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News Opportunities Project Updates

Job Opportunity – Membership & Engagement Manager

Join Our Team

We are hiring!

WWDN – A Stove led project focusing on the development of a creative placemaking network for Dumfries & Galloway – is recruiting for the exciting NEW ROLE of Membership and Engagement Manager.

The Role: WWDN Membership and Engagement Manager

Duration: 18 months fixed-term contract

Hours: 21 hours per week (3-days)

Salary: £25,000 (pro-rata)

Location: Dumfries & Galloway

Reporting to: WWDN Director

Start Date: 15th April (or as close to this date as able)

About the Role:

The Membership and Engagement Manager is responsible for all aspects of association for WWDN membership. This includes working with a broad network of stakeholders and colleagues within and outside of the WWDN project and working with the WWDN Director to advocate and represent the network.

The postholder will oversee membership engagement and sign-up processes.

This will include the effective and efficient sign-up and processing of new and renewal memberships, implementing membership recruitment and retention strategies, reaching revenue targets and deepening engagement across network activity. Download the full job pack for further details:

Main Tasks and Activities:

Membership Management and Engagement:

  • Support the WWDN Director to grow and maintain strong relationships across WWDN membership and wider stakeholders
  • Lead on the membership recruitment, retention, renewals, and liaison activity across all membership categories (practitioners, groups, organisations).
  • Develop and maintain effective membership processes, sign-up, review, and enquiry, working with colleagues across WWDN to champion high levels of customer service
  • Ensure membership admin systems are effectively maintained with support from the Web & Data Manager
  • Ensure membership data, trends and statistics are captured and reported in a way that informs WWDN strategic, operational, and financial planning
  • Produce quarterly reports on the membership function for the WWDN Director / trustees / funders
  • Ensure organisational compliance, and conformance with UK-GDPR legislation with support from the Web & Data Manager, and wider WWDN team.

Membership Marketing & Communications / Relationship Building:

  • Work with the Head of Communications and Engagement to devise and implement effective membership engagement campaigns
  • Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of all membership marketing activity.
  • Utilise a suite of communication assets including digital platforms: Newsletters, website, and social media channels – working closely with the Marketing Officer
  • Attend WWDN events and activities to promote membership recruitment and to build strong working relationships with existing members and key partners
  • Work with the WWDN Director and wider team to identify and attend sectoral events to represent WWND to promote the membership

Other duties:

  • Be first point of contact for WWDN service enquiries and direct to relevant members of the team
  • Support the WWDN team to develop, implement, and measure the impact of membership to meet strategic objectives
  • Feed into and support the development of systems and processes to support the continuous improvement WWDN’s membership provision and engagement
  • On occasion, chairing WWDN events, attending meetings, representing WWDN at external events.

This job description is not exhaustive, and the post holder may be asked to take on additional responsibilities not included herein.

What We’re Looking For:

Person Specification:

  • Highly motivated and goal orientated
  • Excellent communications and interpersonal skills and ability to represent WWDN externally
  • Excellent organisational and administrative skills.
  • An interest in the mission and aspirations of Creative Placemaking and the desire to work collaboratively in a small team
  • The ability to tailor and adapt communications to specific audiences

Experience:

  • A good level of IT literacy including the use of databases and websites (preferably Mailchimp / WordPress, but training will be provided).
  • Experience in working with customers in a B2C or B2B customer service / sales environment
  • Experience of working towards financial targets
  • Knowledge of UK-GDPR and other legislation concerning membership is desirable
  • An understanding of the third sector organisations

This job will require travel around Dumfries and Galloway so a driving licence will be required

How to Apply

If you’re interested in this role we encourage you to apply in a way that you feel most comfortable.

You can send us your CV and a short covering letter, or video, to [email protected], explaining why you’re interested and what you could bring to the role.

Application Deadline is 9am in Monday 11th March

Interviews are likely to take place on 21st and 22nd March 2024

It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too. Wherever you’re from, and whatever your background, we want to hear from you.

We will accept applications from anyone and everyone who feels they have the skills required to fulfil this role. Sound like the right job for you? Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

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Musings Project Updates

Creative Spaces takes Bristol

During January, the Creative Spaces team took a trip to Bristol on their final ‘go-see’ trip of the year. The purpose of this trip was to meet with representatives from a variety of creative and cultural organisations in Bristol, particularly those that work with young and emerging creatives. The following article is a round up of their time in Bristol and reflections from the trip.

