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Ignition Fund Awards Announced

Three community projects have received funding from the Stove Network’s Bounce Back initiative. Bounce Back is a project supported by the Development Trust Association Scotland and aims to support community initiatives to help empower people living in the communities of NW Dumfries.

The Ignition Fund launched by Bounce Back

The three projects awarded each showcased a commitment to their local area by engaging people in new activities related to community resilience and significant engagement with local people.

Sandside Gardens

Sandside Community Garden

Who are they?

 A community initiative based in Sandside dedicated to transforming the old caravan site on Sunderries Road into a welcoming, inspiring and beautiful garden for the whole community to enjoy and participate in.

What’s their idea?

‘We are having a Big Lunch at the Goldie Park with food, music and arts activities for the whole family. The money will go towards hiring equipment for the entertainment and material costs to promote the Big Lunch event. At our first event in 2015 we had over 300 people turn up – this year we hope to make it bigger and better than ever so to engage with some of the more isolated members of our community.’

Lochside Baton Twirlers

 A Lochside institution – the baton twirlers are a small and friendly group comprised of coaches, assistants and parents based in Lochside and the surrounding area. Some of their athletes have even had the chance to compete at national level bringing home the title of national champions in 2013.

‘We are looking for funding to help towards new tracksuits for all members of the club. We have 26 members in our club who compete at a local and national level. The majority of our members reside In NW Dumfries. We are a strong community with club leaders, coaches, assistants and parents all working together to run the club. Having a club tracksuit for all girls is a huge part of us being able to go to competition!’

LIFT

LIFT (Lochside Is Families Together)

 An ambitious group with a big heart LIFT are a community organization based in Lochside dedicated to helping their community by breaking stigma, supporting those in need and collectively transforming their local area for the better.

‘We would like to enter a float into this year’s Guid Nychburris parade. We want to ‘show off’ the fantastic array of wildlife we have in Lochside by dressing local adults and children up as foxes, swans and butterflies – all the wildlife local to Lochside!’

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Stove is Norway Bound

‘Our Norwegian Story’ catch-up – Instalment II.

Part of this project took us to Norway to start to make some friends across the water.  We visited some of the former whaling towns that are directly connected to Dumfries as the home of those first arriving into Dumfries Station in the summer of 1941 – Tonsberg (our former twinning town), Sandeford and Bergen.

The enthusiasm and sense of shared connection to Dumfries with the people we met was quite overwhelming.  We spoke about the project in the Forsmannsenteret Centre for elderly residents in Sandefjord, children of those relationships and marriages made during the time of so many Norwegians in our town.  Met with local officials and other arts organisations to talk about future collaborations and tried to capture a tiny part of Norway’s side of our story.  There is still much to find out but we have made a start at least….we even made the local Sandefjord Press!

Norway:Scotland Flag copy

And it begins…

Norway Sandefjord copy

Sandfjord’s beautiful moving water sculpture

Norway Tonsberg2 copy

Making boats in Tonsberg

Norway Bergen copy

The World Heritage site of Bergen

Photo 01-10-2016, 11 08 51

Meeting Jenny of North Sea Traffic Museum

Norway Sandefjord Press copy

and the Sandefjord Press

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Finn The Whale

Catching up on ‘Our Norwegian Story‘ Instalment I.

Finn the Whale – written by our very own talented Stove Curatorial Team member Martin Joseph O’Neill and local artist Maria Ruiz Plana – took the metaphors of Exile, Journey, and Friendship and wove them into a beautiful tale of finding your true self and a safe place of Refuge.  Workshops were held at The Stove and Lincluden Primary school in November with performances given to inspire the compositions of our young Paragon musicians.  Both these compositions and the Shadow Puppet show were performed as part of the Our Norwegian Story showcase in November’s STORY event.

STORY

STORY in The Stove

Finn the Whale Puppet Making copy

In the Making

Finn the Whale5 copy

Our very own Finn

Finn the Whale2 copy
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Architecture Competition Winner Announced!

The results of our Midsteeple Quarter Architecture Competition have been announced, with Ayr based ARPL Architects winning the 1st prize of £1000. Gordon Flemming from ARPL Architects stated, “We are very pleased that our ideas for the Midsteeple Quarter in Dumfries were recognised by the competition judges. The challenge of ensuring regional town centres stay viable and lively is a great task and we hope our contribution to the discussion helps add a new dimension to this.”

Image Credit_Gordon Flemming_ARPL Architects_1
Gordon Fleming’s entry wins First Place

The Midsteeple Quarter project is an important part of a national debate about the future of town centres as traditional retail declines everywhere, the architectural ideas submitted are not proposals of what will be built, but a way of continuing the conversation of how the Midsteeple Quarter could develop as a new heart of our town centre.

The judging panel consisted of John Dowson, a Dumfries High Street Resident; Melissa Gunn, Lecturer in Business and Enterprise at the University of the West of Scotland & Chair of the Board of Directors at The Stove Network; Tim Gray, Director at Holmes Miller Architects & GIA President; Iain Monteith, Director at Loader & Monteith Architects and Tutor at the Mackintosh School of Architecture and David Cowan, Head of Regeneration Unit at the Scottish Government.

Second place was awarded to a group of young female architects who focused their entry on the social aspect of regenerating Dumfries High Street, providing solutions which introduced both day and night time activity. Their reimaging of the town centre sought to provide an achievable, affordable and permanent solution to empty shop fronts whilst integrating student accommodation into the heart of a potentially thriving community. Third place was awarded to Pioneer Landscape Architecture, who looked at the unique nature of the site and its spaces to guide their response. Their aim was to revitalise the Midsteeple Quarter by making proposals on both a regional and local scale, reinstating the importance of Dumfries as a regional capital in a post retail society. In addition to the cash prizes the Judges wanted to commend Ryan Canning and Titas Grikevicius from Holmes Miller with a Drawing Commendation.

Second Place was awarded to Andie Cooke, Megan ward, Cara Brunton and Ashley Mitchell.
Second Place was awarded to Andie Cooke, Megan ward, Cara Brunton and Ashley Mitchell.

Sam Patterson, who coordinated the architecture competition on behalf of the Glasgow Institute of Architects, commented, “The GIA are delighted to have worked with The Stove Network on developing such a rich and challenging competition brief and we are thrilled with the range of ideas that were received across the 15 submissions. The quality of the submissions exceeded our expectations and we hope will stimulate the debate in Dumfries about the potential of the Midsteeple Quarter.”

Long-term and careful public consultation has brought a consensus that re-populating the town centre is an urgent necessity. Late last year,we conducted an online survey and had responses from over 800 members of the public. Their responses revealed support for a more diverse approach to the future of the town centre with a very positive response to ideas of enterprise, education, live-work, health services and restaurants/nightlife all being available in the town centre as well as more events, festivals and markets to encourage more people to come into the town.

On Friday 9th June, entries to the Midsteeple Quarter Architecture Competition will be on display in the Stove building, 100 High Street, until 21st June, as well as South Block in Glasgow. The exhibition launch at The Stove will be opened by the new Leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council, Councillor Elaine Murray, and will begin at 6.30pm. Everyone is invited to come along and view the architectural concepts for the Midsteeple Quarter of Dumfries High Street from professional individuals and practices for a reimaged urban core of Dumfries. The public in Dumfries will be able to vote for a ‘Peoples Choice’ winner at the exhibition at The Stove.

For more information, please contact David Smith at [email protected] or visit the Glasgow Institute of Architects website http://gia.org.uk.

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