Welcome
2024 has been yet another busy and eventful year for WHALE. Perhaps our most significant - but least visible - achievement this year has been the completion of our Community Asset Transfer (to finally own the land our building stands on), supported by the Scottish Land Fund, which secures our building and the future security of WHALE for the years to come. This was a complex and demanding process for our staff team, and a significant step for WHALE. That WHALE continues to thrive in an increasingly precarious and uncertain funding context is testament to our staff team, our freelancers and volunteers, and their ongoing commitment to WHALE, where we are and what we do. Our range of programmes and activities is only possible through this commitment. It’s not always easy and yet again they have gone the extra mile, (and sometimes more), to make WHALE the place it is and I’d like to thank them all on behalf of the WHALE board. This year we said goodbye to Leah Black as our Chief Executive after six years of excellent leadership, particularly through the pandemic. We thank her and wish her well in her new role leading Foundation Scotland’s innovative Regenerative Futures Fund. Our ‘ new ’ Chief Executive is Kate Griffin, well-known to anyone who knows WHALE, who, after being acting Chief Executive whilst Leah was on secondment, was appointed officially in July. As a board we are delighted with Kate’s appointment and all it means for WHALE’s staff team, members, volunteers and participants.
On a personal note, I am stepping down from the board of trustees and my role as chair of WHALE. I’ve known Wester Hailes all my life: I watched it being built as a small boy; I began my career as an artist aged 17 painting murals in the Calders on a government scheme, and returned as a trustee for WHALE in 2019. Wester Hailes is a place of far greater opportunity now than it was forty years ago, and I think WHALE has played its part in this, and I’m proud to have played a tiny part in supporting WHALE and what we do. I’ve learnt a lot from being part of WHALE and would like to say “thank you ” to all our members, volunteers, staff team and other trustees for everything over the last five years.
Dr Andrew McNiven, Chair, WHALE Arts, November 2024
This has been an excellent year for WHALE Arts, the main focus of which has been the successful Community Asset Transfer land purchase. We owe special thanks to the Scottish Land Fund, Kevin Sturgeon at Gillespie McAndrew, the City of Edinburgh Council, local councillors, Architect Akiko Kobayashi, and the entire WHALE Arts community for making this milestone possible. We were delighted to host the Scottish Parliamentary Culture Group for a round table discussion on Culture in Communities and to share our work. We reached record levels of engagement this year, with over 15,000 visitors to WHALE Arts Centre and more than 18,000 participations in our programmes in Wester Hailes and (via our Creative Community Hubs project) across the city, highlighting the depth of community connection and enthusiasm for the diverse programming that WHALE Arts delivers. We’re developing a Strategic Plan for 2025-2030 with our members, community, partners and participants that will take us forward for the next five years; building our social enterprises, like our Riso-printed cards and the Pod Café; recognising the value of our staff team with improved well-being support, pay and opportunities; reducing our impact on the planet and ensuring that we are continuing to provide a safe, inclusive space where creativity can flourish. These initiatives will help sustain our mission, build the organisation and enrich our community co-produced creative programme.
Thank you to our wonderful community, members, board, volunteers and staff team - a warm welcome to new faces and our thanks and best wishes to Andrew, who has been a wonderful Chair of the WHALE Arts board and to Leah for all she has done for WHALE. Kate Griffin, CEO
About WHALE Arts
WHALE Arts is a community-led arts charity and social enterprise, set up by local people in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh in 1992. We connect our community with creative activities through the delivery of projects, programmes and events.
We aim to enhance people’s health, wellbeing and happiness through arts, creativity and innovation and improve people’s economic prospects through developing creative enterprise and community wealth building and learning and skills opportunities.
As a place-based, community charity we work hard with partners to share and celebrate the quality creative and cultural projects that happen in the area. We build upon these successes to inspire and empower our community to continue to demonstrate the power of creativity as a driver of social change.
Our program is a vibrant, community-driven experience that’s always free and open to all, regardless of age, background, or accessibility needs. We offer a dynamic mix of activities that include visual arts, crafting, performance, cooking, gardening, digital skills, therapeutic workshops, community wealth-building, sensory creative play, and much more. From weekly community meals and holiday programmes to exhibitions, shows, and exciting outings, there’s something for everyone.
We partner with local schools, nurseries, social workers, GPs, youth groups, care homes, theatres, galleries, festivals, libraries, and other charitable organisations to deliver engaging, inclusive creative experiences that bring our community together in new and meaningful ways.
Strategic Plan
2019 - 2024
Mission
We create the conditions for our community in Wester Hailes to work alongside artists and cultural practitioners to become agents for change who will proactively co-design, participate in, support or lead quality creative activity at all stages of their lives.
Vision
Wester Hailes is a creative, thriving, resilient, fair community.
