Event
Growing & Eating Together
Gathering facilitated by Jek McAllister
Thursday 4 December 2025
Cooper Gallery
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design,
13 Perth Road,
Dundee,
DD1 4HT
A gathering facilitated by artist, gardener and cook Jek McAllister.
This evening gathering invites participants to come together to share a collective meal made of ingredients sourced from community gardens in Dundee.
Foregrounding the ideas of artist as host and hospitality as a method in relation to community building, the gathering explores tactics for togetherness through sharing with and listening to each other.
This gathering is inspired by Grace Ndiritu’s experiments at the Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland in 2013 and through The Ark Centre For Interdisciplinary Experimentation, a community founded by Ndiritu in 2017. Both are documented in her book Being Together: A Manual For Living. Ndiritu’s community building experiments also draw upon a lineage of practitioners including Taiwanese artist Li Yuan-chia, who founded The LYC Museum & Art Gallery (1971-1982) in Cumbria and is one of the artists featured in the exhibition Compassionate Rebels in Action at Cooper Gallery.
This gathering is the final event in A Season of Peace Building, programmed with Grace Ndiritu for The Ignorant Art School Sit-in Curriculum #5. This series of conversations, workshops and gatherings is designed by Grace Ndiritu, drawing on her book Being Together: A Manual For Living as a template.
Sign-up
Free, open to all, limited numbers.
To participate please sign-up for a space via Eventbrite.
Biography
Jek McAllister is an artist, facilitator, gardener, and cook based in Dundee. Jek graduated from DJCAD BA Fine Art in 2019 and has since completed an NC in Horticulture. Currently working at Ninewells Community Garden as Community Engagement Facilitator, her day to day practice is and always has been concerned with with creating fun circumstances for people to come together, hang out and experience or learn something (often around food). Jek has run Wooosh Gallery, Dundee’s most haunted car park based gallery that is open 24/7, alongside fellow graduates Jamie Donald and Finlay Hall since 2019. Jek was artist in residence with Hospitalfield’s Graduate Programme 2023–24. Currently, she is Lead Artist & Project Manager for Alternative (art) School, a project by Forgan Art Centre in partnership with Madras College, supporting people aged 13–18 years who feel excluded from mainstream education through a programme of art, craft and horticultural workshops led by artists.
Access
Cooper Gallery is located to the right side of the DJCAD buildings on Perth Road. The entrance is via double doors which face onto a car park.
The gallery is on two floors. First floor has ramped access and disabled toilet.
Second floor is accessible via lift and for wheelchair access via a stairclimber. The event is held on the first floor. The exhibition is on both the first and second floor of the gallery.
Please email in advance if you require lift or stairclimber access.
First floor is also accessible via 24 steps. Two flights of 12 steps with handrails are separated by a landing.
Exhibition videos are subtitled and captioned in English. Seating is provided and/or additional seating available, please ask an invigilator.
For all enquiries please email: [email protected]
Toilets
The ground floor has a wheelchair accessible toilet. The toilet is gender neutral.
Interpretation
Large print versions of the exhibition information handout are available, please ask our Guides. If you require alternative formats for material in exhibitions please email or ask our Guides.
About the exhibition
Compassionate Rebels in Action, is an exhibition and event programme by Grace Ndiritu.
It is the fifth iteration of Cooper Gallery's programme, The Ignorant Art School: Five Sit-ins Towards Creative Emancipation.
Visit
10 October – 13 December 2025
Tuesday – Saturday, 12–5pm
Image credit
The Ark: Center For Interdisciplinary Experimentation, 2017, installation shot, Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Paris, FR. Photo credit: Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers
Funding support
The Ignorant Art School Sit-in #5 at Cooper Gallery, DJCAD is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.
Cooper Gallery
[email protected]