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The Market of Possibility at Guid Nychburris 2023!

Imagine a future where fashion, gardens, and stories come to life. Exciting, right? 

At Guid Nychburris 2023, The Stove Network and Dumfries Partnership Action Group joined forces with various community projects in launching ‘The Market of Possibility’.

Our ‘Town of Possibilities’ parade entry was made up from volunteers from Stove members and those involved in the various groups taking part in the Market of Possibility in July and August. Thanks to the large number of volunteers who helped, we won first place in the walking category of the parade!

We would like to say a massive thank you to all of those who took part in our parade entry and to those who supported us as we walked round the streets of Dumfries. Another massive thank you to the organisers of Guid Nychburris 2023 for such a fantastic day!

What is the Market of Possibility?

Nestled in the vibrant heart of Dumfries, the Market of Possibility invites you on a journey into a world of grassroots campaigns, electrifying projects, and inspiring initiatives led by local heroes. It’s not just a market—it’s a captivating blend of studio, playground, and laboratory. Step inside, and you’ll find yourself immersed in a thought-provoking space that ignites new ideas and nurtures your ambitions.

From revolutionary green spaces to innovative social bakeries and homegrown fashion, the Market of Possibility, located in the Loreburn Centre throughout July and August, is a grand celebration of local innovation and creativity. But it’s not just about admiring these incredible endeavours; it’s about actively participating in shaping the future.

Imagine attending creative workshops, exploring interactive installations, and even building your very own towns of the future. The Market of Possibility is an invitation to play, connect, explore, and create together. Let’s embark on a journey where we can build new ambitions, explore fresh ideas, and uncover limitless possibilities for the future of our beloved town.

Prepare to have your imagination sparked as the Market of Possibility showcases a diverse range of local campaigns, enterprises, and grassroots projects. Each project presents an interactive installation that will inspire big ideas, ignite conversations, and welcome new visions for a future town fueled by imagination, connectivity, and equality.

Step into the Green Town, where you’ll encounter Deep Green Space, Climate Kitchen, and Nith Life. Dive into the Historic Town, home to Creative Caerlaverock and The Imaginarium. Discover the Creative Town, where Drawing For Enjoyment and Write! flourish. Explore the Making Town, with its Repair Shop, Re:Dress, and The Guild. Immerse yourself in the Music Town, where Paragon Music, Free Improvisation, and Dumfries Music Collective harmonise. And don’t miss Queer Town, where Queer Club and Dumfries Pride shine brightly.

Each project at the Market of Possibility presents an interactive installation that sparks imagination, initiates conversations, and invites fresh ideas. Together, we’ll envision a future town grounded in imagination, connectivity, and equality.

The Market of Possibility builds upon the visionary ‘Town Centre Vision & Action Plan’ developed by Dumfries Partnership Action Group, a comprehensive community-led initiative that outlines the future of Dumfries town centre. This event is an evolution of that plan, and it’s designed to bring people together, foster collaboration, encourage experimentation, and, most importantly, have fun!

We can’t contain our excitement to welcome you to the Market of Possibility. Prepare for a thrilling experience filled with imagination, innovation, and endless possibilities. Join us as we embark on this incredible journey. See you there!

The Market of Possibility is opening it’s doors on Thursday the 13th of July with the Re:Dress takeover!

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Musings News Project Updates

Meet the 23/24 Creative Spaces Team

The new Creative Spaces team outside the Stove Cafe.

Creative Spaces is an exciting collaborative project at The Stove which offers both paid and voluntary opportunities for the under 30s in Dumfries & Galloway.

The project brings together young creatives, from different disciplines, to facilitate an annual programme of events, activities and workshops, all designed to explore and develop artistic responses to cultural issues that impact young people in Dumfries & Galloway.

In May 2023 we were joined by 3 new members to The Stove team: 

This year’s three Associated Artists are Sahar El-Hady, Korey Patterson and Martha Ferguson. You can find out a bit more about each of our new teammates here.

We asked them a few questions so you could get to know them! Here’s what they had to say…

Q) What is your creative practice?

