Join AAS Chair Lynne Hocking at the next Connecting Makers session, where she will launch and share details of Members-led fund, Commoning Craft.

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. 

As described in our blog post announcing our successful Multi-Year Funding for Organisations award, AAS want to explore ways that the new Commoning Craft Fund can be used 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. 

The Commoning Craft Fund allows AAS Members to take the lead and explore what ideas of mutual and reciprocal benefit means. 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, 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 of practice, and the appetite for collective activities led by members. 

Connecting Makers Theme: Expanding and Stretching Your Practice