Key Themes
Health, Wellbeing & Happiness
Economy, Enterprise, Learning & Skills
Places and Spaces
Development and Improvement
Data, Design, Evaluation, Innovation
Communication, Conversation, Co-production
Values
Equality, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion
We welcome everyone and strive to support anyone who wants to participate. We consider equity to be important as well as equality and we tailor our activities accordingly when we can.
Creativity
In its broadest sense and placed firmly at the heart of everything we do, we see creativity as a way of unlocking self-expression, problem-solving, learning and joy.
Openness
We encourage generosity, kindness and facilitate the sharing of ideas.
Tenacity
We are brave and ambitious for ourselves as an organisation and for the people we work with: we foster resilience and resourcefulness.
Working Together
We recognise we are one part of a bigger system and that we will be more successful if we work with others who share our vision.
Innovation AND Continuity
We celebrate and sustain initiatives but balance this with taking risks and trying new things.
468 Regular sessions in which
18413 Participations
15130 people visited WHALE Arts Our Highest Ever!
5043 People attended
176 Holiday, Partnership & One-off Events
487 People of all ages & abilities participated
79 Volunteers contributed
895 Hours of their time to support us
“The minute I walk through the door I feel welcomed and I just want to smile.”
Health, Wellbeing & Happiness
Our Health, Wellbeing, and Happiness initiative offers a diverse range of regular groups, events, workshops, and collaborative projects. At its core, we focus on promoting positive wellbeing through the power of creativity. This means helping to reduce anxiety, depression, and feelings of social isolation, while boosting self-confidence, selfesteem, and fostering stronger social connections.
By building positive relationships and a deeper sense of purpose within the community, we're dedicated to supporting individuals on their journey to a healthier, happier life.
This year, our groups have grown stronger as participants become friends and take pride in supporting each other.
Key Highlights
We ran a summer programme for participants to learn new skills like risograph printing, decoupage, sewing, and clay work and connect with others across groups. Feedback was positive, with participants enjoying both the skills and new connections.
We gave all the participants the chance to exhibit their work in WHALE Arts by giving each group their own exhibition.
Participants got the chance to take part in Artist Daniel Silver’s project Head’s Up which was exhibited at the Fruitmarket Gallery.
In Open Studio, a participant skilled in crochet was supported to share her knowledge with three others, who then passed the skill on to their friends and family.
In 2022, we sadly lost Anne, a founding member of the Stitch’N’Time group, to cancer. Inspired by her memory, the group made drain bags for a hospice and hosted a coffee morning at WHALE Arts, raising £500 for Macmillan Cancer Care through stalls, refreshments, and homemade items.
“WHALE Arts gives me support and respect. Everyone is always welcoming and it has opened doors for me.” smARTcraft Participant
We hosted a Christmas lunch for all Arts and Wellbeing Programme participants, providing a chance for everyone to build friendships, share ideas, and have some festive fun.
The Men’s Makers group enjoyed a wood-turning lesson during a trip to Edinburgh Open Workshop, which led us to purchase a lathe to support their continued skill development in wood turning.
“I didn’t really think art would be my kind of thing, but I came along to give it a try. Now I come twice a week. I have amazed myself and have made things that I feel so proud of.”
Economy, Enterprise, Learning & Skills
We design and deliver projects aimed at developing skills, fostering creative learning, and supporting the growth of microbusinesses and enterprises. These projects are co-created with community members to build on their existing talents and interests.
Our SmARTies group engaged over 50 children (ages 6-12), building their skills, confidence, and creative problem-solving abilities through diverse activities and trips. Working with local schools and nurseries we supported young people to come to WHALE Arts to experience the magic of live theatre with performances of ‘ Ginger’, ‘The Good the Bad and the Poultry’, ‘Boxed Up’ and ‘PRISM’. We provided development and rehearsal time to support and nurture artists and theatre makers and were able to offer schools, families and relaxed performances of pieces devised especially for children with additional support needs and early years.
We delivered 105 sessions at WHALE Arts and Clovenstone Community Centre, supporting 34 participants in our Adult Digital Skills Programme. Topics included device troubleshooting, email, online banking, and college support.
Key Highlights
Our partnership with Manipulate Arts included making an animation for a showreel at The One Bum Cinema.
We worked with Stories Untold to deliver ‘Boxed Up’, a fantastic show we shared with our children and young people, schools and nurseries.
We launched an exciting new partnership project with Prospect offering one-to-one support for their most digitally-excluded tenants, as well as took part in a community of learning with other digital support organisations from across Scotland.
55 different people from 17 different cultural backgrounds attended Empowered Enterprise courses and events.
We supported placements for students from Edinburgh College, Queen Margaret, Napier and Edinburgh University.
