Join the dots is a Glasgow-based collective of four artists - and mothers - based in Garnethill; Jude Williams, Kirstin Taylor, Rosie Cunningham, Sadie Smith.
Jude is a celebrant, actor and singer.
Kirstin is a landscape architect.
Rosie is an illustrator and artist.
Sadie is a textile designer and community arts practitioner.
Our children all attend a local, diverse school - home to many children arriving into Glasgow seeking asylum. We are deeply invested in and embedded within our community. We feel its tipping point, vibrancy and potential every day.
Join the Dots is a two year, artist-led initiative designed to strengthen local climate awareness and community resilience through art, music, food, and collective joy. It will connect residents, artists, businesses, and organisations to explore sustainability, belonging, and environmental justice — grounded in creativity and community as a vehicle for change. We aim to model climate justice as social justice – putting equity, inclusion, and human rights at the centre of every creative action. We need community care and resilience more than ever - our collective future depends on it.
We want to join the dots between people, place and possibility.
Hence the name! But we also want to join dots between local organisations, shared knowledge and a collective imagining of how things can be better. We believe in (and will be relying on) permaculture models of working to sustain these aims:
Earth Care:
Nurturing, activating and preserving our local green spaces through planting, growing and learning.
People Care:
Connecting with our neighbours and newcomers through creative gatherings and workshops.
Fair Share:
Building community capacity through shared skills, resources, responsibilities and positive local partnerships.
Our aims for the two years are to encourage a more communal ethic work the following in the Garnethill Community -
Creative Climate Action:
Residents develop a tangible, local response to climate change through creative participation.
Improved Wellbeing and Safety:
Public spaces are reactivated through co-created art and environmental design.
Community Resilience:
Increased intergenerational collaboration and shared ownership of local assets.
Cultural Legacy:
The Glasgow Girls’ ethos of creativity, education, and social change reimagined for a 21st-century Garnethill
Joyful Circles of Connection
Mazlow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ is a triangular ladder of needs, requiring survival and safety before connecting with others. We suggest a different approach, centred on hope, joy and collective power. Instead of being stacked, these circles come together, revolving around each other, in constant rotation with one another.
Hope
Joy - Justice
People - Place - Possibility
Community - Courage - Connection - Creativity