Korey

Meeting with Rising in Bristol – Watershed Venue

Rising is a Community Interest company and non-profit creative agency. They strive to cater/influence/support young creatives and artists under 30 within the city. With a fundamental goal to make creative facilities more accessible and lucrative for artists, Rising shares a lot of similarities with the Stove Network. The Creative Spaces team had a fun, light hearted conversation with members from the Rising team – Jess, Syd and Euella in their part time workspace – Watershed. We found ourselves relating to each being in a company whose focus is to bring young people in the community to a creative space to socialise, learn and interact.

Being from a smaller town I naturally assumed that Rising had a bigger issue on their hands since their operation was based in the big city. But their obstacles were more or less the same, especially concerning outreach and engagement. It was comforting to know that a city wide organisation doesn’t automatically guarantee anything in terms of the engagement numbers or the progress of development in the relative local creative sector. One thing we bonded on was the phenomena known to Rising as “The Returners”- young creatives who leave for university with the intention of staying away to then return with the desire to change or make a difference in their hometown. The Rising team we met were impressed and inquisitive about the Stove Network and Dumfries and Galloway’s creative output and compared their format with the Stove’s. Rising has what they like to call “Pollinators”, who are creative mentors/tutor/instructors who pollinate the city . The details of the Creative Spaces programme definitely left an impression on them as they were actively taking notes. To go to a meeting such as this was an eyeopener because I almost thought of us (being representatives for The Stove Network) were going to be asking all the questions and looking to them for advice but, instead it was a completely mutual experience where each team got an equal share of useful information and a compulsion to work together at some point.

One aspect of Risings’ format that sparked our interest was their membership system that recruits once a year. We took personal interest in their approach to engaging with their members – having one-to-one mentorship meetings with a member of the Rising staff, invites to exclusive events, and access to Risings own and partnered paid opportunities, most of which would be detailed in their weekly newsletter for members.

Then we wandered over to the Aardman studio building where Martha was scheduled to meet Peter Lord. The rest of us sat blissfully in the lobby where there was so much to look at and admire, such as a genuine Oscar award for Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit, along with Baftas, Models and figures from Aardman films, and books filled with sketches and rough drafts of storyboards and character designs. The building was very inviting inside and looked like a brilliant place to punch in and out of each day. It was inspiring to think that real people were involved in these very real jobs inside this building and that it’s not in some distant Hollyweird land that appears to be a closed club.

Martha

Aardman Studios Tour

On our first morning, Mia gave me the very exciting news that Peter Lord of Aardman Studios may potentially be able to speak to me as I have an interest in working in Film & TV. I tried not to get my hopes up as he has an incredibly busy schedule… but after staring at my phone all day, I received a call!

We checked out nearby Spike Island as we patiently waited for 4pm to stroll over to Aardman Studio. The lobby was like a mini exhibition in and of itself, with a giant Shaun the Sheep model, a cabinet displaying an Oscar and Bafta trophies, and cartoon office props at the reception desk.

Having a personal tour of the game design office, the various animation studios and even some hot sets by Peter Lord himself was surreal. I was shocked to learn that animators are essentially actors who carefully manipulate the limbs of clay models in response to recordings by the voice actors. I was also shocked to see how many cameras are on set – something that is required to ensure each frame is shot from two positions for 3D productions.

Each location was bursting with memorabilia and original props from sets I grew up watching and confirmed how much I wanted to be part of this world. I had the chance to pick the brains of veteran animators and modellers and discuss everything from their typical day, to the way work processes were being affected by new technologies and AI.

It was particularly refreshing to see how hands on the work is at the studio despite how large scale the productions are. Learning that the analogue methods of stop-motion animation could not be replicated by CG work made me optimistic that the hands-on creative process that drew me to the industry will hopefully be protected.

Sahar

Arnolfini Arts Centre

On the Friday, we went to check out Arnolfini, an international centre of contemporary arts located on the picturesque harbourside. We started off by looking around the exhibition they had on, ‘Eregata’ by Ethiopian artist Elias Sime. There was a vast installation of ceramics and a lot of his art incorporated found objects, electrical parts and discarded wires woven into large tapestries and 3D sculptures.

