Support Us
Categories
News

Wild Goose Festival 2025

As the geese prepare for winter and make their return to Dumfries and Galloway, so does this year’s Wild Goose Festival. Since its founding in 2020, the Wild Goose Festival has become a cornerstone of the regional calendar, known for uniting people through creativity, education, and environmental stewardship. Now in its sixth year, the festival will run from 17–26 October 2025 with a vibrant and expansive programme for young and old. This year’s festival follows the exciting news that Wild Goose Festival has been awarded the Galloway & Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere Green Charter Designation—a proud milestone that celebrates the festival’s deep commitment to sustainability, biodiversity, and the people who make the region special. 

Rooted in the remarkable migratory journey of the barnacle geese from Svalbard to the Solway estuary, the festival honours the deep ecological and cultural ties that define Dumfries & Galloway.  Every autumn Dumfries & Galloway welcomes tens of thousands of wild geese, including barnacle, greylag geese, brent geese, Canada geese, pink-footed geese and Greenland white-fronted geese, after their long migration, some travelling over 5000km to reach us! 

Originally established as a celebration of this inspirational journey, the festival now focuses more widely on deepening the connection between us and our region’s unique and diverse habitat. It honours both the wildlife that call it home and those species that visit each year, as well as encouraging visitors to reflect on their connections to the natural world.

This year’s programme offers opportunities for young and old to explore our region’s wildlife and landscape across a variety of activities. The festival also takes inspiration from the geese’s remarkable journey by acting in the spirit of community, creativity, and wellbeing. As such the events not only offer educational knowledge but invite visitors to build meaningful relationships across generations and reconnect with each other as well as the environment they live in.

This year, the festival kicks off with Behavin’ – a variety and open mic night at The Stove Café. The main festival will start soon after, with fringe events keeping us busy throughout the month until the grand finale in the form of a Halloween Ceilidh in Dumfries.

Overall, this year’s festival will offer over 70 events as far as the Goose can fly – from Stranraer to Dumfries to Annan, our programme stretches along the whole of the Solway. 

Whether you’re looking for outdoor adventures, creative workshops or family-friendly fun, this year’s programme will have something for everyone. A highlight is once again the Wild Goose Festival Hub – the centre of activity for our indoor events. This year, it is located in the Carers Centre on Nith Street which will be a fitting home that highlights this year’s focus on community, creativity, and wellbeing. 

So get ready to head to the Hub to make badges or join a storytelling session, or explore the unique landscape and wildlife of Dumfries and Galloway at one of our outdoor events across the region. The events will be either free or low cost and while a few require booking, you will be able to join most of them without advance notice.

Produced by The Stove Network, Wild Goose Festival is part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival 2025, and proudly supported by TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland), Dumfries & Galloway Council, Annandale & Nithsdale Community Benefit Company, and Creative Scotland.

Categories
News Opportunities

Opportunity: Communications Producer

Location: The Stove, Dumfries
Application Deadline: 9am on Monday 6th October

The Role

The Communications Producer will play a central role in shaping how the Stove tells its story to the world – developing innovative ways to share our work, reach new audiences, and amplify community voices. You will bring a passion (and the required skills) for communications as a way of ensuring our stories reach the people and places they need to and the practical skills to deliver that across multiple platforms.

This role balances hands-on creative production (content creation, documentation, social media, copywriting) with assistance in strategic communications (campaign planning, brand storytelling, press engagement) and operational delivery (updating websites, event listings, newsletters).

Rate of Pay and Conditions

Pay range £25,000 – £28,000 dependent on experience. 28 hours per week (4 Days). This is an in-person role, working with our team at our headquarters based in Dumfries town centre with projects across Dumfries and Galloway. Reporting to The Stove’s Marketing and Communications Manager. 

Download the Job Description

How to Apply

To apply, please submit a CV and cover letter outlining your relevant skills, experience, and interest in the role and in working with The Stove.

We’re keen to hear how you would approach this position and welcome you to share any documents that you feel supports your application – this could be examples of your past work, or an outline of the processes, tools, methods or values that are important to apply as part of a role like this.

  • Submit your application by 9am on Monday 6th October
  • Shortlisted candidates will be selected by Wednesday 8th October
  • Interviews will be held in person at The Stove on Tuesday 14th October, please state in your application if there is any reason you cannot make this date.

