THE MADE STORY

MADE was founded in 2018 after Stacey had a conversation with two friends on the grass outside of Eden Court, during Xpo North Festival.  Talking about the frustrations of nothing happening and the desire to see more accessible creative provision in the Highlands, Island and Moray, an informal agreement was made to ‘just start doing stuff’ and become part of the solution.  

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Having not long moved back to Moray, Stacey quickly realised that the cut to arts development within the council had a profound effect on the regional sector.  Pockets of grassroots activity had started to grow, and agency starting to move back into communities, however, it wasn’t distributed overly well across Moray and cohesion and collaboration were lacking.  This was the motivation behind starting Moray Arts Development Engagement.

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Between 2018 and 2021, MADE delivered ad-hoc projects as a way to start establishing a profile whilst Stacey remained in full time work at UHI.  From creative health initiatives using print making and spinning, to creating short films about male suicide, MADE started to find a place in being flexible and adaptable to local needs.  It was during this time that MADE accidentally fell into what has become its USP – being responsive to communities through creative interventions, rather than an organisation offering regular core activities like art or dance classes.

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To the outside, this might cause MADE to seem inconsistent, but in reality, we always have two key factors that are core to every project we do – people and creativity (in the widest sense).  This approach has seen us expand to being invited into more strategic spaces – looking at regeneration of Elgin Town Centre to consulting on the Forres Conservation Scheme.  We are now seen to be a key player in the local landscape alongside Dance North Scotland, Findhorn Bay Arts, Frozen  Charlotte, Riff Raff Productions and The Universal Hall.

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Our structure hasn’t changed hugely since 2018 – MADE is still run by Stacey, but on a paid basis since 2024.  Our bank of freelance artists continues to increase, and we are now active in the space of supporting artist development through training and early schemes, as we understand the positive impact this also has on community delivery.  Our funders remain varied – from Youth Arts Open Fund to TSI Moray Health and Wellbeing Fund.  We have also started to move into statutory tenders (Creativity Skills Network with the Moray Council Employability Team) and into submitting consultancy bids in collaboration with Helen Avenell Heritage Associates (Forres Conservation Scheme, Leanchoil Trust, Aberdeenshire Council).  We also have an ongoing partnership with Historic Environment Scotland that sees us contracted each year to engage with young people through heritage.  2024 also saw us hit a milestone; we were successful in our application to the Creative Scotland Open Fund..this good luck repeated in 2025 giving us more capacity and resource to grow our team.

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Between 2018 and 2026, our first 8 years of operations, MADE has:

• Secured over £400k in funding 

• Provided paid opportunities for over 55 freelance artists, with 60% provided repeat work

• Delivered over 35 community-led projects

• Engaged meaningfully with over 3000 people and built a social media presence of over 2k

• Ringfenced £6k in reserves

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We have loved every minute of learning, adapting and growth - MADE was founded with and for Moray's community and it will continue to be what it needs to be, even if that means consistent change.