News Story
In June 2024, we began our first ever Community Connections Hub partnership with Space @ The Broomhouse Hub.
Across the past 18 months we have worked closely with the centre’s staff and local community to get to know each other better, creating activity responding directly to their collective interests.
As we look ahead to another year of creative collaborations, we want to take a moment to celebrate the creative connections built across 2025.
Together, we agreed on three key focus areas of creative collaboration through the partnership:
Skills & Training
Dementia Inclusive Work
Promoting Social Connections
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Aga Khan Culture Club
© Credit : Ryan Buchanan
Skills & Training: Young People
From March–May 2025, we collaborated with Space’s Wellbeing onto Work programme (WOW!) to connect with ten 16-24-year-olds who are experiencing barriers to employment. The group took part in creative workshops with Festival staff, exploring the different types of jobs in the Festival.
This has been a wonderful 10-week collaborative project which has left us all inspired about the impact of The Arts!Youth Participation Worker – Esther Kuperij
75% of group members said they felt more confident and ready to try new things at the end of the course, with seven of the group members going on to complete paid work experience with the International Festival in August.
Skills & Training: Speakers of Other Languages
Space @ The Broomhouse Hub runs a number of courses offering training in English for Speakers of Other Languages, and we co-created a course called ‘Welcome to the International Festival’ aiming to build confidence in conversational English whilst exploring the importance of international connections to the Festival.
The group got their dancing shoes on with workshops with Scottish Ballet exploring the choreography of Festival 2025 production Mary, Queen of Scots and tried out West African dance with members of Sidiki Dembele ensemble.
Sidiki Dembele
© Maxime RagniSkills & Training: Culture Club
Together, with Speakers of Other Languages group, we explored how the Festival extends a welcome to audiences through customer service skills. This all led to the group helping to plan an International Festival Culture Club at Broomhouse in August, designing a community meal and performance for the local community.
Over 60 Broomhouse residents attended the Culture Club, sampling an international menu representing group members’ cultures and hearing from members of the Aga Khan music programme.
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Aga Khan Culture Club
© Credit : Ryan Buchanan
Aga Khan Culture Club
© Credit : Ryan BuchananAga Khan Culture Club
© Credit : Ryan Buchanan
Aga Khan Culture Club
© Credit : Ryan BuchananExcellent partnership working. I hope we will work together again as it was such an enjoyable experience. It was also wonderful to see such superb performers during the time.Hazel Lyons, Learning Project Worker, Space @ The Broomhouse Hub
Dementia Inclusive Work
Across 2025, we have had the joy of collaborating with Space @ The Broomhouse Hub’s dementia inclusive day service, The Beacon Club.
Members have taken part in a variety of different workshops led by Discovery & Participation Associate Artist Lucy Drever, connecting with Scottish musicians. The Beacon Club members have been excited to try new things, whilst also sharing their own songs and stories alongside the musicians.
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One thing that stands out to me is the way Lucy draws everyone into the session. At the start of the session the members will say they can’t sing and laugh at the suggestion they might … Then by the end of the session they are so relaxed and comfortable that they will sing a solo.Lyn Glenn, Beacon Club Service Coordinator
Our work with the Beacon Club, inspired the International Festival to present its first ever Dementia Friendly Concert with Scottish Chamber Orchestra, in August 2025.
Creating Social Connections
A key part of Space @ The Broomhouse Hub’s work is addressing social isolation. In 2025, we connected the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), one of our 2025 Resident Orchestra’s, with the local community. Alongside their world-class orchestral performances, the LSO also deliver a fantastic programme of embedded community engagement work.
The music making was fantastic. The teachers were so welcoming and gave us such confidence to play … It was great to participate in an activity that was bit different. It was really cool to see how the words we picked could be expressed through different instruments and tones.Participant
Headed up by Associate Artist, Lucy Drever and working with Scottish based musicians, group members created their own responses to the LSO International Festival 25 residency repertoire. We worked with 3 groups, People’s Health & Emotional Wellbeing (PHEW) for 18-26 year olds, BHealthy Together’s Create & Connect group for older adults and the Beacon Club, enabling the project to create intergenerational connections. Participants wrote their own lyrics, composed pieces of music, created visual scores and tried handheld percussion, whilst sharing conversation and interaction with other group members and visiting artists.
What’s Next?
Our Community Connections Hub partnership with Space @ Broomhouse Hub was originally intended to last 18 months. After the success of the programme, we are expanding the residency through 2026. We look forward to building on ideas and connections together.
Stay tuned.
© Ryan Buchanan