ABOUT PEOPLE’S PARISH

People’s Parish is a publicly funded initiative from TRACS that empowers communities across Scotland to explore their heritage and equips them with the skills necessary to pass on their stories. 

These year long projects, led by creative fieldworkers, bring together individuals and organisations to collate local knowledge and traditions that might otherwise be lost to time

WHY THE “PARISH”?

The scale of the civil parish is offered here not in a prescriptive sense, but as a useful starting point to describe the scale at which people feel a sense of familiarity, ownership, belonging and a sense of place. The environmental charity Common Ground suggests that the word parish implies 'people and place together.'

HISTORY

In 2021-22, The People’s Parish worked in 9 different communities across Scotland through the support of Culture Collective, a network of 26 participatory arts projects, shaped by local communities alongside artists and creative organisations. Culture Collective was funded by the Scottish Government’s emergency COVID-19 support for the arts through Creative Scotland.

People’s Parish continues on today as a key part of TRACS’ public programme, bringing practices around the safeguarding of living heritage to the local level. New projects will launch in 2026, made possible through the support of Creative Scotland’s Multi-Year Funding Programme.

PEOPLE'S PARISH AIMS

  • CELEBRATE living heritage across Scotland

  • ENGAGE community members and foster new connections

  • STRENGTHEN community confidence and encourage participation in community life

  • SAFEGUARD local knowledge songs, stories, dances, traditions, histories and fictions by equipping communities with the skills to document, practice, and protect them.

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Any questions? Want to know more?
Contact Alexis Stroemer at alexis@tracscotland.org