Sahar – My background is actually in science! I studied Geology but spend most of my spare time in the theatre, and using creativity to channel young people’s energies into improving their local community. I love acting and I’m hoping to connect with other performers and develop my skills. I also do some painting and crafting for fun – I’ve done one art project with rocks but I’d like to find more ways of combining my scientific and creative interests. 

Korey – My Creative practices are music and character art. I’m a guitarist and I play in a local band called YABBA. The music is big and the fun is endless so its favourite way to spend my time. I also like to draw and paint, my subject matter typically tends to be real life people or characters I’ve created. I think in both my music and artwork I like to develop a story and aesthetic around a single idea.

Martha – My interests are in set and production design, but I am very much at the beginning of my journey! I studied Art History so it has been exciting exploring ways to apply my knowledge in a practical setting. My practice is kind of all over the place at the moment as I’m still trying to figure out what I enjoy most. That being said, I’m definitely drawn to the idea of wearing many hats. Whilst volunteering at the Theatre Royal I’ve done some prop sourcing, prop making, set painting and set construction which has opened my eyes to how much I love collaborative and varied work.

Q) Where are you from? What draws you to D&G as a creative?

Sahar – I’m from all over the place – my parents are originally Egyptian and American, but both of them grew up moving around and living in different parts of the world. I was born in New Zealand, spent most of my school years in London, and went to uni in Bristol, with some time in China and Australia as well. I ended up moving to Dumfries by connecting with friends of a friend and I love it here – the sense of community, creativity and vibrancy is like nowhere else I’ve ever lived!

Korey – I’m born and bred in Dumfries & Galloway. What keeps me here as a creative is the prospects and opportunity to use my skill set to create a lifestyle for myself and also to change local opinion on the potential a town like Dumfries has. There is potential for it to be a great host for music and it already caters well for local artists.

Martha – I was born and raised in Dumfries but I am half Japanese, half Irish. After a couple of years doing a corporate job, I realised that I wanted to spend my time being creative and doing more hands-on work. I felt a bit lost on how to make this a viable career which is the main reason why I returned to Dumfries – D&G has such a positive and supportive community for emerging artists which is perfect for developing a practice and for creative exploration in general. The abundance of nature and the chance to have a healthier lifestyle is also hugely attractive after living in cupboards in London. 

Q) What do you like to do outside of work?

Sahar – I love going for walks in beautiful places, swimming, eating good food, and cuddling my guinea pigs.

Korey – Outside of work, I like to go on walks and bike rides with my friends. There are a lot of great outdoor spots to explore, cycle, camp, fish and hangout in D&G. So it’s a great place for people who like the outdoors. I also like to go to the pub, I appreciate pub culture and I like meeting new people as much as I can, and the town has some great welcoming pubs, housing some equally welcoming people.

Martha – I mostly spend my free time with family and friends cooking, going out, or going on wee adventures. That being said, I spend a lot of time binge watching films and shows with my cat.

Q) What are you hoping to get out of Creative Spaces?

Sahar – I’m really excited to expand my network of creative people and plug into all the great projects The Stove and its partners are working on. I feel the Stove team has a huge wealth of knowledge, both from the experience it’s built up over the years and from the dynamic, talented individuals who are involved in the projects. I hope I come out of Creative Spaces a little more clued up on what it takes to make dreams of change into a reality.

Korey – Whilst I’m working for Creative Spaces, I hope to put on some great events and bring in some new blood and fresh faces. I’d like to see my ideas come into fruition. I’d also like to become a professional freelancer that is fully capable of operating to a suitable standard on my own, whilst gaining plenty of experience working within a team.

Martha – I’m hoping to absorb as much as I can from talented people inside and outside the Stove network, to acquire new skills, and to change the way I’ve been conditioned to think as I’ve become a bit of a corporate drone. I’m also hoping to connect with other young creatives after almost 9 years away from home and to help create an inclusive community for young folk in general. There are so many cool projects and opportunities in the region that I wish I knew about growing up so I want to spread awareness as much as possible… as the old saying goes – knowledge is power!

Q) What’s your Stove Cafe order?

Sahar – Dirty chai and vegan bhaji toastie – since I’ve found out what it is I’m a big fan of a dirty chai from The Stove! 

Korey –  The pastrami toastie and a ginger beer.

Martha – Pastrami toastie and a flat white.

