Big Give: Making an impact
Free and fun activities for families during the school holidays
Back in March, we took part in Big Give’s Arts for Impact week 2025.
You helped us raise an amazing £4,719, exceeding our target of £4,000 from 87 donations plus £502 in Gift Aid. Your generosity will go towards our goal of providing 1,000 children across Dundee with access to fun and free creative activities throughout the holidays.
We got underway over the summer break, with more sessions to come during the October holidays. So far we've held 14 free and inclusive workshops for families across Dundee and welcomed over 760 people. Here we share some details of the impact your support is already having.
Published
Whitfield Roundhouse
We began our summer activity in Whitfield at The Roundhouse Community Kitchen & Cafe. We welcomed families for free creative workshops, where they had a go at gelli plate leaf printing, tried marbling onto paper, and created collages using recycled materials that were inspired by shapes found in the DCA building. Here's what families had to say:
Great messy time - freedom to try - free activity - easy place to get to - thank you!
I liked everything. I loved the crafts but marbling was my fave.
Very well organised, great instructions, lots of new and interesting activities.
Groups like this are so important during the holidays.
Ninewells Community Garden
On Sat 12 July, we got creative outside in the sunshine at Ninewells Community Garden. Families had fun doing gelli printing and taking inspiration from the garden space around them. They also made some colourful bugs and worked collaboratively on a giant woven heart artwork. Visitors said:
Simple, joyful activities like this bring instant happiness!
Lovely relaxed activities outdoors. Nice to connect to nature with printing and insect crafts.
Our lad was mesmerised by the marbling!
Good fun and a great sense of achievement.
Stobswell and Maryfield
Working with Stobswell and Maryfield CLD teams, we took part in their summer holiday events across Malcolm Street Play Park, Glebelands Primary School, Wee Forest, Clepington Primary School and Arthurstone Library. Families joined us at each location to try creative activities, including having a go at marbling, painting their own artworks, sculpting clay bugs, making kites and more.
It was so so so fun today. I liked the clay the most
The kids have really enjoyed playing with different materials. Lots of ideas to take home and develop further.
Very friendly, kind and encouraging. Really nice to have you here - thank you DCA.
Excellent facilities again! Children take the lead - do what they want with friendly support.
ScrapAntics
We held creative sessions with ScrapAntics New Scots Family Club across the summer, setting up in the community garden at Victoria Park and also welcoming the group to DCA. Families were inspired by the plants and insects in the garden, making leaf prints and clay bugs. At DCA, they enjoyed some short films and then made artwork inspired by the characters they saw on screen as well as making some DCA screen prints.
It was a beautiful day and my daughters were happy.
Brilliant workshop! We love coming to the DCA. Kids love all the creative things and staff are absolutely amazing!
Incredible! Myself and my five children had a wonderful time. The printing was fascinating and great fun was had by all.
Absolutely loved today. So many engaging activities with cool materials.
The Larick Centre
As well as workshops across Dundee, we also headed across the river to Tayport to visit The Larick Centre. We joined two of their Stay and Play Toddler Group sessions, bringing creative activities for the wee ones to try. These sessions were followed by open workshops that all families were welcome to join. Our first session fell on Playday 2025, and we celebrate by collaborating on some colourful word art.
So friendly and informative. The children had an amazing time (as did I). More of this please!
I really liked it. Learned a lot of things.
I loved doing art with you.
So wonderful to have DCA at the Larick. Brilliant activities and staff. Thank you!
Mill O Mains Community Hub
We visited Mill O Mains for a free, family drop-in event. Visitors enjoyed creating Gelli prints of leaves, collaging monsters, painting butterflies and making prints using a squeegee.
Very good! All three had fun and the loved making the squeegee pictures and butterflies.
Hi my name is Layla. I love this painting. It was amazing.
October Holidays
We started our October school holiday activities by welcoming ScrapAntics New Scots Family Club to DCA for a morning of animated films, followed by a creative making workshop. Inspired by short films from Discovery Film Festival 2024, they designed new characters, made patterns, created collages and experimented with chalk pastels on black paper.
My kids enjoy this so much. There was plenty of things to do and play with. Thank you so much for making our holidays better.
We love to be involved in DCA and ScrapAntics activities, they are always impressing us!
Great initiative! Watching short films in a relaxed atmosphere and being able to reflect through art ...learning about yourself, the world and feeling accepted. Rare opportunity.
More to come
We'll be continuing this project throughout the October holidays to deliver more of these high-quality workshops to communities across Dundee, and will keep you updated as we go along.
Working with our local partners, such as ScrapAntics Family Club, Whitfield Roundhouse and local Community Learning and Development teams, our goal is to provide free, fun activities that help prevent isolation and improve wellbeing. We'll continue to provide safe spaces that allow families to gather, access materials and explore craft and printmaking for free as well as providing support for parents to help keep the creativity going when they get back home.
This is all possible thanks to Big Give’s Arts for Impact campaign and your generous donations.
Support DCA
Your donation, no matter how large or small, helps us to keep enriching people's lives through art, culture and creativity.
Your donation, no matter how large or small, helps us to keep enriching people's lives through art, culture and creativity.
Thank you for adding this to your basket. Please proceed to your basket to complete your donation.
Proceed To Basket