Please email your application to [email protected]

Applying in a Way That Works for You

We want our application process to be as inclusive and accessible as possible. You are welcome to communicate with us in whatever way feels most comfortable and natural to you. If you have any questions—about the application, the role, or anything else—please don’t hesitate to get in touch at [email protected].

Categories
Opportunities

Opportunity: Artist Commission

Deadline extended to Monday 8th September

In partnership with Fair Scotland and the Hear Here project: The Show Must Go On, The Stove Network is inviting proposals from emerging artists (aged 16–30) to explore and creatively interpret the relationship between young people in Dumfries and the town’s historic Rood and Spring Fairs.

Context

The Rood and Spring Fairs of Dumfries are one of Scotland’s oldest civic traditions, embedded in the town’s cultural fabric for centuries. First officially recognised in the 1592 town charter—but believed to date back to the 1200s—the fairs have long been a marker of seasonal rhythms, public life, celebration, and collective memory. From religious observances to community gatherings, the fairs represent a heritage that spans generations, with many locals recalling their youth through the lens of fairground experiences—sounds, lights, laughter and thrill. 

Yet as Dumfries evolves, how do these traditional events continue to resonate with the town’s younger generations? What memories are being created now—and what futures can be imagined for the fairs?

Opportunity

We are commissioning an emerging creative practitioner to explore this rich relationship between young people and the Dumfries fairs through a contemporary and imaginative lens. The creative practitioner will be supported by the Stove’s creative team and Fair Scotland to develop a final creative outcome in any form (e.g. visual art, photography, sound, podcast, film, performance, journalism, or mixed media). The work will form part of ongoing dialogue about belonging, identity, heritage, and cultural life in Dumfries.

Key Aims
  • To creatively document and explore how young people in Dumfries experience, remember, or relate to the Rood and Spring Fairs.
  • To investigate the significance of the fairs in contemporary youth culture: what they mean, how they are changing, and what they could become.
  • To consider how tradition can evolve—bridging generations while remaining relevant and resonant for the future.
Guiding Questions

Artists might wish to consider some or all of the following as prompts:

  • What role do the fairs play in the lives of young people today?
  • Are the fairs a site of joy, rebellion, identity, belonging or something else?
  • What sensory memories—sound, smell, colour, movement—define young people’s experiences of the fairs?
  • How do local stories, rites of passage, or social rituals tie into the fair experience?
  • In what ways might the fairs act as a mirror or contrast to young people’s wider lives in Dumfries?
  • Are there voices or perspectives which are underrepresented at the fairs, or in the conversations surrounding them?
  • How can we imagine or empathise with young people ‘behind the shutters’ – those who live and work with the fair?
  • How can we imagine the fair as a future civic space—a gathering, a reclaiming, a celebration?
Youth Engagement

As part of the commission, the selected artist will engage with 1–2 schools or youth settings in Dumfries and Galloway. This could take the form of workshops, creative sessions, interviews, or collaborative making processes. This engagement is intended to ground the artist’s work in lived experience and help co-create or inspire elements of the final outcome.

Support

The artist will receive:

  • Creative mentorship from The Stove Network and Fair Scotland.
  • Access to archival material, local knowledge, and communities.
  • A budget to support the creation and realisation of the final output.
  • Opportunities for public exhibition, presentation, or sharing of the work.

How to Apply

To apply, please send:

  1. A short cover letter (1 page max) telling us:
    • Why this opportunity interests you.
    • Any relevant experience or creative background.
    • What excites you about working on this commission. 
  2. Up to 5 examples of previous work, or links to online portfolios, recordings, writing, etc.
  3. A short outline (max 500 words) of how you might approach this commission – ideas, questions you want to explore, or communities you’d want to work with. This doesn’t need to be a final proposal; just a flavour of your thinking.

Applications are welcome from practitioners based outside Dumfries & Galloway; however, priority consideration will be given to regionally-based applicants.

Deadline for submissions: 12 noon, 8th September 2025 

Send everything to: [email protected]

Selection Process

To keep things simple and supportive:

  • All applications will be reviewed by The Stove’s Artistic Director, Creative Producer and a representative from Fair Scotland.
  • A small number of shortlisted applicants will be invited for an informal chat with the Artistic Director to discuss ideas and get a sense of approach, not as a formal interview.
  • The selected creative practitioner will then be commissioned.
Timeline
  • Application deadline: 29/08/2025
  • Selection chat: Late August/Early September 2025
  • Commission begins: September 2025
  • Final output shared: November/December (or as agreed) 2025

Fee: £1,200
Materials Budget: £300

Categories
News

Reflections from a Year with Creative Spaces: Anna Murray

Words by Anna Murray

The start of Creative Spaces came at an odd time in my life.