Martha and I  then joined in with a weekly Women’s Craft Club held at Arnolfini in partnership with Bristol Refugee Festival. We enjoyed a chilled out time making jewellery with women from lots of different backgrounds, each absorbed in their own craft project.

The team then met with Keiko Higashi, Head of Engagement, in the cafe at Arnolfini and talked about what we get up to at The Stove. It was great to see the strengths of the Creative Spaces program through her eyes and be able to discuss different strategies on a level pegging with someone who had so much professional experience.

She shared a bit with us about what she does in her role and the history of the building. She talked about the challenge she is currently working on – diversifying their exhibitions. They have a huge amount of foot traffic in the building but their actual engagement is much less when you discount people coming in to use the cafe/toilets as not everyone is there to interact with the exhibition. It was really interesting to hear about challenges from her perspective of having a huge building in the middle of the hustle and bustle of a city centre, and it made me reflect on the similarities and differences with our reality at home.

After our morning at the art centre, we went to the nearby Bristol Old Vic, which is the English speaking world’s oldest continuously working theatre. They had an fun interactive exhibition on sound design for theatre, Foley art, and the use of analog tools in theatre to create gunshots and other sound effects. I liked the way they designed the exhibition, with interactive displays, buttons on the wall you could press to hear audio recordings of actors doing vocal warm ups, and machines you could use to make rain and thunder sounds. It made it feel like we were backstage designing the sound effects for a show!

In our free time we walked around St Nicholas market, saw a bit of street art, and walked to Millennium Square for a Wallace & Gromit themed escape room, ‘The Great Escape’. We also got to visit a cool area of Bristol called Stokes Croft and sat in The Canteen, a venue that has free live music and locally sourced vegan food.

Last Day

We did a heritage walk around the streets of Bristol city centre, viewing some of the iconic street art, graffiti and murals, and stopping in to see the cathedral and the historic Bristol Central Library. We visited a board game cafe on the Christmas Steps for some inspiration for the Vennel, and finished off our trip by touring some charity shops and the Bristol Museum.

On reflection, visiting Bristol was inspiring and motivating as we were each left with a positive sense of envy. To bring what a place like Bristol has to Dumfries feels achievable. It was great to see positive spaces being held for young creatives to connect with each other. With a renewed motivation from our trip, we feel we can bring more vibrancy and youth-led creativity to our town.

By our 23/24 Creative Spaces Team Korey, Martha & Sahar.

The 2024 Creative Spaces Showcase is taking place on the 28th of March! Keep an eye on the CS socials for updates.

Learn more about Creative Spaces here.

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Musings News Project Updates

Championing the Economic Impact of Culture

Kirstin McEwan

On the 19th December 2023, the Scottish Government published its action plan, detailing the delivery methodology of its Culture Strategy for Scotland, originally published in 2020.

This Action Plan, developed in collaboration with the Culture Sector, sets out the next steps the Scottish Government will take to support the development of culture in Scotland.

Roundtable consultations sessions were initiated in 2022, one of which was held in Dumfries in January 2023 and attended by the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture, Scottish Government Culture Officials, and colleagues from across the Culture Sector, including Dumfries-based arts and community organisation, The Stove Network. These sessions looked at how cultural and creative organisations, can work with both Government and public bodies to effect positive change, locally, regionally, and nationally.

With a focus on resilience and three key pillars: Strengthening Culture, transforming through Culture, and Empowering through Culture, the action plan outlines the Scottish Government’s route to delivering their ambitious Culture Strategy.

At the round table consultation in Dumfries, The Stove was able to share with the Cabinet Secretary innovative cross-sector working in Dumfries and Galloway that uses cultural projects to empower people to change things within their own communities. An example being the way Dumfries and Galloway are working with the cultural sector to connect people on the ground meaningfully to strategic economic investment.

The Stove’s work, through What We Do Now (WWDN), a unique and ground-breaking initiative that supports a creative placemaking network within Dumfries & Galloway, working with artists, communities, and organisations, is highlighted alongside other examples, within the action plan’s second chapter, “Strengthening Culture”.

