Our ambition to Get Dumfries Talking is coming to pass—people are really getting stuck into the #OpenHouse speech bubbles and finding great ways for the town to express itself:
What would your house say?
What would your workplace say?
What would a park bench say?
What would the cannon in Dock Park say?
Taking part is super easy—just pick up a speech bubble from The Stove (or from cafes and shops around the town), write a message in the bubble, snap it with your phone, and post it to Twitter or Facebook with the hashtag #OpenHouse.
We have been artists-in-residence with The Stove for five months and are now into the final month before our film and sound installation, HAME, opens on 2nd May as part of The Stove’s Open House series of events to mark the launch of 100 High Street.
HAME explores relationships with Dumfries and Galloway through the words of those who call it home. During our time working here, we have been very privileged to record conversations with over 45 people throughout D&G.
Guided by these conversations, we have gathered footage from around the area using our trusty Black Cab, chauffeured by the excellent Will Marshall. Our experience, perspectives, and knowledge of D&G have gradually evolved and transformed through these conversations and our own explorations.
We have been recalling when we first moved here from Glasgow, following the Sat Nav to our house, exploring our own street, and seeking directions to the shop. Journeys through the unfamiliar have gradually become dotted with reference points—places we’ve passed through, stopped to film, or interviewed someone. Names of towns and villages that previously floated in an imaginary space now slot into their geographical locations. Buildings, bridges, trees, and rivers that were once void of meaning now sprout stories and conjure images.
A few of the significant places marked by interviewees.
Through the process of filming and recording whilst journeying through the area, we have become more acutely aware of its rhythms and the interconnecting threads of feelings, memories, and knowledge of those living both within it and thinking about it from afar.
We have heard stories about everything, from ancient stone markings in Eggerness to hiding places at Annan Harbour, to recollections of a Palmerston football match in 1958. There have been childhood dens, daredevil antics, and trees that sprouted chocolate biscuits. Grub-collecting hotspots, smelly spots, and “J” spots. Bad corners, best views, secret beaches, and spooky ruins. Sunday mass in a chip shop, raves in a woodland, and the 2 am ‘accidental’ purchase of a stretch limo in a pub. We’ve learned how to appropriately pronounce ‘Kirkgunzeon’, ‘Caerlaverock’, and ‘Red Cola’, have finally worked out the parking system in Dumfries, and now know how to find anyone’s house in D&G (over the wee bridge, round the bend, and up the hill).
Interview with Denise & Mark Zygaldo
As ever, the more we explore, the more questions arise. Layers of perspectives overlap, clash, and muddle, and the more we realise how much we do not know. Yet, through this, a kinship and care have developed. And this seems to be the binding thread connecting everyone we have spoken to. Everyone, in one way or another, genuinely cares.
Perhaps what has most surprised us, though, is how the process of the last few months has changed our own perspectives so much that we now feel at home here ourselves and are on the lookout for a place to stay beyond the project (you know the place—over the wee bridge, round the bend, and up the hill?).
We hope you can make it along to the opening of HAME on 2nd May and look forward to seeing you there!
High streets across Britain are fundamentally changing, and Dumfries is no exception. The combined impact of the economic downturn, out-of-town complexes, and online shopping is leading to an increasing number of town centre closures. The effect on Dumfries is unmistakable, from the closure of national chain stores to long-established family-owned businesses, each leaving behind empty husks in what were once regarded as prime locations. With their vacant displays, these unwanted buildings contribute to a worrying sense that the town is in perpetual decline.
However, there have also been signs of new life. The Electric Theatre Workshop has transformed a disused shop into a space for practising and performing theatre, as well as serving as the central hub for the winter festival, Big Burns Supper. Although shops have struggled, cafés and restaurants continue to generate business, prompting several new openings and refurbishments. These changes remind us that high streets have historically been places to “debate and meet”, as retail consultant Mary Portas stated in her 2011 report for the UK Government. It is her opinion that high streets must return to this role as “multifunctional, social spaces” if they are to serve any purpose in the future, with commerce forming just part of their civic service rather than dictating it.
