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D-LUX invites Dumfries to PLAY BIG in the town centre!

D-LUX Festival of Light will return to Dumfries Town Centre for their third annual event, and this time they are taking video games out of the house and on to the High Street! The event runs from 31st January to 2nd February and will have a focus on the gaming industry, aiming to bring interactive storytelling to Dumfries.

D-LUX brings warmth, light and curiosity into Dumfries Town Centre at the darkest time of the year, where artists explore new ways of illuminating the darkness. For 2019, D-LUX want to celebrate gaming culture and bring it to the High Street. The games industry is now bigger than Hollywood, the audiences are bigger, the ambitions and bigger, the budgets are bigger; and Scotland is rather good at making them!

‘Our Moon’ projected in the town centre as part of the Burns Night Parade.

D-LUX intends to light up the town with large-scale video projections of much loved and retro video games, as well as illuminating sides of buildings and shop windows with stories that are normally shared at home. All the games will be played live, and you can take part and play the games or just wander through the town and watch!

D-LUX will creative a collision of the public realm with interactive digital storytelling. Some stories are white knuckle rides of pure adrenaline and jeopardy, some are staggeringly beautiful role-playing games taking place in distant Galaxies, some are digital communities building alternative models of society. All are part of our contemporary world and D-LUX want to bring them into the heart of Dumfries. They hope that by bringing what is often private into public display, they will be able to show the community of Dumfries what opportunities might be available to young people in the gaming industry in a playful and entertaining way.

The Oven lit up as part of the ‘Whose Hoose Is This’ Project with the Midsteeple Quarter.

To explore the gaming culture in Dumfries, D-LUX have commissioned avid gamer Peter Bain to be their Community Engagement Officer. He believes the most exciting part of the project is the community element, going on to explain that the gaming industry has been shifting more and more in favour of online gameplay, and while that global connectivity has its benefits, there’s still something to be said for keeping it local. “I’d much rather play a game with a friend sitting across the room than across the country or even the planet. Scaling that experience up for the whole town and creating a visual extravaganza on the High Street sounds to me like a lot of fun!”

D-LUX will take place across several locations over 31st January to 2nd February. All events are free and will be on from dark until late. If you would like to be involved or to keep up to date with their events, visit their website here: www.d-lux.org.uk or find ‘D-LUX’ on Facebook.

For 2019, D-LUX is sponsored by Mark Jardine of Jardine Funeral Directors.

Passers by play with the lights in the town centre as part of ‘Town Centre Illuminations’.
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Groundswell: New Sculptures for Lochside

The second of a series of public artworks will be unveiled in Lochside in a public celebration on Wednesday, 12th December.

The artwork Groundswell is comprised of a series of six sandstone sculptures made from Locharbriggs stone by artists Susheila Jamieson and James Gordon. Over the past six months, Susheila and James have been based at the Family Centre on Lochside Road, carving each of the stones on site there. The artists thoroughly enjoyed their time in the community of Lochside and all the conversations they had with local folk and the workshops they did for the children.

The site for the works is based in the area of DGHP’s new properties at The Meadows, Lochside.

Groundswell is one of four Lochside Public Art Projects, commissioned by DGHP and managed by The Stove Network, who are based in Dumfries town centre. The first, Tattiefields was unveiled in September, and the final artworks will be installed in the next couple of months.

James and Susheila who are based in the Borders, were selected for the commission following an open call earlier in the year. James and Susheila said, “The idea behind these sculptures is to commemorate local quarrying and working of stone. Dumfries was built of sandstone and it’s history has been carved into it. Sadly, work has recently stopped at the local Locharbriggs quarry, the boulders for Groundswell were some of the last to be taken from the quarry.

We have really enjoyed, and will miss, working outside the Family Centre in Lochside.  It has been an  ideal way to meet people from the local community and we really appreciated all the encouraging , friendly comments and chats! Working in the public eye hopefully has let people have some insight into the process behind creating Groundswell.”

The artworks will be officially unveiled at the site in the Meadows at 3.45pm on Wednesday, 12th December. All are welcome to attend Full details available here.

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Local Democracy Event and The Stove’s AGM!

Last night we held our yearly AGM which was a typically animated and entertaining Stovie night! We began this year with a discussion for our members around local democracy. Scottish Government has begun a national conversation about the need for more decisions to be made at a local level and they are asking for ideas about ways to do this.There has been much community-led activity around the country of late, with much of it being informal and grass roots. The question we posed at The Stove last night was how could this genuine popular activity become part of the larger power structure of our country?