Everyone is so nice here, I’ve learned a lot. I got this laptop from a friend but it was just gathering dust. I never thought I would use it and now I’m on it every night.”
Our Enterprising activities
Collective Project: Create Co participants to develop produc platforms such as Ocean Ter more. They held artist exhibitio Granton Hub, WHALE and N residential trip to Dumfries to v Empowered Enterprise which Community Wealth project development sessions includin social media, product pricing financial planning. The projec evenings with invited insp sessions and 1:1 sessions. T and a creative play space partnership with Starcatchers t
As part of the Empowered Ente Café space for peer-support se providing hot food and drinks Pod Press, our community riso our regular programme and fr for sale. SmARTcraft produce participants created postcards town. These designs are for Edinburgh Printmakers, Sc Collective & CCA Glasgow.
“I’d advise anyone to come to WHALE and be a big part of our family, because that’s what we are, we’re a big happy family here and honestly I do love it!”
WHALE Arts Member
“WHALE Arts is helping communities improve lives.” Empowered Enterprise participant
Community, Places & Spaces
We were delighted to complete our Community Asset Transfer (CAT) in Spring 2024 and are now the owners of the land our building stands on. This has been a long process involving extensive consultation and the support of the Scottish Land Fund to get to completion. Outreach and activities are a key part of our programme and we work closely with our members to develop our organisation.
Our monthly Members Meetings and meals provided a forum for members to share their ideas and suggestions for trips and activities with our Community Development Team. In response to this feedback, we organised some fun and exciting trips from Fringe Shows to Flamenco Perfomances over the course of the year for our Members and continued our popular programme of monthly Members’ Coffee Mornings and Community Walks.
Places and spaces include our outreach and community development work but also our own community garden, community meal and numerous related events and activities including our Film and Food nights, which bring people together on the cold winter nights for a warm meal and some family-friendly entertainment.
With a huge effort from our Community Garden Coordinator the WHALE Arts garden has been transformed, into a vibrant, lush and beautiful space for activities, volunteering and growing and engaged 79 fantastic corporate and regular volunteers who helped with clearing paths, weeding beds, painting planters, and generally supporting our programme.
In conjunction with our community meal and community garden, we celebrated special events such as Scottish Apple Day and Tree Dressing Day with delicious food and creative activities.
Partnerships & Networks
We were very honoured to be asked to host one of two Local Place Plan Learning Events, in partnership with Community Land Scotland, Kinning Park Complex and Wester Hailes Community Trust, which brought together members of communities from across Scotland to share their experiences and perceptions of the Local Place Plan process.
Our Creative Community Hubs project is a network of citywide organisations who work with their local communities to deliver creative and cultural activity led by the interests and needs of local people. ‘Funding Communities Better’ publication was launched to share our action research on culture in communities funding models. We were pleased to become a Strategic Partner of City of Edinburgh Council who are funding this work and our CCH team. The hubs are Out of the Blueprint, Granton Hub, Duncan Place Resource Centre, North Edinburgh Arts, The Old Town Community Trust, Craigmillar Now, and Lyra.
Hubs Leads Tiki Muir and Morvern Cunningham gave a presentation with Edinburgh University and Bristol’s Rising Arts Agency on ‘Envisioning Futures for Creative Economies: Language and Power’ Creative Economies Conference at Bristol University, where they shared WHALE Arts and the Creative Community Hubs Work with attendees from across the UK and Europe.
We continue to Co-Chair the Living Well Wester Hailes Forum and are key partners in Go Beyond, a South West Edinburgh networks partnership project with Space at the Broomhouse Hub and Big Hearts. In addition we worked with local partners including SCOREscotland, Wester Hailes Community Trust, With Kids, The Health Agency, Edinburgh Growing Together, Community Wellbeing Collective, and About Youth as part of the Wester Hailes Together Collaborative group. Locally we took part in Calders Easter Egg Hunt and Summer Celebration Days’ along with other community events and activities with face-painting and arts & craft activities for all ages.
We partnered with Napier University on a practice-based research project which looked at local young people’s perceptions of place, which used a series of fun and accessible creative outreach workshops to explore their experiences of and feelings about where they live and where they’ve been.
Creative Informatics supported us with a grant from their Community Technology Fund and practical advice and input, allowing us to source a CRM system to manage our data, upgrade our Wi-Fi and create accessible building space and laptops for digital sessions. We were pleased to partner with Creative Informatics on research into the benefits of the Fund shared with other academic institutions. We were delighted Event Management students from Edinburgh College nominated WHALE Arts as recipients for their charity fundraising event Urban Creative at Leith Arches. The event featured street artists painting murals, DJ’s, Hip Hop, market stalls (attended by CCW group members) and art cube drawing sessions.
Our ongoing partnerships with creative and cultural organisations included:
a Community Family Fun Day with Edinburgh Fringe.
