We're sad to have announced that Spit it Out is now closing down. Our finishing date is the 31st of July 2024. We wanted to take a moment to celebrate with you all of the work we have accomplished as a community over the last 4 years and send our love and thanks to everyone that has been involved in the project in any shape or form.
We founded Spit it Out because we wanted to talk about our experience of sexual trauma and show that art and community could bring solace, healing and empowerment. Mental health care and community were, and still are, at the heart of everything we do. Over the last few weeks, the Spit it Out team and board have been discussing the future of the charity and came to the realisation that we no longer have the personal resources to support the organisation's running.
These last four years have been incredible in many ways, challenging in others but we are proud and honoured to have had the chance to live this experience with all of you. We have hosted over 250 events, workshops, and spaces for people to come together to find community, be creative, learn, and celebrate each other. We managed to provide hardship funding to 32 people, offered over 500 peoplefrom marginalised backgrounds paid opportunities. We released 6 issuesof our Phlegm magazine and commissioned 8 first time solo exhibitions in Scotland! We have had over 6000 individuals engage with our work globally (that we know of), provided over 50 people with one to one support, helped in the fruition of 7 groups/organisations in Scotland and supported countless people in finding the tools to talk or express about their lived experiences.
SiO began in 2019 with the documentary "Spit it Out"’s release on BBC Scotland. The unmet need for spaces in the community for people to openly share, discuss and explore their experiences of trauma, mental health and creative practice was made clear to us as we hosted screenings of the documentary. This realisation led us to bring together a collective of people united by the desire to facilitate non-judgemental spaces in which folk with diverse identities/ experiences could come together and cultivate community, learning, and healing through creatively engaging with their experiences of marginalisation, trauma and mental ill health. Then in 2021, we worked hard to become a SCIO (Scottish Charitable incorporated organisation). The community response to our work motivated us to do what we could to make our projects as accessible and sustainable as possible for everyone involved.
Through our programmes the Spit it Out community has helped to radically transform, diversify and challenge the arts in Edinburgh. We are so grateful for what we have managed to achieve together over this time. At the centre of all of this has been an amazing community of individuals who have shaped our path. From our original collective of free-thinking creatives whose work became the roots of everything we did to our current team of incredible, kind, and caring people who have pushed for inclusive and aware spaces to be in Edinburgh.
This last year has been extremely difficult for our team. As a group of people who have mental ill health and have lived experiences of trauma and marginalisation we have tried to push through these barriers to drive for the change we wish to see in Scotland's artistic and political landscape. We hoped that through art we could share the beauty of Transformative Justice and encourage spaces to be more empathetic and inclusive. We can see the positive impact SiO has had and wish we had the capacity to keep pushing for this change but we are tired and it is time for us to practise what we preach: take space for our mental health, to process, heal and move forward.
It was not easy but we came to the decision as a team to close the charity. We are committed to telling our story and sharing our positive and negative learnings. We want to create a lasting impact with our remaining time and resources, so other organisations can benefit from our achievements, challenges and finally our closure.
We want to thank our incredibly brave team and volunteers who have delivered such powerful events and invaluable content over the years, creating community and bringing people together thanks to their genuine care and will for change; our board who worked tirelessly and voluntarily to ensure good governance despite the numerous challenges.
We want to thank the funders and partners who believed in our project and allowed so many people to get access to unique opportunities; and all the artists who used their art and experience to inspire and heal so many of us across the last four years.
We want to thank our incredible community for their support and for building something so special through their courage, kindness, and beauty. Finally, a special thank you to the original founders of the collective who came together with a beautiful dream and put so much work into laying the foundations of the organisation.
We are extremely proud of all the work we have managed to do and all the resources we have managed to create.
We are also incredibly thankful to our funders who have stood by us, acting as catalysts for such transformational, powerful, and impactful work, especially to those who continue to support us at this critical moment.
These last years have created such a strong and beautiful community. We have already seen some of you coming together to support each other. For those who want to continue carrying the values of Spit it Out, we appreciate and support you - please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if we can help.
There are aftercare resources still available on our website that we have been working on over the last 6 months that have tools for managing distress and links to organisations that can provide support. We are also working on making sure an archive of our events, resources and what we achieved as a community can still be available for a few more years on our website. We won’t be updating the Spit it Out socials anymore but we will be updating our website and sending out our newsletter until closure.
