The “Town versus Gown” conflict is one which is much talked about in any university town, and may be especially applicable to a place like St Andrews, where the student body makes up such a large percentage of the population. While I’m sure that friction indeed inevitably does exist between ‘town and gown’, I personally have never felt anything less than warmly welcome in this place, and I like to think that we as a student body have a positive relationship with the community. My exciting job as Head of Community and Outreach is to maintain and strengthens this positive relationship by organising free art events in collaboration with members of the St Andrews community.
Community and Outreach holds both public, drop-in events open to the whole community, and private workshops with specific groups around St Andrews. We shall of course be reviving some of the classics of OTR such as the Upcycling Workshop and the Evolving Mural, and my team and I are also in the process of organising an exciting music and art fusion night.In terms of private events, I reached out over the summer to a whole bunch of different groups in St Andrews, including schools, after school clubs, care homes, and brownie and boy brigade troops. I’ve been meeting with interested groups throughout the semester to plan events we can hold next semester, and hope to get a few more groups involved the coming months.
More immediately, we held a Recycled Art workshop event in collaboration with Transition during Green Week, and some of the cool art made was featured in our Semester 1 OTR event. Next up on our agenda is the St Andrews Day Christmas Market! OTR Community and Outreach will run a free cookie decorating booth from 10am-3pm on the 2nd of December, to celebrate the holiday season, so make sure to stop by our booth and ice some festive cookies!
Krisztina Pakozdy
Head of Community and Outreach