The Safe Space Pop Up are proud to be funded by Creative Scotlands Create Inclusion Fund to develop activity for Rainbow Families and Queer Kids via a series of performance party events SQUIDZ! Find out more here and follow the links to stay up to date on social media.
Read a bit more about the birth of The Safe Space Pop Up below
The Safe Space Pop Up was born in December 2021 when Miss Annabel Sings moved into a studio offered by Outer Spaces, a new charity placing artists in disused commercial spaces. The project was born in the first space they were placed in : an empty gold shop in a shopping centre in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh. In the back room were the old safes that used to house treasure. The echo of its past and what it was used for felt so present and so powerful it brought to the surface a name to galvanise their community work and artistic practise in a post pandemic world. Miss Annabel Sings and The Safe Space Pop Up is now part of a community of artists occupying the historic Royal London buildings in the New Town of Edinburgh
Safe spaces have been disappearing rapidly for LGBTQIA+ , hidden and marginalised communites for decades. Communities and people are becoming more separated and displaced and it is a matter of urgency that people who can start to think differently about how we take up use space and act now
If an artists work is a legacy long after they are gone then surely a pop up or transitionary space should also leave a mark on indiviudals and communites. Safe space, whether it be personal, online, phsyical, permanant or transitionary are more valuable than any gold
For some, it is vital to survival
So, what if safe space travels and impacts communities by developing curiosity and acceptance of the self and others? Is it truly temporary or is it permanent because of the impact? We talk about spaces that we remember fondly or where we felt a sense of belonging long after they are gone. Dancehalls, clubs, shops, pubs, houses, rooms in houses, streets, the list goes on and on. Why have they have left their residual mark on us? Does the memory of physical space and its impact create a new space within us that means we can access it in our darkest moments?
Follow us on instagram and please do get in touch if you want to hear more , would like a Safe Space Pop Up workshop or event near you or fancy a cuppa at the studio and a chat about what joy, art, space and community means to you