Not long before starting with the programme, after a series of invasive and daunting medical tests, I received a diagnosis of a rare chronic illness affecting my vision. The condition brought with it intense light sensitivity and debilitating headaches and sparked a fear within me about my future as a creative. So much of what I loved to consume and create was visual and demanded time and energy I wasn’t sure I still had access to. 

Just weeks before that, I had been a guest speaker at the March 2024 Creative Spaces showcase. I’d first stumbled upon Creative Spaces back in 2023, at that year’s showcase. I’d just started working in the local creative scene with another organisation called Shambellie House, and thought this random event I’d seen on Facebook might be a good time to meet some new people. I’m so glad I went. It’s a tired cliche, but I can’t imagine where I’d be at in my creative career if I hadn’t. I was so excited by The Stove, as an organisation but also just by the people I met who worked there, or came to events, and the ethos behind Creative Spaces. At that point in my life, though, I was still lacking the confidence and creative portfolio I felt I needed to apply.

So, I took the time to look inward and figure out what it was that I wanted to create. I’ve always loved turning my hand to any and everything, so I explored so many different avenues in the pursuit of finding my niche. In doing so, I found that having a particular ‘niche’ isn’t a necessity. Creating for the joy of it, for the expression, for the connection, in any medium, is what is important and valuable. I’ve found that when you allow yourself the freedom to not pick a lane, but to weave freely between as many as you feel is when you really tap into the good stuff. Then, I was invited to do a takeover for the Creative Spaces Instagram page. To be paid to essentially plug myself and my artwork was an amazing thing, laying the foundation for my budding confidence. This was quickly followed by the guest speaker opportunity. That final nudge telling me that my voice was worth something was exactly what I needed to push me to apply for the 2024/25 cohort. I hoped being a part of the programme, and the wider Stove community, would help me to sustain my creativity amidst my new health challenges, offering a paid role in a supportive and understanding community. I was right. Having a team to show up for has made me want to be better, and having support from them on days when I haven’t felt as well I as would’ve liked, helped me to work through my fears about my health and the way it affects my ability to be creative. In fact, I think it would be fair, if maybe a wee bit cheesy, to say that I feel more creative than ever now.

Collaborating with Mia, Sonah, and James has been a joy. Our bond formed so quickly, both personally and professionally, that I think it honestly surprised us all. From our second week together we felt comfortable sharing our stories and learning each other’s quirks. Knowing each other and becoming such great friends made working as a team all the more special.  I’ve loved watching the growth in each of us over our time together, it has been a genuine honour. The positive influence we’ve had on one another is so crystal clear when I look back on our shared experiences. To me, this growth has come out from all the joy and laughter we’ve shared as a group. Some days these wonderful, vibrant people made me laugh so hard I cried. Play and creativity are deeply intertwined, and being part of a team that values these principles has not only been rewarding, but also incredibly validating. Creativity truly thrives through connection and, honestly, fun. To have connected so brilliantly with a group of people I wouldn’t have met otherwise is the greatest takeaway from my time with Creative Spaces.

At the outset, I had set an intention to witness tangible growth within myself and to be a part of something meaningful within the local community. Through working on my personal project, a song and accompanying short film, I had built trust within myself and found the push I needed to continue to work on similar projects going forward. I’ve fallen in love with film photography and feel comfortable in my ability to record and produce music myself – something I never would have done without the support from Creative Spaces.

Events like our Fresher’s Mixer way back in September also exceeded my expectations in their community impact – we had an incredible turnout and went on to see folk coming back to the Stove, making their own connections and getting involved with this community. At our Showcase, I saw this happen again. I can’t overstate how much this has cemented the importance of platforming creative young people’s voices. If I hadn’t gone to the 2023 Showcase on a whim, I wouldn’t be where I am now. Creative Spaces has consistently made clear to me this knock-on effect of inspiration. Witnessing the stories of past Spacers and guest speakers taught me that the creative’s journey isn’t always linear, and impressed upon me the importance of having a strong, caring community in your corner.

