Support Us
Categories
Musings News

Creative Spaces Showcase 2025

Words by Mia Osborne

The Creative Spaces Showcase is an opportunity every year for the Creative Spaces team to share the journey of their past 10 months whilst also spotlighting and celebrating the region’s young artists. This is done through an evening of inspiring talks, exhibitions and discussions about young creatives’ impact around the region.

Following on from a day of fringe activity all across Dumfries Town, this year’s main Showcase event took place at the Grainstore, a refurbished multi-use space tucked into the Town Centre. The evening’s audience was made up of both open tickets and allocated invites to organisations, partners and community members from across Dumfries & Galloway and beyond. Guests were welcomed with the hospitality of The Stove Cafe and were offered the chance to network with other creatives and browse the selection of exhibited creative pieces from young artists such as: Lily Ashton, Joseph Cursare, Trinity Coombs, and of course Creative Associates Anna Murray, James Gough and Sonah Chaudhry.

The night kicked off with a quick introduction from myself (Creative Spaces Producer) and then moved into the first half of the evening, the guest speakers:

First up, we were dazzled by 16 year-old rapper and performer, Joseph Cursare, who walked us through his journey of making music and finding his feet as an emerging rapper in his local town. Joseph had us in fits of laughter at his presentation, and I felt truly energised by his essence.

Next up, from Gatelawbridge in Upper Nithsdale, we welcomed the refreshing Trinity Coombs, whose mesmerizing documentary photography guided us on a journey along the Nith Valley. Trinity has a great love for the region which really shined in her presentation.

Following Trinity, Lucy Doig took centre stage to tell her story from childhood dress-up to acting school and everything in between. Lucy spoke about her impressive accolades throughout her career and introduced us to “Lament to the Lassies”, a passion project that started as a uni assignment (but more on this to come soon…).

Our penultimate guest joined us from sunny Stranraer, Savannah Crosby is a photographer and creative hub coordinator with Creative Stranraer, who moved us with her inspiring journey of artistic impression and mental health. There was not a dry eye in the house!

Lastly, we welcomed Will Austin, a local business owner, youth facilitator, kayaker, builder, creator and just all-round cool dude to talk us through his eclectic path, and his mission to integrate creative and nature-based learning into the curriculum. Will’s work with fellow young people shows the rich potential of an inspiring idea and heaps of determination.

Every year, we always include a short performance from a young creative as part of our showcasing activity, and this year, we re-introduced our audience to Lucy Doig, to perform her work-in-progress piece, ‘Lament tae the Lassies’; an immersive reframing of the perspective of Burn’s work, focusing on the forgotten women who played a part in Burn’s life. This moving feminist piece was truly mesmerising, and alongside being compelling in content, was also downright impressive in delivery.

This performance concluded the first half of the evening, and we then broke the night up with a short networking break. Before moving on to the second half, we introduced a sharing portion of the evening, inspired by Creative Dundee’s ‘Pass the Mic’. This gave the audience a chance to chat about any events, workshops, activities, ideas or opportunities to collaborate and share with a room full of people in order to plug their things or gain new audience members. We heard from a range of audience members, and this actually ended up being one of my favourite portions of the evening.

I then had the pleasure of introducing the final portion of the evening, the Creative Spaces Associates, James Gough, Sonah Chaudhry and Anna Murray. I knew the team had been building up to this moment for months, and were understandably very excited but nervous to share their journey, especially after the high calibre of guest speakers we hosted in the first half, however I knew they would knock it out of the park. We started with our first Spacer of the evening, James, followed then by Sonah and finally Anna. The three Creative Spaces team were incredible, and they used their platform to share not only their personal journeys to where they were today, but their journey throughout Creative Spaces, weaving together project work with professional development, which only highlighted the progress that they had all made throughout the past 10-months. The team also described in detail the personal projects they worked on throughout the past few months and how these projects impacted their personal and creative practice. You can read James, Anna & Sonah’s reflection pieces on their times at Creative Spaces here.