Offering both paid and voluntary opportunities for the under 30’s, Creative Spaces facilitate an annual programme of events and workshops designed to help you find your voice, explore and develop your artistic practice. Learn more about Creative Spaces here.

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Musings News Project Updates

Dumfries Fountain, Unveiled

By Katie Anderson

New Public art work for Dumfries Fountain
New Public art work for Dumfries Fountain

Small pebbles can make big waves, right? And change doesn’t happen overnight – it’s a slow burning, incremental process for the most part, but every so often there are moments when you can really see the change happening.

On the 1st June, the Dumfries Fountain was turned back on after many years without a water supply. Unveiled from behind the metal hoardings that have fenced off a section of the High Street whilst works took place to completely restore this Victorian beauty to its original glamour.

I’ve been on the Dumfries Fountain Restoration project team for a few years now on behalf of The Stove Network. My role involving the support and drive for a wider community engagement plan as part of the works. Supporting artists and community activists to take part in the project and have their voices heard.

Why this? Why now? What impact does this restoration, caretaking and renewal have on our town?

It won’t solve the potholes in the road, or absentee landlords, or sea gulls or long-term employment, but as an iconic monument that has stood in the heart of the town for over 100 years, that witnesses and stands as a marker of where we have come from and where we are going – monuments like the fountain are surely worth preserving. We need investment into the town, an approach of care and responsibility for the landmarks that give our everyday a sense of place and identity, and a vision for how our public spaces can be.

As part of the restoration we have realised the importance of telling the story of the fountain. How it came to be here and it’s place in the history of the town. The restoration, now completed, forms part of this story. As we move forward, and to mark this a series of nine bronze floor plaques have been set into the cobbles surrounding the fountain, telling the history of the town through its connection to water.

The plaques designs are inspired by water droplets from the fountain, the textures of the sand out on the Solway and a small nod to cup and ring marks found in the depths of Galloway. Their penny-like finish feels in keeping with the space and since their unveiling, passers-by have been seen adding their own pennies back into the newly refurbished fountain bowls. Over time the plaques will develop their own patina as many feet and weathers move over them.

It’s not been a solo work by any stretch, working first with the creative team at The Stove Network, then writer and historian JoAnne McKay on the texts and dates, pattern maker Ruth Davies on the final patterns and printed elements, Lost Art who led on the casting and finishing works and Stevie at Kirk Masonry on the installation.

Projects like these are only possible with the attention and perseverance of many hands behind the scenes. Kirsten Scott and the St Michael’s Primary School class groups campaigned for years for the works to be undertaken and since those beginnings it’s taken many folks from a wide variety of backgrounds to see the project through, from council teams to the skilled artisans of Lost Art and various specialist contractors amongst many others.

The step over the threshold from bystander into a more active citizenship can be a bit of a leap of faith, but in raising a flag, pitching in, making space for the voices of others to be heard we create the potential for change, the act of making together a town of possibility.

Find out ore about the restoration process on Fountain’s own Facebook Page.

To celebrate the official unveiling of the Fountain, The Stove will be will be hosting a series of events, from talks about the restoration process with archaeologists, to creative workshops, history tours and exhibitions. Find our more here.


Katie has been a part of the Stove since 2013, and currently delivers her role on a freelance basis alongside her own personal creative work from her studio in Annandale. Her role at The Stove as Public Art Lead, supports core Stove programming with additional activities and events including Reel to Real Cinema and Conversing Building which offers specific support for projects that hold public art elements, and also develops it’s own distinctive projects that explore public spaces in and around the town centre.

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Musings News Project Updates

An Eco-Conscious European Adventure

In this guest blog post, Climate Kitchen co-organiser Kirsty Turpie tells you all about her summer cycling around Europe in 2022.

Last summer I set out on a trip that I’d dreamt about for a long time… well kind of. I’d always hoped of going on a multi-country trip or spending a long period of time abroad. But I imagined I would inter-rail with friends, work or volunteer abroad, or travel in a camper van.

