PRINT MAGAZINE
featured contributor: neurodivergent artist Anna Gormezano Marks

CREATIVE STUDIO
featured client: European Social Work Research Association

ONLINE FEATURES
featured contributor: Sara Bennett, former public defender and Guggenheim fellow

CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP
featured segments: architects, design agencies, tech for good

SHOP
featured publications: In the palm of a spider’s hand, freeform

NEWSLETTERS
featured contributors: Maggie Watson, living with dementia since 2021

EVENTS
featured speakers: Ghazi Hussein, former political prisoner

Following a unique process, our community projects use creativity to inspire and empower those facing challenges. Building upon the methodology of Asset Based Community Development, our projects identify creative talents who could benefit from the nourishment and support of their skills. We strive to create a lasting legacy, igniting in our collaborators such a passion that they advance their own development alongside our continued support – nurturing our collaborators to be their best selves and delivering transferable skills to support economic growth and community wealth building. We deliver tangible impacts to incite genuine positive change within communities unfairly deemed ‘hard to reach’ – bringing them together to form part of a network fully untapped by standard industry. boom saloon sponsorship presents an opportunity to directly enable this vital, unique work, showcasing a commitment to robust governance mechanisms and positive environmental and social impacts as part of a sustainable future for all.

PROJECT 001: THE CREATIVE RIOT

Overview

The Creative Riot brought together performance parkour, space graffiti and more in a showcase of untapped talent, the legacy of which challenges much more than just our artistic tastes. In collaboration with a group of performers facing personal challenges of substance abuse, homelessness, anti-social behaviour and inequality in North Edinburgh – one of the highest scoring locales in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation – we produced a live community block party. This served to amplify the work of a broad spectrum of creatives, regardless of personal challenges too often insurmountable in the search for showcase. Together, we worked to showcase our performers’ talents front and centre, delivering transferable skills and access to Scotland’s creative industries.

Impact

The Creative Riot collaborated with 23 young people at risk of reoffending, eviction and homelessness. At this time, the average cost of a complex eviction was £7770; young offender institutions cost £239 per day; an estimated £20,000 per year was spent by the NHS and Criminal Justice Service where a person is homeless; and a dependent drinker cost the NHS an average of £2,133 a year. 21 of the 23 young people we worked with have gone on to full time employment, many within the creative industries, and continue to benefit from our support to this day via signposting, mentoring and connection. Including the Creative Riot performers in the event planning and management ensured transferable skills were delivered to all, forming the beginning of a lasting legacy to support a diverse, inclusive creative landscape. Using creativity to inspire and empower, the Creative Riot offered a platform to showcase talent of all forms – regardless of discipline, experience or nature.

“My experience of the first boom project was incredible! It was amazing to see such a diverse group of people from different backgrounds with different skill sets coming together to do what they love! There is an overwhelming sense of encouragement and support that boom saloon provide which makes for such an incredibly comfortable, friendly and enjoyable experience! I feel so happy and lucky to have been a part of something that is so relevant and that is, at its core, good.” – Dominique Haig, Creative Riot performer

PROJECT 002: LABEL FREE

Overview

Collaborating with young people dealing with forcible displacement, our second community project revisited a long held idea of a t-shirt collection which was, quite literally, label free – taking a stand against society’s generalisation of different groups of people and highlighting how detrimental this can be to our advancement as a whole. Devised following many months of groundwork aided by local charities, community members and organisations, Label Free began with a series of free workshops which opened up the full design process to build upon the young people’s inspiring talents, nurturing and encouraging their creativity. The stories shared throughout the workshops informed a series of motifs which featured across the t-shirts, with care instructions printed onto the garments to allow them to be fully ‘label free.’ These were sold in a one-for-one model, with one being donated to project partners Refuweegee for every one sold. Distributed to Glasgow’s local refugee community, these created a lasting physical legacy of the project’s important message: a reminder to look beyond the obvious and take the time to fully understand the world we live in and the people who fill it – shaking off the labels which have been attached to them and celebrating their unique quirks, personalities and talents.

Impact

Label Free collaborated with eight young people dealing with forcible displacement at a time when people seeking asylum did not have the right to work to support themselves and their families – instead, relying on small amounts of money from the Home Office. Our group included people seeking asylum, who received £40.85 per week; and people housed in asylum accommodation, who received £8.24 a week – less than £1.20 a day to cover food and essentials, with little left for socialising or creative development. Label Free offered a pathway out of this situation, offering free workshops and refreshments pinning together a creative process open to all. This created safe space to share the true lived experience of forcible displacement and highlight the individuals behind the headlines – bringing them together to deliver transferable skills which were drawn upon by five of the group as they moved into full time education and employment. Over 100 t-shirts were sold, further disseminating the project’s vital message whilst simultaneously clothing those with lived experience of forcible displacement.

“I have always been interested in the creative field, but found it really hard to have an opportunity to get involved. The atmosphere among all the young people in ‘Label Free’ was brilliant. We worked with a professional photographer and fashion designers! I have gained loads of helpful information in order for me to go on a jewellery design course. I now know my potential and my confidence has increased as well.” – Lan You, Label Free designer and member of our advisory committee

PROJECT 003: Word Play

Overview

The first publication to arise from our work to rewrite the story of dementia, Word Play was produced in collaboration with our charity partners, STAND – a peer support group for those living with young onset dementia and their families and friends in Fife, Scotland. Together, we produced a publication which supported people with dementia to play with words – providing them with a structure and a stimulus to inspire them to write creatively. Word Play exists to improve care for people with dementia living at home or in residential care in the UK; to improve the quality of life for people with dementia and their carers; and to support the provision of meaningful activity for people with dementia in care homes, in their own homes or in the community.

Impact

93,000 people in Scotland have dementia; one in three of those born in 2015 are expected to develop it and dementia rates are on course to triple by 2050. Of those living with dementia, up to half are thought to be undiagnosed. Diagnosis remains a lengthy and confusing process, with little public awareness of the dementia journey – and a lack of lived experience as part of the dialogue. To begin to address this, we collaborated with STAND – a peer support group for those with young onset dementia in Fife, Scotland – to use poetry and creative writing to unlock the true lived experience of the dementia journey, before sharing this with a largely unaware public to increase empathy and understanding of how we might better design for our ageing population. Over 5,000 individuals were reached with this message via our book, Word Play – improving care and quality of life for an increasing segment of our society.

Lan first collaborated with us during Label Free, having recently arrived in Glasgow. Her keen eye and talents in illustration were brought to the fore during the project – following this, we supported her to enter into part-time employment whilst undertaking jewellery classes at college. Following this, she joined our advisory committee to steer and inform the direction of our upcoming community projects.

Joell performed at The Creative Riot – at the time, as part of local rap band 131 Northside. We continued to support his career following this first collaboration, signposting him to relevant opportunities, sharing his latest work with our growing global community and featuring him across our online features before inviting him to star on our radio show in advance of a new music release.

We first met Gerry through STAND, when he had recently been diagnosed with young onset dementia. Through supporting him to play with words, we unlocked his true lived experience and began to comprehend the levels of loss he had experienced following initial diagnosis. Openly stating he considered taking his own life, he has since gone on to become a figurehead of living well with dementia, whose poems feature across songs and theatre productions exploring the theme.