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Musings News Project Updates

Creative Spaces: ‘So You Wanna Go to Art School?’

By Jodie Barnacle-Best

With the creative industries growing at four times the rate of the UK average1, it is perhaps a surprise that the age-old tropes of art school haven’t yet disappeared. For many students, the decision of whether or not to go to art school is a nuanced debate – one which undoubtedly isn’t given enough airtime at schools or colleges across the country.

The concept of ‘art school’ and what actually goes on there is still seen as pretty mysterious and aloof (all art students will know the struggle of trying to explain how your degree requires significant work, time and skill just like any other degree). And as the stereotypes build and build it is easy to forget how reliant we all are on the arts and what your individual future in the arts could look like… like can you make money or are we all doomed to the ‘struggling artist’ trope forever?

But even once we are over the hurdles debating the mere importance of the arts industries and the potential for growth within an arts related job, there is still a question as to whether art school is the way to go about achieving these ambitions. Do you a need a fashion degree to be a designer? Or a degree in painting to be a painter? And what does a degree in fine art actually mean? 

The impact of the arts is constantly minimised (anyone still remember Fatima the ballerina ‘whO’s NExT JOb cOulD BE iN CyBer’?)2. What is often overlooked is the transferable skills which you accumulate as you hone your craft within your degree.

Hopefully, you will get to become a magnificent painter following a degree in painting and printmaking. But also, you’ll learn creative problem solving, verbal and visual communication methods, responding to briefs and deadlines, emotional resilience, collaborative working… the list is endless!

With art school in particular, it is arguably not the end result of the degree which makes the choice ‘worth it’ – but the art school method of thinking it can instil in you, the acquiring of potential contacts, the widening network of opportunities and access to facilities that is developed during an art student’s academic career.

The chance to be immersed with like-minded people and having the time and space to fully concentrate on learning your craft (or even finding your craft) is one of the many great allures of art school. The permission to experiment, and the safety to fail, while working on projects for the sake of projects (and, for the most part, not commission or money) is an opportunity that’s not frequently available outside of an art school setting. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only way to go!

One of the many beauties of the arts is that there’s not one path for everyone. We all find ourselves clambering around, finding our way, losing our way, or deciding to set up camp halfway down the path for a while because we just like the view.

Ultimately… to art school or not to art school? You decide. But hearing about other people’s creative pathways and understanding the paths available will always be a good starting point. 

Join in and continue this discussion at our first event of the ‘So You Wanna Go to Art School?’ programme! Book a place at our panel discussion happening on Thursday 2nd September 7-9pm at The Stove, Dumfries or tune into the livestream via our YouTube channel:

Sign up – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/so-you-wanna-go-to-art-school-panel-discussion-tickets-165255719305 

Livestream on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJbT8JrUhg0pf3UaH0N4sFg

1 Creative Industries Federation, 2019 report ‘Public Investment, Public Gain: How public investment in the arts generates economic value across the creative industries and beyond’, https://www.creativeindustriesfederation.com/publications/public-investment-public-gain, via Culture Counts Scotland

2 Brit Dawson, ‘A brief explainer of the government’s dystopian Fatima cyber ad’, https://www.dazeddigital.com/politics/article/50747/1/a-brief-explainer-on-the-government-dystopian-fatima-cyber-ad

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News Opportunities Project Updates

What We Do Now – The Stove & Culture Collective

What We Do Now: An Introduction

‘What we do now echoes in eternity.’ – Marcus Aurelius

Ideas, Place and Opportunities

Last month, we announced the news that The Stove Network will be taking part in the Culture Collective programme – a major Scottish initiative for culture and creativity to play a role in the nation’s long-term recovery from the pandemic. 

The Project

The Dumfries & Galloway project ‘What We Do Now’ (WWDN) is a pioneering experiment working with creative freelancers, places and communities across the South West of Scotland. 

The Stove will work with five towns across Dumfries & Galloway to develop creative projects that support freelance practitioners/artists to platform and celebrate previously unheard sections in their communities through place-specific, relevant, community-led artistic projects. It is hoped the project will ignite and inspire new imaginative possibilities for the places that we live; with for and about the communities and towns involved. Inclusion, empowerment and creative freedom are at the heart of WWDN, reflecting the Stove’s and others continued practice in community arts and creative placemaking.

The Stove is partnering with Dumfries & Galloway Council, South of Scotland Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland, Third Sector D&G and regional arts organisations Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival, Upland and Wigtown Book Festival to bring together a proposal for Dumfries & Galloway that will see creative freelancers employed to work with communities for up to a year in five ‘Place Hubs’. 

Each Place Hub will be supported to commission freelancers to collaborate and support creative ideas and projects with key sections of each respective community. Creative freelancers will be supported at every stage of WWDN and have access to relevant experience and skills of The Stove and our partners including: one on one support and mentorship, project delivery and production support, flexible payment and working formats that can be responsive to differing needs and working approaches.

Each of the five ‘Place Hubs’ are in or working with communities experiencing disadvantage and took part in The Stove’s research project – ‘Embers: Creative Placemaking in South Scotland’. All have identified sections of their own community where COVID has accentuated existing disadvantage and exclusion and have some experience of working culturally.