At the beginning of last year I started dreaming about the trip being in a camper van. I had it all planned out in my head how I’d decorate the van inside and out. I was going to use my creative skills to pimp it up to the max. It was going to be a vision of love and peace on four wheels… I would take all of my art materials with me too and be able to work on projects on the move. I would be as they say ‘living the dream’. So, I went ahead and bought a van. But all the time that I was plotting and planning and buying, there was a niggling voice in my head that said ‘What about the environment, what about climate change!?’

Being part of the Climate Kitchen organising team and being at our events amplified this thought in my head. At the Climate Kitchen we’re always exploring how we can be kinder to the planet and minimise our impact on climate change. In addition to this, I’ve always believed in Gandi’s message, ‘Be the change you’d like to see in the world’. So, I bit the bullet, sold the van, researched everything I’d need for long distance cycle-touring and spent my savings on a beautiful cycle-touring bike and all the gear! It was time to be the change!


I definitely felt nervous… ‘what was it going to be like being a solo-female cycling abroad?’, ‘what was it going to be like being a solo-female camper?’, ‘would I be able to fix the bike if something broke?’, ‘what if I got stuck at the top of a mountain with no signal and a broken bike!?’.


I was slightly consoled by the fact that a friend of a friend had completed a similar trip around Europe. I read his blog and was able to speak to him on the phone about some of my concerns. I was also now determined to do it by bike as it was going to be more sustainable, kinder on the wallet, much better exercise and I’d be in the sunshine all day everyday! On top of this, my aims for the trip were to see more of Europe, visit a friend in Croatia, go to festivals that I’d wanted to visit for a long time, meet new people, learn about different cultures, visit the European Baha’i temple, be inspired creatively, learn new songs and be surrounded by beautiful nature, all whilst travelling sustainably.

So, I set off from Dumfries on Monday 23rd May and spent two days cycling to Newcastle. I then got the ferry over to the Netherlands to begin my European adventure. I planned to be away for three months and to visit nine countries. Because I had numerous countries I wanted to visit I also had to use some
trains and buses on top of cycling. But, a third of the trip and 1526 miles to be exact were done on bike. 😉 Quite the achievement for someone who’s longest previous trip was fifty miles!


So, what was it like being a solo-female cyclist and camper in nine different European countries? Well, extremely pleasant! I only felt unsafe once, and that was when I decided to wild camp in the South of France as I was fed up of paying campsite prices. I was actually wild camping in a safe spot, so the feeling of being unsafe was most likely just in my head. But the rest of the time, I felt fine. I could rely on the Komoot cycling app or Google maps to get me to where I needed to go. I could look up campsites online and phone ahead to book, or rock up and book a spot for the night.

I also used the Warm Showers app, which is like couch surfing for cyclists. People all over the world that are also keen cyclists offer up a space in their home for the night for free to help fellow cyclists out. I stayed with couples in Toulouse, Carcasonne and Biarritz in France and they were all super lovely. The couple I stayed with in Toulouse were very experienced cycle-tourists and gave me loads of great advice and maps for the next leg of my journey. It was an absolute pleasure to meet and learn from them!


Everywhere I went on the bike people were really friendly and curious to speak to me about my trip. They would offer me advice about routes or great local spots to check out, and people would help me out if they seen me trying to lift my bike and heavy luggage on or off a train. If I’d been driving through towns in a camper van I definitely wouldn’t have spoke to as many people or had as nice interactions. All I would have seen would have been roads and service stations. I still had to cycle on roads sometimes but I also got to view some spectacular landscapes from field and tree lined cycle paths.

Cycling definitely helped me to achieve my goal of spending the summer being surrounded by beautiful nature. When I was cycling in the South of France I spent four days cycling next to a canal. It was so idyllic cycling next to the blue water, dotted with interesting canal boats and floating homes. Myself and the fellow Spanish cyclist I was cycling with at the time, would stop for lunch next to the canal and go in for a quick swim and cool down each day before cycling in the hot afternoon sun. It was absolutely delightful!


As well as chatting to locals as I cycled through quaint towns, I also bumped in to fellow cycle-tourists. On some occasions we were going the same way so we’d travel together for a day or two and make fast friends. I cycled with a German couple over the Ofenpass from Switzerland to Italy. It was my most gruelling day of cycling so I was very happy for the company and encouragement. I spent time cycling in France with Belgian, Swiss, Argentinian, Italian, Spanish and French cyclists. It was so wonderful to share stories and tips. It was also quite funny to be chatting away and acting like a pro after the first month, even though it was my first trip!