The Stove Network shares this vision—it aims to demonstrate that rethinking the way we use vacant buildings on the high street can have a profound and beneficial impact on the local community. By opening its new accessible public arts space at 100 High Street, it will place creativity and risk-taking at the centre of local efforts to reimagine Dumfries as a contemporary regional capital.
The retail chains that previously occupied these spaces were focused on telling us what we want. The Stove, however, will respond to what we need—a collaborative effort between artists and others in the town to cultivate a place that serves us as citizens rather than consumers. This includes involving the public in the operation of The Stove itself, with the Tuesday Drop-In sessions being one example. These weekly meetings will invite everyone to discuss The Stove’s operation and share their ideas about what it should do more of to contribute towards the regeneration of Dumfries town centre. The Charter14 event, held during last year’s Guid Nychburris festival, asked Doonhamers to put forward their ambitions for the town’s future as part of a new “People’s Charter”, and is another example of The Stove Network’s approach.
By offering ready access to art and the tools of its creation in the very centre of the town, The Stove aims to thoroughly involve the people of Dumfries in bringing about constructive change to the place we call hame, turning an otherwise forlorn relic of times gone by into a symbol of a new future for Dumfries—one conducted on our own terms. “High streets will thrive if we re-imagine them,” Mary Portas suggests, and what better way could there be to inspire new ways of thinking about the high street than through art?
All images are of Charter 14, Guid Nychburris Day Festival, June 2014.
Open House sees The Stove Network populating The Stove at 100 High Street for the first time since building works began last year. It welcomes the town and the wider network to stop by, get involved, and experience some of what we hope to bring to Dumfries’ town centre. Open House is a series of varied events designed to showcase both The Stove’s versatility as a physical space and the ambition of the project for the town centre.
We begin with the third annual Dumfries Music Conference (DMC) on 24th and 25th April. As in previous years, DMC 2015 will feature workshops, talks, film, live music, expert opinion, and creative collaboration. Through a collection of brilliant partners and guests, we hope to educate, inspire, and entertain. DMC 2015 will mark the official opening of The Stove Building at 100 High Street. In celebration of this, we are going to fill the entire building with colour, music, and people.
On 28th April, The Stove hosts Open Mouth—a day of spoken word, performance, and cooking. During the day, The Stove building will hold workshops for school students, followed by a performance workshop at 5pm. A public performance begins at 7pm, featuring Moffat-based Sarah Indigo alongside other performers from the Scottish spoken word scene, as well as young people who have attended the daytime workshops.
Open Mouth has been specially created and delivered for The Stove Network by Sarah Indigo, Eryl Shields, and Open Jar Collective.
On 29th April, House Warming invites everyone to drop by (12:30pm–4:30pm) to explore The Stove building, have a chat, and make a T-shirt.
From 6pm, there will be a Stove Members Gathering, featuring a public bonfire and Bannock-making in the town square with Open Jar from 7:30pm.
At 7pm on Saturday, 2nd May, join us at The Stove for the public launch of HAME, an impressionistic journey through Dumfries & Galloway, voiced by those who call it home. Film, voice, field recordings, and subtle music will intermingle and connect across two floors and extend into Dumfries High Street.
HAME is a film and sound installation by artists Mark Lyken and Emma Dove, specially commissioned for the opening of The Stove at 100 High Street, Dumfries.
Every Tuesday, starting 19th May and running until mid-June, you are invited to Drop-In @ The Stove—pop in for a brew and a blether about The Stove and the town.
What would you like to see The Stove doing? What are your ideas for the town centre? What would you like to do at The Stove? We’ll be open, and we’d love to hear your ideas! Drop-In will run from 12 noon to 6pm every Tuesday, so just drop in as you pass by.
Keep up with the latest updates on Open House via our social media on Facebook and Twitter, using #OpenHouse.
The Young Stove have been busy making plans for their next projects this year, and we’re looking forward to exciting times ahead!
To kick-start the year, we organised a trip up to Glasgow—to get inspired, gather tips and ideas from creatives based in the city at various stages in their careers, and gain a flavour of the art scene in some of the city’s galleries.
