East End First Saturdays
East End First Saturdays is a local network of creative, retail and leisure businesses and individuals. The Network brings together diverse content from across the Barras and Calton on the first Saturday or every month through an online map and listings platform.
Since 2016, Many Studios has acted as a creative change agent for The Barras and has initiated grassroots cultural activity such as East End First Saturdays (EEFS), a creative partnership across the East End of Glasgow which invites organisations and small business to showcase unique content as part of a community map on the first Saturday of every month.
East End First Saturdays has been conceived to build new audiences and community spirit and to promote the diversity of the East End. On the first Saturday of every month, existing and new organisations open their doors to host a live event, exhibition, workshop, learning programme or tour.
The maps brings over twenty-five organisations together under four categories:
Retail
Learning and Heritage
Arts and Culture
Food and Drink
Through a series of focus groups attended by over 25 creative and non-creative organisations across the East End of Glasgow, we began to understand what the diverse organisations required from a network. This period of research unearthed brought to light many shared asks from projects and organisations in the area. Many of us around the table shared frustrations of being under-resourced and over-worked. What we all required was footfall. At this stage, we understood that the network shouldn’t create more work for members and should focus on bringing footfall through the area and into the various project. We wanted to tell a story of the area and the organisations within it.
Working with a local designer, Kirsty McBride, we understood that the platform had to be interactive, allowing audiences to engage with the geography and content of the diverse members within the network and plan journeys that suited their interests. We created an online map that combined four routes, in this case, categorised as retail/shopping; arts & culture; community & learning; food & drink. Within the platform, we could generate monthly event schedule, clearly showcasing how audiences could engage with the area on the first Saturday of each month.
The project has encouraged a spirit of working together to grow sustainable creative businesses through collaboration and partnership working. It has worked to increase inclusivity; creating opportunities for emergent creative forms and recognising the value of local trading and place-based partnerships.