And, I never got stuck up a mountain with a broken bike. Actually, I didn’t even get any punctures in the whole three months! So I only needed to stop for sandwiches and not to pump up my tyres… what a relief! So big shout out to Schwalbe Marathon tyres ;-). The only issue I had with the bike was the discomfort of the saddle and height of the seat post on the first two days of cycling. Luckily a friend in Newcastle gave me her Selle Italia gel flow saddle before I got on the ferry and when I got to the
Netherlands I went in to a bike shop and they shortened and lowered the seat post for me. Finding a comfortable position and saddle really did make all the difference. So, I definitely recommend getting your bike set up properly before going on a long distance trip. Padded shorts and chamois cream,
won’t go amiss either!!


So, I could talk forever about everything I learnt, seen and experienced but I don’t want to bore you all to tears. If you’d like to hear a bit more though and find out my top cycle-touring tips, then come along to Climate Kitchen next Friday 16th June at The Stove Cafe. A free community meal is provided at 5:30pm and then the event is from 6:00pm – 8:00pm. Climate Kitchen organiser Katie will also be talking about her experience of cycle-touring and we’ll have some great activities going on including how to fix a puncture and a chance to give it a go, route planning advice, reading corner and a chat about cycling infrastructure.


And, finally. I would 100% recommend seeing the world by bike, if that is an option for you! It’s such a wonderful way to travel and with a little bit of determination… anything is possible.

Kirsty Turpie is a co-organiser of Climate Kitchen; one of our Open Hoose projects at the Stove. A community artist and graphic designer, Kirsty has a large passion for many areas of creativity and especially enjoys working on purposeful projects that can enhance a space or help others in the community to learn new skills and express themselves.

You can learn more about Kirsty by visiting her website HERE.

Open Hoose is a project at the heart of the Stove’s community venue. Ideas are given the space, time, resources and support of the Stove Network to launch ambitious projects to galvanise and gather our communities together. From climate cafes to bread clubs, jam nights and creative writing groups, Open Hoose offers an eclectic mix of different activities for everyone to take part in. 

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Musings News Project Updates

Karl Drinkwater on WRITE!

The author, and host of the monthly creative writing workshop, shares what you can expect at a regular WRITE! meet-up.

“What goes on in a session of WRITE? Are there funny handshakes, grumpy faces, and writing snobs? I thought about coming but I haven’t ever written much.”


My experience of these sessions is smiling faces and laughter, people making friends, and just a shared joy of words. There’s no pretension, no criticism, no expectations of perfection. The people who’ve attended have been such a welcoming bunch that I love running the sessions!

The general format for a session is that people turn up and chat over a hot drink (and maybe cake), welcomed by the lovely Stove team. Then we get started and usually I get everyone to say their name, and maybe I make that into some kind of game related to the theme of the session.


Then we’ll move on to some thoughts relating to the writing topic or subject that I’ve picked for the night. We’ve had sessions discussing myths and legends; how to describe places or people; the importance of friends; beginnings and endings; and many more. Usually I’ll have questions or quotes to prompt discussion, and to give ideas. People take part as much or as little as they like. It’s fine just to listen!

The WRITE! ‘Writing Board’ at the session on ‘Place’.


That’s when we get to the main part, where we all do some writing related to the theme. I’ll usually offer a few options and some prompts, then we have 20 minutes to write whatever takes our fancy. It doesn’t even matter if it’s nothing to do with the theme – the key thing is that it is a chance to let our imaginations
free and write something that might never have appeared on paper (or screen) otherwise. It can be prose, or poem, or dialogue, or word lists, or doodles, I don’t care.


At that point we usually split into groups and everyone has the opportunity to read out some or all of what they wrote, if they wish. It’s totally optional, but everyone should have the chance. We never need to apologise for how rough it is: it’s accepted that it is an unedited idea. All that matters is the potential, and
we approach the readings and chat as if we are all good friends, supporting each other (which is actually what we are!)


And that’s it. Nothing crazy. Just a situation that encourages creativity, and an opportunity to give ourselves the time to enjoy it. If you don’t create the opportunity, nothing will happen.