In many ways, my time with Creative Spaces left me with more questions than I began with, and at this stage in my life and career, I think that’s a great thing. Behind each question is an open door I can’t wait to walk through, and a new fork in the road. Any new journey I decide to go on will be undertaken in the knowledge that I have found a wonderful community and lifelong friends to offer mutual support and collaboration. I know that I will remember this experience with so much love and gratitude throughout my career, and my life. This is just the beginning.

Categories
News

Reflections from a Year with Creative Spaces: James Gough

Words by James Gough

Just a few years ago I was working as a personal trainer trying to convince everyone, including myself, that I liked what I was doing. Working in this industry was all I knew and as a result, it was the only real community I was a part of – one which I began to feel more and more alienated and disconnected from. In November 2022 I decided to give all of this up and move to Australia, this was one of the best decisions I’ve made. I had the time, space, and energy to reconnect with the things that I was truly passionate about, I moved away from my hometown for the first time in my life, I mixed with new people and I began creating art. When I returned home, I continued to create but I began to lose faith in the idea that this was something I could continue to do, certainly not in Dumfries. This is when I found the Stove Network. I was sent the job advert for the Creative Spaces associate artist position by a friend, and I couldn’t quite believe how perfect it sounded.

A huge insecurity of mine in applying and interviewing for this position was the fact that I had zero experience in or connections with the creative and cultural sectors. I was from a completely different world. Thankfully the interview panel could see not just my enthusiasm for the role, but also how important it could be for my personal development, and at a crucial point. I secured the job and as a result was given the opportunity to immerse myself in community arts and solidify my (very small) part in it.

By doing so, I gained a new appreciation for Dumfries. I’ve lived here my whole life and I blamed it for the fact that I didn’t understand who I was. This resentment reached its peak when I came back from Australia. I felt I was returning to a place, and to people who knew me as one thing, when I knew I was something completely different. By exposing me to the arts community and the people within it, the Creative Spaces programme showed me that I can be exactly who I want to be wherever I am, even in my hometown.

In regards to my creative practice, I began my journey here with Creative Spaces as someone who doodled and messed around with art. This became more sporadic and directionless as time went on (which, for the record, is an absolutely okay way to make art). But for me, I felt this was due to a lack of belief in myself and my work. I never took seriously the idea that I could make anything I’d be proud enough to show, other than on Instagram. To my amazement, I managed to use my personal project’s funding and support to produce my debut exhibition “Everything is rubbish and all rubbish is wonderful”.

I can’t see a way in which I would have got to this point without the Creative Spaces programme. The network of creatives I was now surrounded with ultimately gave me the confidence to decide to showcase my work in the first place. Further, it was the continued support, guidance and funding of the programme which gave me the time, space and support to engage with my art in such an intense way. This led me to gaining a far deeper understanding of my relationship with my practice and what I hope to get out of it in the future.

I think what’s clear from my experience both travelling and working with Creative Spaces, is that in order to grow, you need space. It sounds very simple but it is completely invaluable. I feel so grateful to have had this opportunity because finding space is not an easy thing to come by.

Something I took away from the WWDN Creative Placemaking event at parliament in 2024 was this idea that creativity is something as important to our health as physical exercise. It’s a basic human need, just like food and water. 

So, If you can find this space to be creative, you must take it, and you should encourage everyone you know to do the same.

Categories
Musings News

Reflections from a Year with Creative Spaces: Sonah Chaudhry

Words by Sonah (Sonny) Chaudhry

Before Creative Spaces, I was doing a lot — working for a bushcraft organisation in Moffat, studying History with the Open University, and trying to get my self-taught jewellery business off the ground. My brand, Sonny Cooper Jewellery, was growing slowly online. I shared my unconventional techniques, my experiments and the mistakes — and people were starting to notice… I think?

But none of it felt connected. It was like I had all the right ingredients but no recipe. The work was there. The drive was there. But it all lived in silos.

Then, in 2023, I learned about Creative Spaces.

Reaching Out

The Creative Spaces team first got in touch via Instagram and invited me to do a takeover. At the time, I didn’t come from a world where being paid to be creative felt like a real option. Creativity was something you did on the side. So when the opportunity landed, I took it seriously. I borrowed a mate’s camera, wrote out a plan, and put together something I hoped would impress.