A huge thank you to Alison McLeod at Briggait’s WASPS Studios, Gregor Wright at The Modern Institute, and Genevieve Kay Gourlay at The Pipe Factory for taking the time to chat with us about their artistic careers.
Visiting Alison McLeod’s jewellery studio in the Briggait, chatting about inspiration, vintage finds and studio space
Stopping in at Gregor Wright’s studio at the Modern Institute and hearing more about life post art school, the Glasgow art scene and some of his latest works and projects
Dinosaurs as part of Gregor’s recent work during last years GI festival
There was a lot of love for the Pipe Factory, Genevieve shows us around the cavernous space
Toilet Roll Posse
Appropriate tourist snaps, and a chance to check out Alistair Grey’s inspirational show at GoMA, and blitz spending money in the arts supplies shop
If you’d like to find out more about Young Stove, get involved in developing creative projects in Dumfries, or explore the opportunities available, send us an email at [email protected].
Many have suggested simple solutions to the French Paradox—the apparent contradiction that the French can eat rich, fatty foods while maintaining a lifestyle much healthier than many of their counterparts in the Western world. Could it be all the red wine? Or maybe it’s something in their genetics?
The answer, as Will Marshall explained in his introduction to the Open Jar Collective’s Feeding Creativity event, is likely far more complex. It highlights the idea that our attitude towards food has a fundamental effect on our everyday lives. From how we socialise, to how we interact with our surrounding landscape and, importantly, how we create, Will understands that our relationship with food shapes us both as individuals and as a community. It has the power to bring people together and spark what he calls “unexpected interactions” across various social and cultural boundaries.
For him and the rest of the Stove team, the prospect of opening a café in Dumfries town centre is much more than a simple business venture. On the contrary, the Stove envisions its future café not merely as a place to enjoy good coffee, but as a lively hub that will unite the community—whether through participating in events and activities facilitated by the Stove Network or simply enjoying high-quality local produce sourced from across the region.
The Project Cafe in Glasgow, one of the cafe’s cited by Open Jar in their exploration of Creativity and Food
To fulfil this vision, The Stove has enlisted the expertise of the Open Jar Collective, a group of Glasgow-based artists who specialise in all things food. Open Jar has been conducting extensive research to formulate an operational plan and identity for the café, analysing similar projects undertaken by other arts organisations in the UK—Glasgow’s Project Café was offered as one such example—and meeting with local producers such as the Loch Arthur Farmshop.
Feeding Creativity represented another stage in this process—a two-hour event held at 100 Midsteeple, where they invited anyone with an interest in food and creativity to share their thoughts on what they’d like to see from a new eating spot in the town centre—and to enjoy some tasty soup and bread in the process.
Attendees included caterers, health workers, business owners, and civil servants, amongst other professionals, all keen to leverage the café’s prime location and the region’s ample culinary resources to enrich the town and the lives of its residents. Splitting into groups, they identified problems currently affecting the town and proposed ways to address them, ultimately shaping a mission plan that could inform the café’s operations once established.
Chief among these concerns was the need for a place to meet after shopping hours that isn’t a pub—giving young people a chance to spend time outside the family home and offering community groups a welcoming space to convene regularly. Another key aspiration was to create a knowledge centre, where townsfolk can share their passion for food, be it through cooking skills, growing techniques, or healthy eating advice.
All in all, Open Jar received an enthusiastic response and left with plenty of ideas to work with, concluding the night by assuring attendees that further public consultations are in the works.
With the café set to open in time for Guid Nychburris, The Stove is eager to get as many people as possible excited about food’s potential to bring about positive change in the coming months. Ideally, this will result in a space where the people of Dumfries feel invested and responsible, giving the town centre a whole new lease of life.
If Feeding Creativity is any indication, it’s off to a great start.
We use cookies to improve your experience on our website, analyse traffic, and personalise content. By using our site, you consent to the use of cookies. Please read our privacy policy for more information.
Cookie Preferences
Manage your cookie preferences below:
Always Active
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.
Name
Description
Duration
Service URL
Cookie Preferences
This cookie is used to store the user's cookie consent preferences.
30 days
-
Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us understand how visitors use our website.
