'Shifting Tactics' workshops with Collective and LUX Scotland

Shifting Tactics is a series of free workshops programmed by Collective and LUX Scotland in direct response to the last two years of lockdowns. These workshops aim to support artists to move on from this period of cancelled exhibitions, closed workshops and the reduction of the important in-person conversations between artists that would have been formative experiences for early career artists under different circumstances.

Led by artists and aimed at artists who are trying to develop their practices, the workshops aim to create a shared space of care and support. Participants will be encouraged to question and explore conditions that impact the practices of early-career artists in particular. What skills do artists need to navigate and challenge the practical, theoretical, organisational and economic concerns that they face?

Drawing on artists’ experiences, the workshops encourage participants to challenge their thinking around ideas of success; question existing art sector structures and ​‘opportunities’; challenge their own systems; imagine what alternatives could exist and devise strategies to enact them.

The workshops below will all be in-person events held at Collective, Edinburgh. Booking in advance will be via Collective’s website next week.

Giving up Hope and Gaining Freedom | workshop led by artist Danny Pagarani, Thursday 24 March 2022, 5 – 8pm

A workshop that holds space for disagreement, plural narratives and the dormant pathways through which counter-understandings of the contemporary political condition can be formed.

12 Months The Opportunities Dice Game | workshop led by artist Gordon Douglas, Thursday 31 March 2022, 5 – 8pm

A workshop centring on a play through The Opportunities Dice Game, a roleplaying game set in a parallel 2022. Playing through a landscape of open calls, the game intends to provoke questions around the fine print of opportunities, ethics of collaboration, and maintaining critical space against the odds.

Warrior/​Worrier | workshop led by artist Hannan Jones, Tuesday 5 April 2022, 5 – 8pm

A provocation workshop exploring what it means to simultaneously embody a ​‘Warrior’ and a ​‘Worrier’ through sound, language and experimental modes of communication.

Shifting Tactics will continue throughout April and May 2022 with further in-person workshops led by artist and filmmaker Cauleen Smith, artist and writer Timothea Armour and artist and play worker Max Alexander.