It doesn’t matter if you’ve never written before, or you’re the world’s best author. We’re all equal in that room. We all have our own thoughts, our own voices, and that’s what’s so fascinating. Give ten people the same prompt, you get ten different creations. I love that.

WRITE! is the creative workshop at The Stove that gives you the space to guide your imagination and transform it into writing.

Hosted by multi-genre author and editor Karl Drinkwater, WRITE! is designed to allow you to play with words and construct short or longer pieces of work, whichever you desire, and it is open to all abilities!

If you would like to attend the next WRITE! session, click here.

To learn more about Karl, and to visit his website, click here.

Open Hoose is a project at the heart of the Stove’s community venue. Ideas are given the space, time, resources and support of the Stove Network to launch ambitious projects to galvanise and gather our communities together. From climate cafes to bread clubs, jam nights and creative writing groups, Open Hoose offers an eclectic mix of different activities for everyone to take part in. Find out more about groups like this one on our Open Hoose page, here.

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Musings News

A Culture of Participation aka ‘Growing Our Own Culture’

By Matt Baker

In this post I’m going to talk about sport, or specifically, about how we value and fund sport in Scotland and how this could positively enhance culture[1] in Scotland and deliver on our national strategy for culture[2]

We fund sport in Scotland in two ways, firstly we support sports venues, organisations, individual sportspeople, international competitions and the promotion of sport. So, a very similar picture to the way we fund culture.

But, importantly, we also fund grassroots sports development, local clubs and opportunities for everyone to take part in sport. It can be strongly argued that this support for participation in sport embeds many of the qualities of sport in our nation – such as teamwork, self-improvement, physical activity etc far more so than would be achieved by simply watching others playing sports. It also clearly drives an accessibility and inclusion which we see demonstrated in the diversity of backgrounds of successful sportspeople and those who comment on/present and administrate sport.

I need to say before I start to talk directly about support for culture that all my arguments are based on the foundation that we must retain the support we already give to culture. Everything I am saying here is about additional support which compliments, enhances and relies on continuing support for our national cultural infrastructure and development.

Fundamentally, in Scotland, we do not have a comparable second strand of support for participation in culture. In 1946, the first chairman of the Arts Council of Gt Britain announced, ‘It is about the best not the most. The principle is we support professional artists. That’s our obligation. And our second obligation is to enable others to appreciate, understand and benefit from that’[3] and that is still pretty much the principle of how we fund culture in Scotland today. As a result, culture has ended up in something of a silo of its own, concerned with culture in and of itself rather than the potential for culture to make the deepest contribution to society as a whole.

Yes, we do our best with the cultural support we have in Scotland to encourage growth from the grassroots of our communities and there are some incredible isolated examples of this – but fundamentally Scotland does not have a clear policy or a mechanism to support widespread participation in culture. There are many cultural groups, projects and organisations that promote grassroots participation, however, in order to support their work, they find themselves in competition for funds with other groups working in food poverty, addiction services etc and unsurprisingly ‘culture’ often misses out, seen as a ‘nice to have’ but not ‘necessary’.

So, why is the situation for sport so different? The straightforward answer is that sport made a focussed and sustained case for the health impacts of physical activity and inclusion in communities. One direct outcome of improving people’s wellbeing through sport is that there is less demand on the health service with a consequent saving of money. 

Culture has a myriad of similar arguments for the societal value of participating in and shaping the culture of the country:

  • Mental health/wellbeing and positive pathways for disadvantaged individuals/communities
  • Reducing social isolation
  • Education in teamwork, problem-solving and adaptability
  • Community cohesion/safety
  • Community visioning and placemaking
  • Innovation growing new businesses and social enterprises

(to name but a few…)

So, why don’t we have support for participation in culture as we do in sport? I believe that part of the answer lies in the very multiplicity of societal impacts from participation in culture, the argument can become diffuse and unclear because of its diversity. However, the issue also lies with the culture sector itself, we have been starved of investment for so long that we cling with white knuckles to what we have and that the way we are used to doing things. In that anxious state the concern expressed is that a participation strand in culture would somehow dilute the quality of our cultural offer by setting up a two-tier system of ‘first and second class art’. The argument goes that this could disrupt the perfectly equal and accessible meritocracy we have now. In truth, culture is the very opposite of equal and accessible currently, and risks side-lining itself into irrelevance unless it finds the confidence and optimism to open itself up and be part of the change required to build a society that is founded on wellbeing, fairness, and opportunity for all.