Every year I end the Showcase event feeling an overwhelming amount of pride in the work that we do, and the scene that we nurture. Every year this has become more and more evident by the people that walk through the door and the feedback they have given. The evening’s Showcase event was, in my opinion, a true reflection of the remarkable creative talent that we hold in Dumfries and Galloway, and the endless possibilities of our young people.

In a fitting end to this reflection of the evening’s event, it feels fitting to reiterate the thanks to the team behind it, for without these people, it would not be possible. Thank you to Sonah, Anna and James for the past 10-months, and all of your hard work, to the guest speakers Joseph, Trinity, Lucy, Savannah and Will for your inspiring presentations, to the Holywood Trust for continuing to support the project year after year, to Martin and the rest of the team at the Stove for all of your support over the past year, to DJ McDowall for your invaluable mentoring, to Wren, James, Anna, DMC and Martin for facilitating some amazing workshops throughout the day, to the production team, Sal & Meg for all your hard work executing the event, to Pam from the Stove Cafe for the bar & snacks, to Kirstin McEwan for photographing the event and to Tom and Louisa at Home Restaurant for letting us use their gorgeous space to host the Showcase event and of course thank you to all of you who came out on the night to support your creative scene.

Categories
Musings

Creative Scotland Independent Review Submission 

The Creative Scotland Independent Review marked a moment of national reflection — a chance not only to strengthen how we support culture across the country, but to reimagine Creative Scotland’s role as a partner in building a fairer, healthier, and more resilient society. At The Stove, we hope our submission offers a meaningful contribution to this vital conversation and helps shape a cultural infrastructure that works with and for all of Scotland’s people and places.

Below is The Stove’s full submission to the Creative Scotland Independent Review.

We welcome the opportunity to contribute to the independent review of Creative Scotland. We strongly support the principle of increased investment in culture and want to emphasise that any recommendations for improvement suggested here must not be used to justify divestment from Creative Scotland or reductions in grant budgets. Instead, we see this review as an opportunity for honest reflection on how Creative Scotland can evolve in its remit to support Arts and Culture in Scotland and be a vital part of a national commitment to culture as a foundation of a healthy society. 

Given the tremendous remit of this review, we have chosen to focus on a single, actionable recommendation to develop Creative Scotland’s role within this wider context: that Creative Scotland adopt a more place-based approach to supporting culture across the country. This aligns closely with the ambitions of Scotland’s National Performance Framework, A Culture Strategy for Scotland1, the Place Principle, the Culture in Communities report published by the CEEAC Committee in 20232 and the national approach tested through Scotland’s award-winning Culture Collective programme.

Access and The Limits of a Market-Led Model

There are stark inequalities in access to cultural opportunity across Scotland. Geography, economic disadvantage, rural isolation and systemic underrepresentation all contribute to a funding system that is more advantageous to those with privilege, proximity, and established networks. In rural areas like Dumfries and Galloway this is even more visible making it harder to participate in or make a career possible in the arts. People face structural barriers from; travel, provision and learning opportunities, and lack of support and infrastructure. The reliance on a centralised, project by project model that does not take a strategic and place-specific approach to these challenges will only deepen these inequalities.

Creative Scotland’s current model also reinforces a competitive, market-led system. This limits the strategic potential of public investment in culture and inhibits the long-term thinking that could deepen the impact of what is currently invested and help broker further investment from other sources for wider social impact. 

We would like to see Creative Scotland work with Scottish Government to take a Community Wealth Building approach to investing in culture and move away from Culture as an ‘industry’ in conventional economic terms as part of Scotland’s transition to a Wellbeing Economy.

