Our Story: Food, Art and
Community at the
Heart of Narture.
Narture began with a simple but powerful belief: food and creativity can change lives, revive places and bring people together.
What started as an experiment has grown into a living, evolving creative campus where bread, art, wellbeing and community are deeply connected.
Creativity, Wellbeing and Food: Our Three Pillars
Everything we do at Narture is rooted in three connected ideas:
Creativity as a process of discovery, play and experimentation
Wellbeing as something physical, emotional and mental; not separate
Food for health, made with care and respect for the body
These pillars aren’t separate programmes — they’re woven into everything.
A bread-making workshop is as much about mindfulness as it is about dough.
A mural project is as much about conversation as it is about paint.
Baking sourdough is a slow, living process. You can’t rush fermentation. You learn patience, timing, and trust. That’s how we approach everything at Narture — with care, craft, and connection.
The Story of Bread is the Story of Us
Bread is one of the oldest foods on earth. It has fed revolutions, welcomed strangers, and held families together. At Narture, we believe that baking bread is an act of community — not just commerce.
Our sourdough is handmade every day using long fermentation, Scottish flour, and methods that prioritise gut health and flavour. But it’s about more than what’s in the loaf. It’s about what happens around it: the gathering, the sharing, the slowing down.
Every loaf sold supports our creative programmes, from open-access art studios to community events. When you buy Narture bread, you’re funding culture.
Our Story
Founded in June 2020 by artist father-and-daughter team Robert and Saskia Singer, Narture CIC began by reclaiming empty town centre units and turning them into vibrant spaces for culture, food and connection. It has since grown into a network of five creative, community-focused spaces across Ayr, grounded in the belief that everyone is an artist.
Being neurodiverse, Robert and Saskia bring perspectives that shape Narture’s approach: nurturing creativity, confidence, and wellbeing so that everyone truly feels they are an artist. From these humble beginnings, Narture has grown organically, now supported by a dedicated team of 13 co-workers and 50 volunteers.
Narture’s growth has been recognised with prestigious awards including the Creative Regeneration SURF Award 2024 and the Scottish Edge Social Enterprise competition in 2025, reflecting its impact on the town and community.
At the heart of Narture is its multi award-winning Sourdough Bakery, a working artisan bakery that bakes real bread to earn the dough to fund arts. Every loaf helps subsidise studios, residencies, workshops and public programmes. The bakery also operates as a training space, equipping young people and those from diverse or marginalised backgrounds with specialist, hands-on skills in artisan baking and hospitality through apprenticeships and local employment.
Surplus profits are reinvested directly into creative and community projects, supporting town centre regeneration and widening access to arts and culture. Across its Studios and creative spaces (Make & Create) Narture offers affordable workspaces, a community darkroom and Risograph printer, as well as exhibitions, events and workshops.
In 2026, Narture has expanded with the launch of Shape — a larger food and arts hub and the new home of its café and bakery. Alongside daytime bakery, café and lunch service, it now also hosts evening trade, including a bar, supper clubs and chef collaborations. Shape is also home to gigs, events and creative programmes designed to build skills, confidence and community. Working across food, creativity and wellbeing, Narture continues to transform vacant buildings into practical, inclusive spaces: where we knead, create, make & shape
People's Art School
An Art School Without Degrees A University of the Everyday.
We often describe Narture as the people’s art school.
Not a place for grades or gatekeeping, but a place for:
- Learning by doing
- Trying, failing and trying again
- Sharing skills across generations and disciplines
Creativity here isn’t about perfection. It’s about play, curiosity and courage.
We throw everything at an idea, then strip it back. We dive into the deep end and discover what emerges.
Whether you’re five or seventy-five, beginner or professional, there is space to explore and grow.
Celebrating Difference,
Not Just Tolerating It.
At Narture, inclusion isn’t a box to tick, it’s central to how we work.
We are open about:
- Complex brain structures
- Neurodiversity
- Different ways of learning, communicating and creating
We believe vulnerability, relatability and transparency are strengths, not weaknesses. Creativity thrives when people feel seen, understood and valued exactly as they are.
Power, after all, shouldn’t belong only to “the normal”. It should belong to the people.
Breathing life
Back Into Places
Narture is part of a wider belief that arts and culture give people a reason to get up in the morning, and a reason to come into town centres that might otherwise feel forgotten.
We’re not just filling buildings. We’re building ecosystems.
Like mycelium, Narture grows through connection: spreading, regenerating and renewing through people, ideas and collaboration.
Our long-term aim is to help create viable, repeatable models for regenerating town centres, led by culture, food and community rather than extractive development.
From first breath to last breath,
We’re all on the same journey.
We believe creativity belongs to every stage of life.
From young volunteers discovering creative pathways, to experienced artists sharing decades of knowledge, Narture is about:
- Passing skills forward
- Learning across generations
- Building long-term cultural resilience
We encompass all creative fields, because culture doesn’t live in silos, and neither do people.
This is about succession, sustainability and shared futures.
Everything Starts
With People
More than anything, Narture is community-orientated.
We advocate. We tell stories. We make space for voices that aren’t always heard.
Because real regeneration doesn’t come from buildings, it comes from people buying into a creative community they feel part of.
We exist to return power to the people, through food, creativity and shared experience.
A Living, Growing Creative Campus
Narture is not finished. It is always becoming a living, organic campus where: bread becomes culture art becomes everyday and community becomes the foundation of everything Our vision is simple, and endlessly ambitious: to nurture creativity, wellbeing and belonging, for everyone.