Extract from the action plan:

Champion the economic impact of culture, in particular within the context of community wealth building and creative placemaking….

… The Scottish Government has embraced the internationally recognised Community Wealth Building approach to economic development as a key tool to transform our local and regional economies…

… harnessing local economic opportunities to address a range of challenges linked to addressing depopulation, regardless of whether affected communities are found in rural and island areas, or urban….

… There is a clear link with the principle of creative placemaking, which we know has tangible benefits for communities. For example, The Stove Network’s work across the south of Scotland, funded by the Scottish Government via the Culture Collective project ‘What We Do Now’, connects artists and community organisations to co-develop creative plans for the future of local places. We will learn from the outputs of this work and consider ways of scaling up the approaches taken.

“To see creative placemaking championed within the Scottish Government’s action plan for delivering the national culture strategy is fantastic. What We Do Now in Dumfries and Galloway is just one example of a very exciting strand of practice that is emerging across Scotland to place creativity at the heart of community-led change.”

Katharine Wheeler, Lead for WWDN

The full Culture Strategy for Scotland: Action Plan can be read here

Categories
News Opportunities Project Updates

Cafe Culture: Arts Commission

(This opportunity is now closed)

An opportunity to showcase your work and practice at The Stove.

The Stove Network is looking to commission an artist/creative practitioner(s) or community group to engage creatively with 100 High Street’s award-winning Stove Cafe through our ‘Conversing Building’ project.

Cafe Culture: Arts Commission

Fee + Materials: £1,750

Conversing Building is an exhibition programme hosted in our award-winning venue, The Stove Cafe.

It brings together a variety of creative works and projects that address local issues and engage with our local community, promoting and exploring ideas related to both local and global topics.

Ranging from subjects like ecology, heritage, and local democracy, Conversing Building delves into ideas, and discussions through diverse creative mediums, including sound, textiles, print, and visual art approaches to invite and inspire conversation and interaction with everyone that walks into our doors.

About the Commission

This is an open brief for creative practitioners to apply their own creative approach to the environment.

Practitioners of all types are invited to work with the Stove’s creative department and cafe team to realise a ‘takeover’ of the cafe space. drawing their own creative interpretation into the environment.

We are open to all forms and styles, from printmakers to installation.

We encourage applicants to consider how their work may address or speak to local concerns in an open and inspirational way.

Considerations

Our cafe is a busy space, and we are unable to lose out on seating spaces. Proposals must take into consideration how the work will complement the established environment of the cafe and not disrupt the day-to-day running of the enterprise.

The Stove Cafe is a place where people work, eat, chat, drink and play so do consider this with your proposal.

Proposals should consider how creative interactions with the space are sensitively balanced with the rhythm and life of the cafe and how interaction is best served within it. For example, proposals which require significant floor space are unlikely to work, as too proposals which centre on projected image/film may not be feasible due to daytime lighting obstructing the view.

Traditional exhibitions or previously exhibited work are invited however applicants must consider how the work relates to/compliment the Conversing Building projector, contributes to dialogue connected to our town centre location, and how they may go about re-imagining the work for the space in question.

Previous examples of Conversing Building projects can be found here.

Fee and Materials

The total fee and materials budget available is £1,750.

How this budget is split is subject to your proposal and will be agreed with the selected artist or project before the start of the commission, but must be inclusive of all additional costs including travel and VAT.

Schedule:

  • Application deadline: 5pm, 14th January 2024
  • Selection process: Week beginning 15th January 2024
  • Final selection made: 23rd January 2024
  • Installation dates Week beginning: 11th March 2024
  • Exhibition running time: 18th March – 13th April 2024 (inclusive)
  • Exhibition takedown: 15th April 2024

Application Process

  • An outline of your approach. (max 500 words). Submissions can also be made via video or audio file. If you would like to submit your approach in another format please do enquire with us as we are happy to accommodate any accessibility requirements in this regard.
  • Up to 3 examples of your work
  • A CV (or similar) outlining your experience to date

Proposals should be sent to [email protected] with the heading: Cafe Culture: Arts Commission

If you would like to speak to a member of the team to discuss your idea, please get in touch.