Regional Visibility and Presence

A key challenge identified through our experience is the limited regional visibility and direct presence of Creative Scotland in regional and localised strategies. For many individuals and communities, Creative Scotland can feel distant, abstract, and difficult to break into. A lack of regional infrastructure both in terms of physical presence and tailored support exacerbates barriers to more joined up and equitable engagement in funding processes.

Creative Scotland could increase its relevance and impact by establishing stronger, more regular connections within regions. This might include regional relationship managers with embedded roles in localities, dedicated contact points for advice and collaboration, and an active presence in key regional forums. A shift like this would help Creative Scotland better understand the nuances of local cultural ecosystems and enable more responsive and context-aware decision-making.

Building a more visible and accessible Creative Scotland presence would also signal a cultural shift from being primarily a funding body to becoming a collaborative partner in regional development and cultural strategy.

A Place-Based Approach

A place-based approach would mean working with and supporting collaboration between locally rooted organisations and networks that play a coordinating and developmental role within their communities. These organisations are best placed to understand need, build trust, and support capacity building, especially among those underrepresented in traditional funding systems.

At The Stove, our work through the What We Do Now network (WWDN) has shown how a local hubs model can work together to support creative development of ideas, build the capacity to deliver projects, bring in additional investment, and build long-term visions for culture in towns across Dumfries and Galloway. Examples of the impact of this approach can be seen through LIFT D&G in Lochside, who with our support secured Creative Scotland funding to continue to bring high quality arts intervention to their community, a significantly underserved community in terms of cultural provision. Similarly, Creative Stranraer, a grassroots hub supported by The Stove is emerging as a centre for creative activity, skills development and community-led regeneration in a part of Scotland often overlooked in national cultural policy. These initiatives show how targeted investment in local cultural infrastructure can empower communities, nurture talent and deliver long-term social and economic value.

In The Stove’s Creative Placemaking Approach (2024)3 we set out a vision for the role and significance of culture in supporting healthier, fairer and more sustainable communities across Scotland. This is an approach we have tested through What We Do Now in towns across our region, placing creativity at the heart of wider goals around wellbeing, skills, enterprise, climate justice and local democracy. Scotland is at a turning point, with policy ambitions increasingly emphasising locally led change and place-based strategies.

We would like to see Creative Scotland take a leading role in developing their remit to align with a whole place approach to culture across Scotland.

Participative Culture

An important consideration in this review is the distinction between supporting professional cultural practice and facilitating broader community participation in culture. These are fundamentally different types of activity, each requiring its own approach to funding, development and evaluation. The latter is about ensuring that all have access to the positive impact participative culture has on individual and collective wellbeing in communities.

Sector support for the distinction of participative culture and how it is supported was highlighted in a recent event The Stove hosted at the Scottish Parliament (Nov 2024), Creative Placemaking: Culture in Communities, co-hosted with MSP’s Colin Smyth and Emma Harper and attended by over 70 representatives working with culture in communities.

We would like to see Creative Scotland play a more strategic role in clarifying these distinctions. This would require work with Scottish Government and other national funding bodies (Screen Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Foundation Scotland, Inspiring Scotland) to separate and align strategies around how culture is funded and developedas two distinct priorities with their own measurements of success and a clear understanding of the remits of each within that. This shift would be an acknowledgement of the vastly different needs of participative and community-led culture and its significance as the generative foundation for our Cultural Sector more broadly.

A More Equitable Future for Culture in Scotland

Culture in Scotland needs to be supported in a way that is fair, inclusive and reflective of the places people live. That requires a rebalancing of support, not a replacement of Creative Scotland’s current work, but an evolution of its approach. 