In particular, we focused on the role that “alternative peoples town halls” could play – by this we mean places like The Stove that are publicly accessible and full of life and energy; places where conversations about ideas, change and projects naturally happen and places that people know they can always bring ideas or find out what is happening. Members talked about their experiences connected with The Stove and how Stove projects, discussions and partnerships created a fertile ground for the local community to get involved with making their own place for the future.

Conversations included:

  • Keeping democracy visible using empty shops etc. as “alternative town halls”;
  • Cultural activity being a brilliant way of keeping democratic process accessible and relevant for communities;
  • Uniting people around specific projects for their community being the catalyst for involving people in local decision making.

Then the AGM itself was a warm and supportive affair with an atmosphere of positivity about the last year and the future. The final accounts and Chairs Report will be posted on the website in 2 weeks time when we get the final audited accounts back from the accountant at the beginning of December.

Read the Tresurer’s Report here: Treasurer’s Report

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Dumfries’ first Sign & Dine at The Stove!

A fortnightly drop-in for the signing community to gather will be launched this week at The Stove!  The region’s first ‘Sign & Dine’ has been organised in association with the signing community and is a fortnightly drop-in in the cafe which is open to all to meet with one another, grab a coffee or just find out more about signing!
The initiative aims to engage both the hearing and deaf communities in signing and is the first regular event in what is hoped to be many more catering for the signing and deaf communities in the region.
Organiser and activist Eileen Cassells, who is an active and prominent member within the signing community has created this event as a welcoming place to come, whatever your level of sign language skills. It’s a universal language that can be used around the world. She is hoping to bridge the gap between the “hearing” and the “deaf” worlds, making it just “our” world. The event will allow the deaf to be heard and bring the whole community together, so you can “talk” to your deaf neighbour, friend, family member, or even that stranger you see every day.
We are delighted to be supporting such a great project and hope this grows similar initiatives across the region to engage the signing communities, both deaf and hearing. We want to be open to everyone in our community and encourage those learning or curious to pop in!
The first Sign & Dine is on the 16th of November at the Stove Café from 1pm followed by a launch reception at 7pm on the 16th featuring talks, refreshments and a chance to learn more about the project.

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CCS’ Library of Creative Sustainability: Case Study

Creative Carbon Scotland have just recently launched their Library of Creative Sustainability, a digital resource for people working to address environmental sustainability and climate change, and we are one of their case studies!

The new digital resource showcases best practice examples of collaborations between sustainability partners and artists seeking to make the world a better place and is aimed for people working to address the challenging issues of environmental sustainability and climate change, demonstrating the benefits of collaborating with artists and cultural approaches to help achieve their aims.

Their initial launch includes five case studies, featuring:
SLOW Clean-UP civic Experiments in Chicago, USA
WATERSHED+ in Calgary, Canada
HighWaterLine an international installation by artist Eve Mosher
Sutton Tidal Attenuation Barrier and Falkenham Saltmarsh Tidal Management Scheme in Suffolk
And The Stove in Dumfries!

Find out more about the library and the other case studies shared online here

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National Culture Strategy Consultation Event

On Thursday 6th September, the Stove Network hosted public consultation session on the Draft Culture Strategy by Scottish Government, aiming to encourage individuals to contribute and generate group discussion on the way culture and creativity is part of our society and community.

Since the beginning of 2018, the Scottish Government has been consulting with the people of Scotland on their ideas and aspirations for a National Culture Strategy. This is not simply about the ‘arts’, rather it includes heritage and cultural activity of all kinds and aims to build an understanding of the value of culture as something that should play a part right across the spectrum of society. At the end of June this year, the Scottish Government published a draft of the Cultural Strategy and have asked people to comment on it and contribute ideas for practical activity that will put the Strategy into real and useful action for communities.The consultation event was a great success and it was very useful to be able to discuss certain issues with such a diverse and committed group of colleagues. The event began with an introductory talk by Gwilym Gibbons who is currently CEO of the Crichton Trust and previously has headed up major cultural projects in Perth and the Shetland Islands. Following Gwilym’s introduction, attendees were invited to take part in two facilitated workshops; one looking at the content of the draft strategy and the other to gather ideas for ways that the Culture Strategy could be delivered practically in our region and beyond.

We have now prepared a document for you to view with notes from the discussions. These notes are just the interpretation of the conversations made by the scribes. The Stove will not be attempting to represent the views expressed at the meeting in our submission to the official Consultation. Rather, we will be making our own submission (which may mirror some of the views expressed) and we encourage everyone else to do the same.

Download the document here: Culture Strategy Consultation Event at The Stove Network

Download the official Stove Network response here: Official Stove Response

More information and how to submit your own views can be found here: https://consult.gov.scot/culture-tourism-and-major-events/culture-strategy/

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to get in touch!

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