Categories
News Project Updates

Wild Goose Festival Returns with Soaring Success

The Wild Goose Festival returned for another year of inspiring and educational family-friendly activities and events. Read about our 2023 Festival below.

The Wild Goose Festival returned to Dumfries and Galloway this autumn, bringing with it a flock of exciting events and activities for all ages. The festival, which ran from October 19th – 29th, is inspired by the annual migration of geese to the Solway Firth.

Over the course of the festival, the public had the opportunity to learn about the incredible journey of these birds, as well as the diverse ecosystems and wildlife of Dumfries and Galloway. The festival also featured a variety of creative workshops, interactive storytelling sessions, and nature walks.

A Celebration of Nature, Creativity and Place

The Wild Goose Festival is not just about geese; it celebrates both the inspirational journey undertaken by our feathered friends and our deep connection with the natural world. 

This year’s family-friendly program aimed to engage communities through creativity, education, and play, building meaningful relationships and encouraging people of all generations to reconnect with their environment.

With events taking place throughout the region, from Stranraer across to Glencaple, the Wild Goose Festival saw an audience of around 4200 people celebrating the journey of the geese.

A Hub for Discovery and Creativity

This year’s Festival Hub opened its doors in a brand new location within the Loreburne Centre in Dumfries. The Hub served as an information point for the festival, as well as an accessible space where a variety of fun and creative activities was hosted.

At the hub, members of the public could engage with individuals dedicated to protecting our natural resources, unleash their creativity with artists, and delve into the fascinating world of wild geese, discovering why these birds make their annual pilgrimage to Dumfries & Galloway.

Around 800 people visited the Hub this year, to see the full programme of events that were available, click here.

A Festival for All Ages

The Wild Goose Festival’s family-friendly program cultivated meaningful conversation between generations and encouraged participants to reconnect with the environment around them.

From seasoned birdwatchers to curious newcomers, the Wild Goose Festival 2023 had a range of events for all ages and backgrounds. To view each of our 2023 events visit here.

A Focus on Environmental Awareness

Wild Goose serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of preserving our natural heritage. The conclusion of our 2023 festival Three Sisters – A Story from the Climate Future promoted this sentiment, premiering an immersive audio drama set in 2030 questioning how we will live under the impacts of climate change.

The Stove Networks creative response to this year’s festival was the Keep Looking Up Roaming Exhibition. This exhibition invited members of the public to observe the skies and consider our relationship with the non-human inhabitants of our everyday spaces. The artwork prompted new ways of observing our wildlife and how we impact it, and vice versa.

A Legacy of Inspiration

This year the Creative Spaces team worked with pupils from Laurieknowe Primary School to deliver a series of creative workshops on the migration of Geese and their relevance to the region. Learn more here.

As the Wild Goose Festival draws to a close this year, it leaves a legacy of inspiration and environmental stewardship of the unique biodiversity of Dumfries and Galloway.

The festival’s commitment to engaging communities through art, culture, and nature will continue in 2024.

Visit the Wild Goose Festival website here.

Categories
Musings News Project Updates

Creative Spaces – Laurieknowe Workshops

In the run-up to Wild Goose Festival 2023, the Creative Spaces team worked with pupils from Laurieknowe Primary School to deliver a series of creative workshops on the migration of Geese and their relevance to the region. We would first like to say a huge thank you to Laurieknowe’s P4 class and both teachers who were brilliant to work with!

Creative Spaces team talking to the Primary using a map

The first day Creative Spaces went into the primary school we were pretty nervous. We had a plan but were also prepared to be flexible as we didn’t know what to expect from the class. The P4s were really excited to see us and paid close attention as we introduced ourselves and showed them a short video about bird migration. When we asked them questions afterwards, they were all eager to put their hands up and show off their recall skills. We started to see their different personalities shine through and were reassured by the energy of the class – they were so ready to learn about geese! 

The next task was map-based. We put a big world map onto each of the 3 tables in the classroom and worked in groups to identify the places where the different species (Barnacle, Greenland White-Fronted, Light-Bellied Brent, and Pink Footed Geese) breed. The first challenge for the kids was spotting Scotland (it’s tiny!) and then understanding that the geese fly hundreds of miles to get here from Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard and Canada even though it’s only a few centimetres on the map. We gave them little card cutouts of geese that they could move around the map – some of the kids’ geese were much more interested in flying to Africa and South America than following their usual migration patterns. 

