Where’s your head at? Addressing capacity in creating safe spaces

This month we are very excited to be joined on Elevenses with CEC by one of the founding Co-Directors of Sanctuary Queer Arts, Fraser Macleod, who is keen to use this platform to talk about mental health support for those who create safe spaces for others – a subject particularly close to our hearts.

Launched in 2020, Sanctuary Queer Arts amplifies LGBTQIA+ voices, creating intergenerational platforms for cultural activity and artistic development opportunities for queer performance makers in Scotland. The chief principle of Sanctuary is development from the ground up – to truly enact change we must cultivate confidence in a younger generation whilst continuing to nurture existing queer voices.

After a full year of running Sanctuary Queer Arts and being committed to not just saying the right things but actually doing what is necessary to support their staff and visiting artists, so that they can in turn then fully support their participants, Fraser will share the
services they’ve offered, what they’ve learned doing so and what’s coming next.

To our minds this is something every organisation could learn from and we hope you’ll join us for this honest look at the challenges and benefits of prioritising mental health in the workplace.

More about Fraser

With almost 20 years experience, Fraser is experiences and skilled in managing and directing successful partnerships and collaborations to offer safe spaces and platforms, for both experienced and inexperienced performers – exploring, developing and showcasing their creative capabilities. Fraser regularly works with the National Theatre of Scotland, Tron Theatre, Performance Collective Stranraer and Licketyspit.

Sanctuary Queer Arts is running a National Queer Young Company (for LGBTQIA+ identifying artists aged 18-25), a Newer Artist Development Programme (for artists with 3-5 years professional experience) and a Commissioned Writers Programme (for queers person of colour and a disabled artist). Sanctuary Queer Arts is run by Co-directors Annabel Cooper, Drew Taylor- Wilson and Fraser MacLeod with continues guidance and support from established intersectional queer artists.

In September/October 2021 Sanctuary Queer Arts will host a Sanctuary Showcase, a culminating event of performances, events, workshops and discussions celebrating its pilot year.

Connect with Fraser at the Creative Entrepreneurs Club