That takeover led to another unexpected opportunity: speaking at the Creative Spaces showcase. I shared my story — a mix of history, jewellery, identity — and tried my best to stay honest and open about the journey. Truthfully, I can hardly remember what the ‘message’ of my speech was meant to be… other than: keep on keepin’ on with what you care about…something will come along… or whatever?

That turned out to be kind of prophetic (minus the whatever).

By the end of the night, I turned to Mia and asked, “Can I apply to the next cohort?”
She said yes.
I got to work.
Big surprise — I got the job.

Learning in Layers

Creative Spaces started like no other job I’d had: transparent, structured, dynamic. It gave us an induction, introduced us to The Stove’s inner workings, and gently challenged us to think beyond what we already knew. I wasn’t used to working in a team, and I definitely wasn’t used to having this kind of support.

It wasn’t about instant results. The learning was slow, layered, and generous. Over time, we were shown the many faces of The Stove: events, placemaking, public art, networks, production. It was a mosaic — and we were invited to add our own tiles.

For me, it was a return to a kind of curiosity I hadn’t felt since I was younger. During lockdown, I lived in the countryside with my parents. That quiet time gave me space to start exploring jewellery — just messing around, teaching myself. Creative Spaces echoed that energy, but with a difference: this time, the space was intentional, built with care, and designed to help people go forward.

Reframing

One of the biggest shifts for me this year wasn’t discovering that my jewellery tells stories — I’ve always felt that. What changed was how I began to understand and articulate those stories more clearly. Before Creative Spaces, I had all these threads — my jewellery practice, my love of history, my interest in education, my drive to build community — but they lived in separate rooms in my head.

Creative Spaces gave me a way to organise those threads. It helped me see how my passions could work together rather than compete for space. I started to recognise that history itself — the way we engage with it, reinterpret it, pass it on — is a form of storytelling. And storytelling is a creative act.

That realisation became the foundation for my personal project: Makers Unite, a two-day art exchange where people could trade something they made for a piece of my jewellery. It wasn’t about the monetary value — it was about what it means to make something and offer it to someone else, and hear about their story. I received food, crafts, songs, conversations. What mattered was the intention behind each exchange — the act of sharing something meaningful without judgement or transaction.

And that spirit — of shared value, mutual creativity, and openness — is something I now see as central to both my jewellery and my historical work. It’s not about separating the academic from the artistic, or the personal from the political. It’s about finding the space where they all meet — and working from there.

History as Creative Practice

Before this programme, I kept my history degree and my jewellery work in different lanes. I never thought of history as a creative practice — I thought of it as academic, logical, something with rules.

But when I started digging into my own family history — as someone who is mixed-race, who did not always feel like I could talk about this— I realised that telling history is about making sense of silences. It’s about refusing to be shaped by other people’s versions of you and constructing your own narrative instead.

That’s creative work. It’s also personal, political, and powerful. And I’ve learned that my practice — whether I’m making something with my hands or writing an essay — is rooted in the same impulse: to remember and to connect.

The Power of the Collective

One of the most unexpected joys this year was the sense of collective energy. My fellow Spacers — each so different — became part of my world in a way I didn’t expect. We worked together, laughed together, failed together, and made space for each other’s growth. I felt seen in a creative scene I never thought I’d belong in.

It reminded me of how deeply social creativity is — how much it relies on trust, care, and a willingness to be in process, not just product.

Before this, I had spent years trying to carve a path alone. But Creative Spaces showed me that the right kind of structure, held by the right kind of people, can be transformative. It took everything I’d been trying to do solo — and gave it a container, a language and a rhythm.

Places Aren’t Static

For a long time, Dumfries didn’t feel like a place where I belonged. I didn’t see myself in it. I didn’t feel reflected back. But that wasn’t because Dumfries was fixed — it was because I hadn’t yet accessed the version of it that had space for me.

Creative Spaces helped me find that version. The version full of experimentation, kindness, collaboration. The version shaped by people and vision — not just tradition.

Places aren’t static. They become what we put into them. They become what we’re allowed to put into them. Creative Spaces made space for me — and now, I hope to keep making space for others.

To the People Who Made It

To James and Anna — you’re magic. I’ve learned so much from you and it has been a privilege to see you grow.

To Mia — thank you for your trust, care, and guidance. You are wise, caring and passionate beyond you years.

To the wider Stove team — You’re building something beautiful. 

I came into this unsure if I could ever build a future out of the things I loved. Now I know I can — and that I don’t have to do it alone.