda Noon – founder and executive director of ground-breaking charity Intercultural Youth Scotland (IYS) – alongside Spectra artists and other leaders in culture, creativity, health, education, place & community from across Scotland and internationally.
List of confirmed speakers below and HERE
Andy Brydon, Director at Curated Place, said: “We are excited to announce this year’s Catalyst Conference line-up under the umbrella #CultureisNotaLuxury. At a time when so many have been impacted by the pandemic, culture can be dismissed as less important. We are here to explain why it is vital and we urge anyone and everyone from the arts, culture, heritage and even business sectors, to sign up.
We want this year’s conference to question how those in culture can better influence people’s values, escape echo chambers, and recover creatively in the wake of the pandemic. We look forward to welcoming those from in and around Aberdeen, as well speakers and participants joining us from further afield, online on Saturday 11 February.”
Dame Evelyn Glennie said:
“I feel very honoured to have been asked to speak at the Catalyst Conference, an event that has such a firm focus and belief in the power culture has to bring about positive change, not least as we continue to exist in the wake of the pandemic.
This online conference is a chance for those in the know, and those with the power, to get together and talk about real life solutions to a whole range of issues that continue to exist not only in Scotland’s North East, but across the country and indeed the world.
I am very much looking forward to some engaged and inspiring conversations.”
