The Articulation team recently attended the Outdoor Arts UK National Conference: Change On Our Streets. Held over two days in Cambridge, the conference gave sector colleagues the space to come together to reflect on the ever-changing cultural landscape and exploring how outdoor arts can foster common ground and community resilience. Here, our Programme & Membership Coordinator Sophie McCarthy shares her experience of the event.
Earlier this month, myself and Angela went on an adventure to Outdoor Arts UK’s 2026 conference. Armed to the brim with tartan, Tunnock’s and top notch chat we were ready to showcase the incredible research findings from our Beyond The Stage report.
We arrived Tuesday afternoon and I was straight into welcoming delegates to our table whilst Angela was out exploring what other sights there were and conversations to be had. Once our duties switched, I was fresh and excited to catch up with members such as Hannah Ayre pitching her newest installation, as well as facilitating an impromptu Scottish Delegates pre-networking drinks dinner.
A brief pitstop had Angela and I checking into our beautiful accommodation in Jesus College before we were both out to make new connections and future partnerships with artists and organisations over the border. Conversations about artist development, outdoor focused scratch nights and the state of the sector more widely were particular highlights. Though all good things must come to an end and the Articulation team headed off to bed and not to the unofficial ‘afters’ out on the town!
Day two brought interesting insights and learning. Listening to keynote speakers bringing experience from Extinction Rebellion and how vital and radical it is to create art and outdoor work in the face of, well, everything happening in the world right now was touching. After the morning session, exciting conversations were had with organisations from across the four nations about how we can work together in the future (so watch this space!), as well as more talk about applying our research findings south of the border.
The day concluded with final goodbyes to new found connections, thankfulness for seeing actual sunshine for what felt like the first time in 2026 and a lot of reminiscing on the (late) train back to Scotland!
Join Articulation
Become a member to connect with the community today.