Making Connections: The Fleet Collective

Representative of the Fleet Collective: Lyall Bruce
Location of the meeting: Chamber East, Panmure Street, Dundee
Objective: To gain an understanding of how a collaborative working space functions

The Fleet Collective is based in the centre of Dundee and is a new socially driven collective that provides affordable studio space and works on multi disciplinary creative projects.

Members of the collective are free to grow as individuals whilst Fleet seek the collaborative opportunities. They proactively develop partnerships and alliances that can be shared across the collective.

Below is an image of the entrance to Chamber East, where the Fleet Collective are located.

Their ‘office’ is on the top floor of the building. Here are a few personal photographs of the space:

The Fleet Collective’s ethos is as follows:

”We believe that bringing together a mix of talent under one roof creates the strongest possible base to grow the creative individuals involved and the collective.”

I couldn’t agree more with their ethos, in fact this is exactly what I think Universities need all over the UK.  I believe that the process of ‘mixing talent’ offers creatives a degree of opportunity to work on projects that they may have never considered taking on before.

In thinking about the cost issue for my personal project I was interested in finding out how much it is to use the space within the collective.  The Fleet Collective website states that fees start from £100 a month to use desk space, whereas fees start from £200 a month to use booth space.  They also seem to offer desk space daily for £25.  As I want my target audience to be design/business graduates I think it’s important to offer them a space that they can work in for free, provided they achieve their goals/aim for their time there.

When speaking to Lyall, I learned that the businesses long-term goal is to create a thriving, cultural and commercial centre that reflects the variety of artistic practices and entrepreneurial endeavours taking place in Dundee.  I believe that the Fleet Collective are ‘doing their bit’ in maintaining Dundee’s creativity and I’ll be interested in seeing how they evolve and what they produce in the near future.