Commoning is a practice of collaborating and sharing to meet everyday needs and achieve well-being, of individuals, communities and lived-in environments through shared resources and community. It is rooted in mutual and reciprocal benefit. 

With this in mind, we have launched the Commoning Craft Fund 2025-26. This enables AAS Members to take the lead and explore what ideas of mutual and reciprocal benefit and shared responsibility mean.

This builds on our blog The Organisation as a Garden, where AAS want to explore how we can use our recently-awarded Multi-Year Funds for Organisations from Creative Scotland to embed and extend a community of making practice that we all have collective responsibility for; each bringing different skills and expertise to bear according to seasonal needs, capacity and demands (of the organisation and of our own craft practices / businesses); with all of us benefitting from the fruits of the labour. This builds on our history as a maker-led organisation and the idea that we have collective ownership and responsibility for the organisation and the activities we support.

By creating a fund with a total of up to £10,000, open to applications of £1,000-£5,000 and voted on by Members using a process of participatory budgeting, we will: 

• Offer opportunities for Members to develop new activity that benefits makers across Scotland, rooted in knowledge gained through your own direct experience of being a maker working in Scotland today. We are open to any idea that you can demonstrate a collective need for among makers, and a diverse range of approaches to address these. 

• Create opportunities for extended peer support and collective knowledge exchange / learning among makers, supporting ideas that are timely and needed. 

• Learn more about maker needs from within our community, and the appetite for collective activities led by Members. 

Commoning Craft Funded Projects 2025 / 26

Enhancing Creative Practice through Digital Play

As makers we know the value of creative play, yet daily pressures squeeze it out. This project is six-month supported activity for five AAS Members. Motivated by fun, we will seriously look into how creative purposeful play can enhance your practice.

Project Lead Ann Marie Shillito.

Creative Digital Play: Experiences, Progress & Immersion

Join participants and Project Lead online to hear about their experiences, progress and immersion in creative digital play. 10:30-12:30, Monday 22 June 2026.

Reciprocity: Closing The Loop

Through two maker-led workshops, one in a rural location and one in an urban one, we will share skills, resources and insights on sustainable making, creating a resource accessible to all Members. These two workshops will act as national assemblies which are open to any AAS member.

Project Lead: Inge Paneels.

Reciprocity: Shared Learning about Sustainable Making Practices

The Closing The Loop group of makers share their learning about sustainable making practices following their workshops and research. 10:00-11:30, Tuesday 23 June 2026.

Interested in hearing more about the projects and finding out how you could get involved? Email us.

The Commoning Craft Fund is possible due to Multi-Year Funding from Creative Scotland.