Talk, Folk, Trad Arts

The People’s Parish: Public Folklore in Practice

(Fri 21 July: 9.30am-5pm)

Join us for a day of connection and discussion exploring the concept of Public Folklore, working with creative communities to explore and celebrate their local traditions that reflect their locality.

The day will involve presentations, discussions and networking, a great opportunity for individuals, communities and organisations to hear about TRACS' People's Parish project which celebrates the local distinctiveness of Scotland's places.

Join us to learn how you might employ some of the People’s Parish principles to tell the story of where you live, or to help others to document and safeguard their local traditions. We will explore topics such as Fieldwork for First Timers, Community Filmmaking and Working Together with Creative Communities, as well as hearing from current fieldworkers as part of a People’s Parish Case Study.

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Programme

9.30 – 9.45 What is The People’s Parish?
David Francis from TRACS will give an outline of the People’s Parish approach and some of the principles that you might employ in your own local projects, helping communities to tell the story of their place, with reference to the 9 projects that have already taken place in communities across Scotland.

9.50 – 11.10 Fieldwork for First-Timers
Recording the sound of local voices is key to the work of The People's Parish and this session will equip you with a broad understanding of the issues involved in conducting community fieldwork. Learn the basics including technical, ethical and legal aspects alongside preparation and interview skills, to help capture the life stories, experiences and traditions of community members - and what you might do with them to support place-based learning and creative projects. Led by folklorist and TRACS Director Steve Byrne

11.20 – 12.40 Community Film-making
Anne Milne is an award-winning documentary film-maker who will guide you through what you need to think about when using film to document what's of interest in your community. For further info on Anne’s work check out her website.

12.40 – 13.30 Lunch
Lunch is not included but the Storytelling Centre café The Haggis Box offers a range of tasty fare, including vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free options.

13.30 – 14.50 Creative Fieldwork + Community Artists Working Together
Cáit O'Neill McCullagh is an ethnologist, archaeologist, film-maker, and award-winning poet, with an interest in continuing and renewing traditional knowledge and practice for sustainable, and sustaining, futures. Cáit will explore how we are all potential history makers, and how the records of our place's pasts (including the unwritten ones in landscape and objects), and the unheard voices, can be used creatively to express our sense of place. Includes a showing of the short film Making New Connections.

15.00 – 16.20 People’s Parish Case Studies
Practicalities, ideas, how to do your own People’s Parish project, considering successes and challenges with Yvonne Weighand Lyle. Yvonne is a visual artist and People's Parish fieldworker first in Mayfield, Midlothian and currently in Craigshill, Livingston. Her practice is centred on heritage, history, and geology of communities and on interconnectedness, commemoration and intangible links and boundaries. More on Yvonne's work.

16.30 – 17.00 Plenary Session
An opportunity to feed back on the day and how you plan take some of the ideas forward in your own work.

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The People's Parish is funded by Culture Collective via Creative Scotland.