After learning a lot in the classroom about where the geese in Dumfries come from, when and why they come and go, and the challenges they face on their long journeys, we relocated to the hall for an active break. We had come up with a loose concept for a game, where we held up the flags for different countries that the kids had to ‘fly’ between. A few of them played different risks such as predators (foxes, eagles, badgers), wind turbines, bad weather etc. The ‘geese’ had to make it safely to their destination (Scottish flag) without being caught by a ‘risk’, otherwise they would join the obstacles in the middle of the hall. They had a blast with this active learning, amongst the noise and chaos, and enjoyed the challenge of running in V formations like the geese fly. 

Active Break to learn more about geese.

We then went back to the classroom for a drawing activity. Each child received a comic strip template designed by Korey and drew/coloured in the story of the wild geese migration. They were really impressed by Korey’s ability to draw a goose and were queuing up to get his help with it. This seemed to be the recurring theme of the day, with everyone asking Korey to tie their shoelaces as they left at 3 o’clock! It was an all-around successful afternoon, and we went home feeling very tired but encouraged. 

Before starting Day Two, the team were slightly daunted by the task of engaging the class for an entire day about geese and incorporating more research-based lessons. These nerves immediately disappeared when recapped what the class had learned from the previous session and realised how much they had remembered from only one afternoon. 

We decided to dedicate the morning to teaching the class about Goose habitats – what they need to nest and to protect themselves from various dangers. In groups, the kids designed beautiful three-dimensional habitats out of coloured paper and freestanding elements arranged inside shoeboxes. We then moved on to the computers so that the class could complete some further research and fill out their ‘Goose Facts’ booklets.

Colouring in geese cartoon strips

This helped the kids differentiate the different goose species that come to D&G and put all their findings in one place. Just before lunch, we switched things up and held a goose-making workshop where the kids had the choice of dressing our pre-made chicken wire geese in newspaper scraps or making miniature tinfoil geese. What was most impressive was watching the pools of PVA glue and mountains of newspaper scraps disappear and the classroom return to its previous state in a matter of minutes before the lunch bell. 

In the afternoon, we decided to put the kids’ learning to the test with a newsreader task complete with costumes. Finally, we brought in our goose expert extraordinaire Hagen Patterson, to answer all the questions the kids had come up with over the past two sessions. They loved having their burning questions answered and it was hilarious watching the Q&A go off track with a couple of questions (shout out to the pupil who asked which goose was the tastiest to eat). However, the highlight was definitely Hagen’s true-to-life goose calls which showed the class a fun, tangible example of the differences between the various geese species they were learning about. 

We felt a great sense of achievement after the second day as we achieved a better flow between the various lesson plans and felt genuine excitement from the class about geese migrating to our region.

A very magnificent goose!

On Thursday the 12th of October the Creative Spaces team headed into Laurieknowe Primary School for the final time. The class were just as excited to see us, and the feeling was mutual. During the third visit, the team felt more comfortable and at ease with the P4 class. The lessons were well received and as the kids had familiarized themselves with us, they were genuinely engaged, and the lesson continued at a good pace.

The lesson of the day was centred around Scots language and poetry with the theme of Geese. Mia grabbed the class’s attention immediately with a self-written Scots Poem about Geese visiting Dumfries. At this point, it was interesting to see which Scottish words the kids already knew or didn’t know. This was a great way to introduce some Scots Words to the pupils’ developing vocabulary.

So, using words provided (and explained) by us, and some useful goose facts, the children were then prompted to write their own poems. They did brilliantly and it was a great pleasure to help translate regular English words into Scots for the kids. That in particular was something they were all excited about, and even though it wasn’t mandatory, all the pupils stuck to writing about Geese.

The brilliant poems were available to view at the Wild Goose Festival Hub in the Lorebrune Centre during this year’s festival. Towards the end of the day, we also finished off our miniature goose sculptures with some coloured pens and got some great results, which were also displayed in the WGF Hub.

By the 2023 Creative Spaces Team.

Learn more about the Wild Goose Festival here.

Visit the Wild Goose Festival website here.

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