We would like to see the following priorities for Scottish Government and Creative Scotland to work on together:

  1. Regional Strategies: work with local authorities and regionally significant organisations to develop funding and support aims for each local authority area. Allocate a proportion of funding specifically for regional delivery and help to develop outcomes that are region wide to measure against this investment. This would enable locally accountable decision-making and ensure resources reach underserved areas.
  2. Support for Local Hubs: Recognise organisations with a proven track record of community-led practice and resource them not just as delivery bodies but as convenors, hosts and capacity-builders for local creative sectors that are not supported.
  3. Develop Peer Networks and Learning Structures: Foster regional networks that allow creative practitioners to connect, share learning, and build resilience across geographies. 
  4. Enhance Evaluation and Evidence: Take a leadership role in evidencing the deep and lasting impact of culture on community wellbeing, inclusion, and economic resilience. Develop a shared framework with funded organisations that reflects local as well as national priorities.
  5. Clarify Creative Scotland’s Role within a Wider Ecosystem: Explore the limits of Creative Scotland’s remit and seek greater strategic alignment with government departments, local authorities and national cultural infrastructure to better support community-based work.

We offer this submission as a constructive contribution to the conversation and in the spirit of generosity and collaboration. We believe that by working together, we can build a cultural infrastructure that truly supports all of Scotland’s communities.

  1. Scottish Government (2020) A Culture Strategy for Scotland. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/culture-strategy-scotland/ [Accessed 22 Jul. 2025] ↩︎
  2. Scottish Parliament. Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. (2023). Annual report of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee 2022–23. [online] Available at: https://digitalpublications.parliament.scot/Committees/Report/CEEAC/2023/9/14/4c816e37-a817-4de7-b22e-4b4c924d81fd [Accessed 22 Jul. 2025] ↩︎
  3. The Stove Network. (2024). A Creative Placemaking Approach. What We Do Now. [online] Available at: https://whatwedonow.scot/resource/a-creative-placemaking-approach/ [Accessed 22 Jul. 2025]. ↩︎
Categories
News

At the Threshold: A Reflection from Matt Baker


After 14 years of collaboratively shaping The Stove as it is today, Matt Baker shares a personal reflection on the journey, impact, and future of the organisation he helped to found. From an experimental idea sparked in a Dumfries bar to a nationally recognised model for community-led cultural change, The Stove has grown into something more powerful and alive. Ahead of his departure from his role as CEO, Matt took the time to offer insight into what’s been built, what’s still to come, and why, now more than ever, we need spaces like The Stove to imagine and shape a different kind of future.

Words by Matt Baker

I’ve been a full-time public artist since 1995. For fifteen of those thirty years, I worked in the classic way – on projects that were time-limited by the budget available. The pattern was always the same: creative activity would generate momentum in a community, then, when the project ended, most of that momentum would fade away. I would reflect on how community art projects always started as an add-on to something else — whether that was a building project or a public event. I was never involved in something (with a budget!) that originated from a creative process in and of itself. I wondered how it might be possible to build a project that became part of the ongoing story of a place — something that felt as natural a part of a community as, say, a school or a recycling centre — and that could be self-sustaining by continuing to be useful to the place. The Stove is an experiment that set out to test that idea.

The spark for The Stove was the opportunity to use an empty three-storey building in the centre of Dumfries. In early 2011, a group of creatives met in a bar in town to imagine how using this building creatively could play a role in turning around the fortunes of the High Street, which was haemorrhaging businesses and shops. Five of us started a thing called The Stove (the name deliberately ‘un-arty’ — an attempt not to put off too many ‘ordinary’ folk). Our vision was to use creative activity to prompt a conversation within our community about the town’s future. We hoped to be seen as an example of positive action — to inspire others to join in and/or start things themselves. The building would become a ‘people’s HQ’ for making things happen — literally a door to chap on if you had an idea or wanted to find out what was going on.

Nithraid | 2014
First Foot | 2012

From starting a community river festival to crowdsourcing a new town charter and holding bonfires in the town square — everything we did was designed to bring people together, build new alliances, and exchange ideas. In those early days, everything was done hand-to-mouth, with an entrepreneurial approach to fundraising — adapting how we talked about our work to suit different funding objectives. We quickly learned that each successful community project created its own momentum, which we were able to maintain through local partnership working and more fundraising. This led to more opportunities for freelance creatives and, before we knew it, The Stove was at the centre of a creative scene in the town. The vibrancy of this scene led to more projects and more momentum. It was a virtuous circle — something we started to call ‘creative placemaking’.