Manipulate Arts ‘Animate’ Partnership Project with performances, workshops and activities across the year.
Performances and activities for children and families with Starcatchers and Sistema Big Noise Wester Hailes.
‘Words and Stories’ with Edinburgh International Book Festival, which involved creative writing sessions at WHALE Arts followed by live readings at the Book Festival.
‘An exceptional example of good practice within community arts’ Scottish Parliament Culture Committee
Thank You!
Our Partners
About Youth
Art in Healthcare
Big Hearts
Business Fives
Calders Residents Association
Canal View Primary School
Clovenstone Community Centre
Clovenstone Primary School
Community Land Scotland
Community Wellbeing Collective
Craigmillar Now
Duncan Place Community Hub
Edinburgh Community Food
Edible Estates
Edinburgh Art Festival
Edinburgh Book Festival
Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society
Edinburgh International Science Festival
Edinburgh Napier University
Edinburgh Tool Library
Edinburgh University:
GroundsWell Team
Creative Informatics
Edinburgh College of Art
EVOC
Fruitmarket Gallery
Granton Hub
Grass Roots Remedies
Heriot–Watt University
Living Well Wester Hailes
Lyra
National Galleries of Scotland
North Edinburgh Arts
Open Book
Out of The Blueprint
Open University
Passion4Fusion
Prospect Community Housing
Manipulate Arts
Room for Art
Royal Lyceum Theatre
SCOREscotland
Scottish Poetry Library
Sighthill Primary School
Space and Broomhouse Hub
Starcatchers
Stories Untold Productions
The Crannie (EOTDT)
The Health Agency
The Youth Agency
Theiya Arts
Tortoise in a Nutshell
Wester Hailes Community Trust
Wester Hailes Library
With Kids
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rgh Council
Foundation matics
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“It’s really nice seeing everybody enjoying each other's company, even though there might be a language barrier – the food brings everyone together.” WHALE Volunteer
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Wightwick Charitable Trust
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“I’ve done a lot of volunteering in my life but WHALE is one of the good ones – it’s brought me such a lot of happiness” WHALE
Volunteer
Board of Trustees
Allan McNaughton
Andrew McNiven
Ceri Hughes
Charlotte Binstead
Emily Stevenson
Eunice Main
Evelyn Dunlop
Kenneth Fowler
Min Leng
Neil Finlayson
Sarah Pryde
Corporate volunteers
Dentsu Creative
Edinburgh Napier - Craiglockhart Campus
Pfizer
Scottish Water
Staff (2023-present)
Anna Nicolson
Craig Tyrie
Chantal Auguste
Elaina Garcia
Eleanor Mumford
Emma McDowall
Em Thompson
Eva McKenzie
Fabien Merville
Fin Ross Russell
Helen Leigh
Kat Prior
Kate Griffin
Kirsty Frankland
Laura Tyrrell
Laurie Barbour
Leah Black
Michael Bowdidge
Michael Collin
Michelle Robson
Piotr Kolasinski
Susan Gibson
Tiki Muir
Zoë Squair
Local volunteers
Abbie Collins
Alex Edward
Allan McNaughton
Andrew McNiven
Ceri Hughes
Charlotte Binstead
Daisy Campbell
Emily Stevenson
Eunice Main
Fabien Merville
John Lau
Keisha Lancaster
Kenneth Fowler
Louize Gibson
Mairi Edwards
Maryam Haghbin
Neil Finlayson
Nila Joshi
Paul Barnwell
Phoebe Yip
Sade Adams
Sarah Kelly
Sarah Pryde
Shirley-Ann May
Shona Cook
Sibongile Nkala
Susan Gibson
Zoé Brown
Freelance artists, advisors, support workers and youth workers
Angela Austin Banks
Anna Maxwell
Asia Jaworska-Dorozynska
Bob Winton
Conor O'Donnell
Cori Lamond
Chloe McHardy
Debbie Wright
Gemma Smith
Juulia Kalavainen
Julia Davies
Julie Przyborski
Katy Wilson
Katie Quinn
Kat Prior
Kirstin Cunningham-Abrahams
Lillian Shipton
Liz Waterston
Louize Gibson
Marie Williamson
Mark Carr
Matthew Keys
Max Alexander
Mhairi Braden
Michael Bowdidge
Morvern Cunningham
Oliver Benton
Pandora Vaughan
Rosalind Sanderson
Rosalie Williamson
Roz McAndrew
Sara Guerrero-Mostafa
Tonya McMullen
Will Thorburn
Yvonne Bostock
Annual report images:
WHALE staff
Ollie Benrton
Kat Gollock
“Find happiness, peace and confidence here”
WHALE
Arts Member
Financial Summ
An Independent Audit was carried out by Whitelaw Wells for the Financial Year to 31st March 2024
