Aberdeen has always known how to begin again - a city that reinvents itself. Granite, fishing, shipbuilding, and fifty years of oil and gas, every era was built by people who looked ahead and imagined what the city could become next.

Today, that spirit is stirring again with TEN playing an integral role in driving that movement forward. Across Union Street (‘The Granite Mile’) - the main thoroughfare and shopping street in Aberdeen - and the old heart of the city, regeneration has already taken root. Programmes such as the Silver City Heritage and Place Programme, CARS, and the Aberdeen Upper Floors Project are breathing life back into Aberdeen.

Scot‑ART sits at the heart of this momentum, transforming historic, under‑used buildings into vibrant, living cultural spaces that anchor community, creativity and renewal. For the past two years, Scot‑ART has been quietly gathering the people shaping the city’s next chapter: architects, long‑standing trades, advocates for the region’s creative potential, and Aberdonians who have lived both its proudest days and its hardest ones. 

They are the custodians of the Kirk of St Nicholas, the birthplace of Christianity in Aberdeen, Aberdeen’s “Mither Kirk” which stands as a reminder that renewal and remembrance can coexist.

Striking, beautiful and full of culture, Aberdeen does not need reinvention. It needs a spark and the means to feed its own rising, a new wave.

TEN have joined that work as advocates and auxiliaries, advancing, elevating and helping to light the touch paper staging concerts at the Kirk that will play its part in the cycle of renewal.

The first concert at the Kirk will begin the process. Its proceeds will enter a protected fund dedicated solely to cultural and creative regeneration: continued restoration of the Kirk, support for other historic buildings ready for new purpose, and the creation of a new Aberdeen‑born events company to carry the work forward.

That company becomes the engine. It will stage future shows, offer hands‑on experience and training for people building careers in Aberdeen and the North-East of Scotland, and once established, transition into employee ownership. Around it, new ventures will grow creating and building an infrastructure that keeps talent in the Northeast rather than sending it south, creating a strong sense of belonging and pride.

Show by show, the fund helps sponsor the nascent creative and digital ecosystem and infrastructure the city needs, renewing and repurposing as it goes, giving a visitor experience shaped by the city’s own character. with tourism, already on the rise, growing alongside, sympathetically, in a city worth travelling to see. This work reaches beyond Aberdeen: the culture and truth of the Highlands should be amplified, never diluted, and we aim to ensure that resources reach the people already shaping what comes next.

The first event is in motion. 

The company will follow. 

We will share progress proudly, as it comes.

The manifesto explains how.

This explains why.