Over the 14 years of The Stove, we have achieved amazing things, which I am so proud to have been part of. We have grown beyond Dumfries to become a key part of the toolkit for working towards an equitable future for everyone in our region:

  • We’ve led a campaign to ‘buy back our High Street’ and set up a Community Benefit Society through which our local community now owns five High Street buildings. Our town has attracted more than £10M inward investment to redevelop them.
  • We helped over 100 local creative freelance businesses survive the Covid pandemic.
  • We employ 20+ people locally and have started four social enterprises which employ another 16.
  • In 2023–24, we awarded 178 contracts to local freelancers worth a total of £187,000 — 31% of which went to people under 25.
  • We’ve set up and now manage a Creative Placemaking Network for Dumfries and Galloway, made up of community anchor organisations and creative freelancers.
  • We’ve worked with our local authority to integrate creative placemaking into the way Dumfries and Galloway Council develops capital regeneration projects for our region.
  • We’ve played a leading role in embedding creativity in community-led regeneration projects in Stranraer and NW Dumfries.

At the outset, we identified that our region was being held back by a reluctance to collaborate, risk-averse working and an inability to acknowledge emotions in the way we worked together. We set out to champion the opposite values. As newcomers to the local scene, we saw our impacts at the margins very clearly at first. But, as time has gone on, we’ve become increasingly embedded in the ‘inside’ of how our region works.

This means we are genuinely changing the way things are done — and will be done in the future — but this is often harder to see on the ground, as The Stove increasingly works behind the scenes to allow new local structures to grow independently, rather than being the noisy gang shouting ‘follow us!’

Angela Gilmour, Lift D&G | The Stove at Scottish Parliament | Culture in Communities

The whole thing has genuinely been an enormous experiment. We’ve followed the maxim of the Artists Placement Group in the 1970s: ‘the context is half the work’, which means we’ve never seen The Stove as a thing in itself, but always as part of the momentum, the society, the economy of our local place. I don’t think The Stove is a model that can be repeated verbatim elsewhere — though in an attempt to bring together some general principles, we co-published An Approach to Creative Placemaking, with South of Scotland Enterprise.

In terms of running an organisation (something I never intended to do!), I’ve come to think of The Stove as another community — one of many we work with. I’ve tried to enable a culture of listening and support for the personal journeys of individuals as the momentum that continues to shape The Stove’s ecosystem. Being a conduit and a balancing presence within the organism, rather than ‘steering’ anything, has perhaps been the most profound learning for me. The number and quality of opportunities that people have found through the actions of The Stove — in a place as unlikely as southwest Scotland — is something I continue to marvel at.

Now, as I come to this threshold moment, I conclude that the original experiment has proven it is possible to build a cultural project that becomes part of the ongoing story of a place. The remaining question is: can it be self-sustaining? We’re a long way down that road, but, for me personally, the final piece is to step away and let the glorious organism that is The Stove evolve in ever more exciting ways without me.

It’s a special moment in many ways — one characterised by questions. The Stove has grown from ‘plucky outsider’ to ‘part of the furniture’. Have we joined the establishment? Was that the point all along if we wanted to effect real change?We’ve seen how it’s possible to leap from the hyper-local into the national conversation, and The Stove has had some success in ‘building the road ahead of ourselves’ — influencing national policy toward more place-based support for culture in community settings. But what will that actually mean for the future — locally, regionally, and nationally? Does The Stove remain one entity, or, as it grows, should it split into different branches of the same overall organism?

