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Author: Katie Anderson

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Musings Project Updates

Stitching Our Story

The Mapping Our Norwegian Story/Dumfries

What started off last Autumn as part of Mapping Our Norwegian Story workshops has taken on a life of its own through the Stitching Our Story open stitching sessions – artist Deirdre Nelson joined the ONS team to kick start a series of hand stitched maps of Dumfries, which have now been adopted by local historian Alyne Jones and the Dumfries Embroiderer’s Guild in a fast growing project to map contemporary Dumfries through the stories and histories of the town.

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The Norwegian connections are mapped out across the 20 panels that make up the map, along with other significant and personal places – local schools, homes, historical sites and transport links all feature.

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Following on from successful evening workshops in February, Stitching Our Story continues into March, and all are welcome to stop in to the Stove cafe and add their own mark to the map. First drawn and then stitched over, everyone is welcome – Norwegian connections or otherwise – from experienced sewers to beginners.

Stitching Our Story is part of our ongoing Our Norwegian Story project, which has seen various events and activities exploring Dumfries’ Norwegian connection, culminating in the launch of a new Trail around the town in April 2017. For more details on the project, visit our ONS page here

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To come and help add your marks to the map, or to just see how work is developing, stop by the Stove cafe on Wednesday afternoons between 3.30 and 5.30pm. Contact Katharine katharine<at>thestove.org for more details.

Image credits: Galina Walls and Katie Anderson

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News Project Updates

Midnight Streetlight Smalltown Rain

Midnight Streetlight Smalltown Rain is a project between artists Martin  Joseph O’Neill, Colin Tennant and composer and musician Stuart Macpherson. First conceived as a short poem MSMR has since moved onto include a series of artworks and interventions throughout the High Street and side streets of Dumfries town.

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Come Dawn, a 12 hour writing project from 7PM to 7AM took place at the Bakers Oven in November. A performance installation, the writer sat typing whilst in real time, the words were projected onto the windows of the empty unit in front of a live audience.

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Working from a manuscript of 60 pages the collective were commissioned by the D-LUX Festival of Light to produce an artwork showcasing one of the poems to be projected behind the Stove. The artwork deployed Burroughs’ cut-up method of writing in a live performance lasting four hours, four nights a week, where a single poem was transformed continuously by adding and subtracting the words, manually blocking the light of the projector through a window using paper and tape.

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The regional project is inspired by the narratives of the small town at night and is to continue throughout the year in installations, performances and interactive artworks throughout the town.

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Midnight Streetlight Smalltown Rain was a Stove Members project, supported by DG Unlimited and the Dumfries and Galloway Council.

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News

A Day At Off the Record – A Short Review

By Isla Gracie of Taagan

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As a young musician playing in a “neo-folk” duo, I was under the impression that it was vital that you had to play an instrument to be able to work within the industry. I have never be more disillusioned! Last weekend my band member and I attended Off The Record at The Stove in Dumfries, an event where anyone from 14 to 25 interested in working within the music industry could learn about all it’s key factors and how important they are.
The event was a series of seminars and talks from lots of different speakers who came from lots of different parts of the music industry. These talks ranged from learning about organising and getting gigs, producing and releasing music, working within the music industry, promoting your or your band’s music and getting the best images to promote your music and style.

There were many elements of the day that I found very informative including a presentation on realising music by Toni Malyn who works with EmuBands. He gave a step by step talk on how to get your music heard through companies such as Spotify, he also gave us useful information on how to release covers of other artists’ songs – this was something that we as a band duo found especially helpful. We learnt what the term “derivative work” meant from Toni, a phrase that has definitely stuck with me.
We also got the opportunity to listen to Nick Roberts, who is part of the team who run the very successful festival Electric Fields each year. He gave us a good insight of what his job was and how important it is to be a band or musician who is “good to work with”. He explained that you could be a rock star on stage but it is vital that you can work well with the organisers as it makes their jobs easier and everything runs smoothly. I thought that this piece of information was something that was very rudimentary but the most important.
He also gave some communication tips and how using emails effectively is also important. I was completely amazed as to how many bands copied and pasted emails to companies and promoters – I discovered that a “personal touch” can really go a long way within the industry.

We also got the chance listen to Jannica Honey, a well experienced photographer who has taken photos of bands such as The Killers. She gave us a presentation on the do’s and dont’s of music photography and provided helpful and nifty tips on creating the best photography so you or your band could get the best image for your sound and your style. She gave you simple questions to ask yourself like “who are you as a band or musician?” And “what and where does your music represent?” These simple questions made me really analyse our own band and where and what we symbolise.
Off The Record also highlighted a really fundamental part of the music industry – promoting your music. Derick Mackinnon of New Found Sound spoke about press packs and how using social media a lot can be a really great way to promote your music. This last talk was a really excellent way to wrap up the rest of day.
Attending Off The Record has really opened my eyes about the music industry and the amazing and unexpected destinations it can take you to, it isn’t just about playing music on a stage – there are numerous other jobs within the music business from sound engineering to promoting and even taking photos. It was less daunting to know how many career paths within music there really are. It was also really nice to hear humble advice such as “Be supportive to other bands” and “Flattery will get you everywhere” – modest guidance like that definitely reminded me of the excitement and enjoyment within the industry, and why I would really love to have a career in music whether it is playing in bands, promoting or even writing about it.

