On 22 August, the Impact Arts team will be raising a glass to three decades of life-changing work, as we prepare to mark our 30th anniversary.
Since Impact Arts was established by Susan Aktemel in 1994, we have embarked on a mission to tackle social inequality using creativity and art, improving the lives of some of Scotland’s most vulnerable people in communities all over the country. Over the years we have been behind hundreds of projects, from large-scale public art to music projects with the likes of Amy Macdonald and Hector Bizerk, live theatre to pop-up cafes, and interior design workshops to creative learning with those in the criminal justice system. Since 1994 more than 300,000 people have been engaged in or supported by our work, with projects winning numerous awards and accolades.
Early projects included the creation of the Woodlands Mosaic Bollards in Glasgow’s West End in 1997, which continue to bring colour and vibrancy to the area today. Other community artworks have included the Linkes Mosaic Mural in Knightswood, first created in 2005, and local young people creating stained glass windows to brighten the Pineview Housing Association homes in Drumchapel.
In 2003 Impact Arts launched Fab Pad, which supported hundreds of people at risk of or experiencing homelessness to sustain their tenancies through creative interior design workshops. The project was delivered right across central Scotland, including at one point taking over a whole floor of the Red Road flats in North Glasgow with a “showroom” and workshop, helping many tenants to transform their homes on a budget while learning valuable new skills. The project ran until 2015, and continues today as Make It Your Own, supporting vulnerable tenants to help transform their home lives.
Today Impact Arts continues to push boundaries with its life-changing work from our bases in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Irvine. We continues to welcome older communities struggling with social isolation, improving the wellbeing and attainment of children via art therapy, and empowering teens and young adults through employability programmes such as Creative Pathways, and CashBack to the Future, which is currently running with groups in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and North Ayrshire.
Since 2023 we have been based at The Boardwalk in the heart of Glasgow’s Merchant City, transforming the building into a purpose-built creative and accessible events venue, boasting a 180-capacity theatre, seven studios and meetings rooms capable of hosting everything from dance rehearsals and creative workshops to corporate events and conferences. The Boardwalk is proving a popular choice for businesses and public bodies looking to support the broad work of Impact Arts when booking event space.
As well as being home to many of Impact Arts’s own projects, The Boardwalk also hosts many of the country’s leading creative organisations, from permanent theatrical tenants like Solar Bear and Birds of Paradise, to dance studios brought to life by the likes of S-MB Company and The Work Room, and transformative creative engagement charities like Playlist for Life and Inspiring Scotland.
On 22 August The Boardwalk will host a special 30th anniversary celebration, with stakeholders, former participants, and friends invited to relive highlights from our past projects and see recent work by a range of groups including some of the work created as part of this year’s Cashback Summer programmes.
Today we are launching a call our for those who have been impacted by our work over the past 30 years and been part of one of our projects, to get in touch and share their stories which we will incorporate in our August celebrations. You can fill in a online form or email 30thAnniversary@impactarts.co.uk
Fiona Doring, Chief Executive Officer of Impact Arts, said: “Impact Arts was born out of the recognition that taking part in arts and creative activities can be life changing. For 30 years we have built on this philosophy to support the people and communities across Scotland, who are least likely to have access to the arts, to tackle the big issues preventing them from achieving their potential.
Impact Arts has been at the heart of positive change for thousands of people’s lives and as we turn 30, we are taking time to reflect upon and celebrate the stories of all of these individual people for whom engaging in arts projects has been transformational.”