Matt Baker & Martin O’Neill | The Show Must Go On Sign Install | 2025

What I do know is that the people who have helped grow The Stove are ready to take it on new adventures and tackle these questions and many more. Over the years, we’ve grown into an incredibly tight team with complementary specialisms, united by dedication to The Stove’s values and ongoing evolution. I will miss being part of this team deeply. As a visual artist, I’ve mostly worked alone in my career and often envied other artforms like music or performance, which are made collaboratively. Being part of Team Stove has been one of the greatest joys of my life. I’ve made lifelong friendships and ongoing creative relationships. As the team takes on the reins of The Stove, I’ll be cheering them on. I hope you will too — or even get stuck in alongside them.One definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. As a place, as a community, as a country, and as a world, we need different. The Stove is part of the promise of different. And we need it now more than ever.

Categories
News

How Dae Ye Neighbour?


A question from The Stove’s Artist/Maker-in-Residence, Kirsty Harris, as part of this month’s Conversing Buildings. An open invitation to consider How Do You Neighbour? in the lead-up to Guid Nychburris 2025. Kirsty reflects on the concept and intention of the installation.

“How Dae Ye Neighbour?’ seeks to gather stories and shine a light on moments of “good neighbouring” from across our community—past and present. I’m curious about when and where these moments have taken place. Were there times when being a good neighbour felt easier? Are there places where it happens more often? And what values lie at the heart of these acts?

By reflecting on our memories of neighbourliness, we might uncover something about ourselves—and perhaps spark inspiration for the future. Curiosity feels like a good starting point: recognising the good that already exists and building from there. The contributions so far have captured kindness, generosity, and care within our closest networks.”

Join us at Guid Nychburris or visit The Stove Cafe – read the stories in our growing archive, add your own, mark its place on the map.

Words by Kirsty Harris

Categories
Opportunities

Opportunity: Creative Producer

Location: The Stove, Dumfries
Position: 12 Months, Fixed-Term
Application Deadline: 9am on Tuesday 1st July 2025

The Role

We’re looking for a passionate Creative Producer to join our talented creative team. This is an exciting opportunity to lead on the delivery of Stove projects and programmes that spark participation, foster collaboration and celebrate the creativity of our region. You’ll be working in a dynamic and supportive environment, helping to shape an ambitious programme that reflects the diverse communities of South-West Scotland and supports the next generation of creative practitioners.

Rate of Pay and Conditions

Pay range £26,000 – £30,000 pro rata, dependent on experience. 28 hours per week across four 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 Artistic Director. 

Download the Job Description
How to Apply
  • A CV outlining your skills and experience
  • A letter outlining your interest, relevant experience and approach to the role
  • Up to 5 examples of past work to support your application
  • We ask that you send nothing bigger than 10MB

Please email your application to [email protected]

Deadline: 9am on Monday 1st July 2025
Interview Date: Thursday 10th July 2025
By applying for this role you are declaring yourself available for this date

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: Freelance Marketing and Communications Assistant

Location: The Stove, Dumfries
Position: Freelance, Part-time
Application Deadline: Midnight on Thursday 26 June 2025

The Role

We’re looking for a freelance Marketing & Communications Assistant with proven experience in marketing, communications, or content creation to hit the ground running and support the delivery of a busy, exciting programme of activities.

You’ll work across our social media, website, blog, email communications, and print materials—assisting with content creation, event promotion, and day-to-day marketing activities under the guidance of our Marketing & Communications Manager.

Rate of Pay and Conditions

This role offers £150 per day negotiable dependent on experience, with an average of 21 hours/three days per week, for an initial three-month period.

While this is initially a freelance opportunity, we’re open to it developing into a longer-term position for the right person.

Download the Job Description
How to Apply

To apply for this role, please submit a CV detailing your relevant skills, experience, and knowledge, along with a cover letter outlining your interest in the role, availability, and proposed start date. We would also love to see examples of your work that are relevant to the position.

Please email your application to [email protected]

Deadline: Midnight on Thursday 26 June 2025

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].