As a young musician, I would highly recommend going to Off The Record if you have the opportunity to. If you are a musician or interested in following a career within music then Off The Record is a phenomenal event where you can get a taste for it. It will open your eyes and fill your soul with first-hand knowledge from the best kind of people who have been there and done that.

By Isla Gracie of Taagan

Find out more about Isla’s band Taagan, online here

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News

In Flight

Both birds and humans have migrated for millennia, whether seeking more abundant food, or more favourable climates. Some of these journeys are regular and temporary, others more permanent, perhaps due to catastrophe or dreams of a achieving a better life elsewhere.
Currently Europe is seeing a huge influx of migrants and –stoked by the vitriol of a malicious press and an ugly political mood – it’s becoming alarmingly commonplace to consider our fellow human beings as pests, no matter how urgent their need for shelter and security. Our individual and collective capacity to help them remains largely unfulfilled.
Perhaps it would be useful to imagine a scenario where we are the migrants – climate change predictions (irrespective of whether it’s a natural cycle or mans interference at the root cause) suggest there won’t be many decades before this becomes a reality. Arguably it already is, with people displaced from their homes from the increasingly damaging floods we experience in the UK.

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In Flight itself depicts both birds and people; in the end we are the same, following evolutionary paths birthed in the stars. Fluttering on the wind, lit by the sun and moon, refreshed by the falling rains, the intermingling of the white birds and the people offers a prayer of peace and love to our family in need across the globe.
The location of the installation is an unused close in Dumfries and the first work will be to clean it, to prepare a welcoming space for the flock. Experimental and expressive, the artwork will only fully take shape upon completion.

In Flight will take place during our Chapter One event on Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th November, in a nearby close. For details of where to find the work drop into the Bakers Oven and ask for directions. Full details about Chapter One available here

In Flight has been created by artist and photographer Morag Paterson. More details about her work available here

Categories
Musings

Curating Captive Art #3

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From Morgan Hardie, emerging artist and curator of the recent exhibition Captive Art #3 in the Stove cafe:

I am a portrait artist based in Dumfries, I graduated with a HND in Art and Design three years ago at Dumfries and Galloway College and have continued since then as self-taught. I have a huge interest and wish to pursue a career in the therapeutic arts, which is why I was really excited when I was offered the opportunity to curate Captive Art #3! I believe it is so important that the prisoners have the chance to show their work outside of prison walls and to offer the local community a better understanding of prison rehabilitation, and how art practice and creative writing play a fundamental part in this.

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The experience of curating the exhibition was so busy and enjoyable, I loved all of the different aspects from selecting the work in Dumfries Prison to hanging the exhibition the day before the opening. I had written out a plan covering everything that needed to be done and how I was going to do it, and with some help from blueprint100 and the prison education department, I think I managed to stay fairly organised! Selecting the artwork was probably the most challenging, as there was a huge variety to choose from and such limited wall space in The Stove Café, but I managed to really narrow it down and include work which demonstrated a range of different styles and techniques.

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The reason I chose the painting called ‘The Nearest Faraway Place’ to be used on the posters and invites, apart from it being my personal favourite, was because of the story behind it and the immense detail portrayed. The artist had explained to me that the painting was a representation of a dream he’d had, and he had felt the need to paint it on to canvas.

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My main goal was to involve the prisoners as much as possible, as it is their exhibition after all. I took information about The Stove up to the prison, along with photographs of the space so that they were clued up on where their work was going. I had decided to keep all of the work anonymous, but instead had asked each artist for a small statement on what art does for them on a personal level and included this on their labels. I received really good feedback at the opening event about this personal touch, as well as the prisoners’ poems which were read out at the beginning and the other written work which was also on display. I found that the visitors really liked that interesting connection between art and writing as it helps them to gain a more informative insight, which is exactly what I had hoped for.

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The opening event was more successful than I imagined it would be, and I hope the exhibition continues to deliver and inform for the remaining time that it is on display. Hopefully everyone enjoys the exhibition as much as I loved curating it!

All Images: Kirstin McEwan

Categories
News

The Stove goes to Electric Fields

This years Electric Fields festival saw a series of pop up Stove activity from commissioned work by Ailie Rutherford, art installations from Stove member Kirsty Turpie, a pop up Brave New Words tent and a gang of the Stove’s sign painting team who hand painted nearly 60 signs for the festival village.

People Pavillion

Ailie Rutherford and Laurence Payot‘s People Pavilion popped up at various points throughout the festival, a roam people-constructed structure that danced it’s way around the site, creating temporary intimate spaces before dispersing through the crowds..

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Kirsty Turpie‘s mad marble run maze was on-site throughout the weekend:

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The Brave New Words tent ran both days of the two day festival, featuring a mix of local and national acts performing in our intimate and cosy teepee tent, organised by regular Brave New Words organiser and curatorial team member Martin Joseph O’Neill.

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In the run up to the festival itself, The Stove’s workshop room turned into a sign painting factory, where a steadfast team worked through the weekends to prepare new signs for the festival site.

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Huge thank you to our various teams of volunteers and supporters who helped out with various Stove themed projects, from sign painters, to pavillion dancers, performers, poets, and artists – and big up to the Electric Fields festival team for putting together a great weekend at Drumlanrig (extra points for perfect weather conditions!).

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