And of course, as with sport, funding grassroots participation is wholly dependent on the existence of, and a relationship with, a strong and healthy professional cultural sector.

Making the Case

I believe the opportunity and case for supporting culture as a key building block towards a Wellbeing Economy has yet to be effectively made to our politicians, so that they can lay a pathway of understanding and support in parliament and government. The Culture Strategy offers a policy framework for this work, and I’d propose we’d use the strategy as a foundation for making the case through its three pillars of Strengthening, Transforming, Empowering through culture and its core principle of culture being ‘mainstreamed’ across all the portfolios of government.

We need to work across portfolios and in collaboration with those working in government and policy and listen to advice about how to make the case for participation in culture. In the spirit of furthering the idea, I’d like to offer a few thoughts on how such an idea might be implemented. These are simply in the form of a framework or principles for making embedding participation in culture one of the features of the Scottish nation.

A Percentage for Culture

Because of the diverse impacts of cultural participation any approach needs to be cross-portfolio (health/wellbeing, education/lifelong learning, communities/regeneration, justice, economy/enterprise). An idea that has been talked of for a while is a ‘percentage for culture’ – this could take the form of a tiny percentage of the budgets of departments whose outcomes could benefit from the impacts of participation in culture (see list above) being allocated to cultural participation programmes.

A principle of any ‘percentage for culture’ policy would require that the departments contributing budget would hold accountability and a degree of control of how budget is spent and the delivery of outcomes. How this would work in practice is beyond the scope of this paper. All I seek to do is propose some principles, one being that a ‘percentage for culture’ cannot simply be handed to a cultural agency to be distributed without the ongoing involvement of the departments contributing to the scheme. Long-term impact and change in society needs to be built into this idea and the mechanism for growing deeper and more integrated joint working between culture and other departments of government.

Other thoughts on implementation would be a need/opportunity for a regional and place-based approach reflecting the very different challenges and opportunities of working within the urban and rural areas of the country. Such an initiative would also be an opportunity to explore the potential for longer-term funding agreements with programmes, projects and organisations. This is a principle that comes up in every sector consultation and the benefits to service users, service providers and funders of long-term agreements has been clearly articulated. One possibility could be to use ‘percentage for arts’ public funding as the basis for regional (or national?) ‘endowments for culture’[4] which could lever additional funds from local sources to develop added value and security for participation in culture.

A Framework

In summary a Participation in Culture Initiative framework could include:

  • Percentage for culture across government departments
  • Accountability/collaboration across departments in implementation of Participation in Culture
  • Regional/place-based approach to implementation
  • Innovation in funding models

I’d be very interested to hear from anyone with thoughts about supporting participation in culture and particularly anyone who’d like to help develop the case. Please get in touch at [email protected] or @_mattbaker on Twitter


[1] ‘Everyone has the right to participate freely in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits’ (Article 27, Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

[2] ‘Scotland is a place where culture is valued, protected and nurtured. Culture is woven through everyday life, shapes and is shaped by society, and its transformative potential is experienced by everyone.’ (Culture Strategy for Scotland. 2020) Full strategy here

[3] The beginnings of the British Arts Council and its shift away from ‘participation in culture’ to ‘professionalised culture’ is well covered in ‘Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art
– The British Community Arts Movement’ edited by Alison Jeffers and Gerri Moriaty.

[4] The work of Leah Black at EVOC is instructive in this regard – see her initial report into setting up a long-term fund for Third Sector organisations in Edinburgh


Matt Baker is the Orchestrator of The Stove Network and one of The founders of the organisation. His challenge is to remain attuned to the overall direction of The Stove, through remaining true to our values and leading a culture of learning, empowerment and excellence within our organisation. Matt is also the interim chair of the National Partnership for Culture, the independent group appointed by the Cabinet Secretary for Culture to support the delivery of the national culture strategy.

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