The Places

The five ‘Place Hubs’ we will be working with are: 

A’ the Airts – Sanquhar

A’ The Airts is a community arts space in Sanquhar working to contribute to the social, economic and cultural well-being of the communities of Upper Nithsdale by actively encouraging participation in a range of arts, crafts and related activities. They have identified the need to better connect with socially-disadvantaged young people (14-25) in the upper Nithsdale and engage this demographic in identifying, developing and producing activity and work that is relevant to them. 

Castle Douglas Development Forum – Castle Douglas

In the Stewartry the community anchor organisation for What we Do Now is Castle Douglas Development Forum, a community organisation set up to incorporate various civic organisations under one body. CDDF aim to develop a physical performance project with young women and families.

LIFT – Northwest Dumfries

LIFT is a community group focused on bringing together their community in celebration, activity and development of their place. Northwest Dumfries is a housing estate on the outskirts of Dumfries and listed in the top 5% on index of multiple deprivation. WWDN will work with young families and residents living in high-rise flats in the area, focussing on identity and a sense of belonging for children and families to enjoy and feel safe in the places they live. 

Outpost Arts – Langholm

Outpost Arts delivers an ambitious, contemporary and diverse programme of rural arts, offering a high quality creative education programme, multi-generational creative health and well-being opportunities and works to support the regeneration of Langholm & Esk. WWDN will work with Outpost Arts to creatively explore new spaces that community members and groups can use locally, working with a broad range of the community in the process.

Stranraer Millennium Centre – Stranraer

Stranraer Millennium Centre a Community Trust and resource for Stranraer that a regular program of events for community groups. The Stranraer project will work with businesses and other communities that use the town centre to engage with visions for the future of the town.  

The Creative Freelancers

At the end of this month, we will begin the Artist Call Out Process, so please do keep an eye out for opportunities coming up in the next few weeks. The Stove is an organisation that has had collective freelance creative practice at its core for over ten years in embedded community arts practice, and we’re delighted to be able to continue to use this experience to engage creative freelancers and support them in collaborating with communities, Place Hubs and their peers across the project.

10 substantial commissions of one year’s duration will be on offer through What We Do Now – these will be open to people from a range of disciplines and experience. Training will be available for people looking to diversify their practice into community-focussed work. Stay tuned!

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Project Updates

Artists and Community Landowners: Meet the Artists: Richard Bracken

Artists and Community Landowners: Meet the Artists

Artists and Community Landowners; is a collaborative project digging down into the stories of community landownership across Scotland and the impact it has for communities. The Stove is working with Community Land Scotland and 6 collaborating Community Trusts to explore stories of “ownership” and the effect it has had for local people, their identity, decision-making and the economic and social benefits for their community.

Richard is currently working with Abriachan Forest Trust, an environmental artist and creative educator based in Drumnadrochit, with 10 years experience of engaging with communities and collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams in Scotland and abroad.

Can you briefly explain your practice?

My work is a response to an ongoing, personal exploration of the land. I’m influenced by specific places, individual experience and wider themes that relate to how we live with the land.

My attention is usually drawn towards ecology, folklore, natural processes, time and memory.  I typically create sculpture using casting and mould-making processes. Drawing, photography and printmaking methods are also key aspects of my practice.

How are you approaching the commission?

I’ve been keen to understand the story of Abriachan Forest Trust by looking at the past, present and future of the community and it’s relationship to the land. I’m looking at the story as an ongoing journey and to identify places that relate to key stages of this journey the community is taking together.

I’m aiming to create artwork that is accessible – eg objects that can be picked up, held and taken for a walk; I believe that walking around the land plays a key role in understanding the story of AFT, so I’ve felt drawn to creating something that is portable, rather than something that exists in a fixed location.

So far I’ve been:

  • Getting to know how the trust operates and how it has developed
  • Looking through archive material that relates to the development of AFT – photographs, newsletters, forest plans and other maps.
  • Getting to know the young people and volunteers that participate in AFT’s activities – learning about the land from them by going on walks with them.
  • Talking to staff and community members about their relationships to AFT
  • Finding out which places resonate with the community by asking a series of questions.

Learning about materials I can feasibly source from AFT, plus facilities / expertise in the community that may come in useful for fabrication.

What excites you about the project?

The opportunity to contribute creatively to the conversation about land use in Scotland.

Getting to know a community and seeing how they have grasped opportunities to utilise their land in ways that benefit local people and the environment.

Exploring the parallels between young trees and young people – the growth and development of both are crucial to AFT and their long term vision.

On a personal note, having recently moved to within about 6 miles of Abriachan, the project has provided me with an invaluable opportunity to make new connections that I hope will last well beyond the lifespan of this project.

How has the process been so far? Anything unexpected?

Living so close has been a great advantage, giving me time to meet up with staff from AFT, slot into existing sessions and create new ones with relative ease.  This has allowed me to start getting to know people and allowed me to communicate to others about the project.  I feel that my thinking around the commission has benefited from this close contact, as I come to understand AFT better, letting that influence my work.

Being close-by has also meant that I can spend my own time exploring other parts of AFT.

Has covid-19 affected your work with the community?

AFT are not able to work with as many young people as they would normally, so I have had less opportunity to see this side in it’s fullness.

Some uncertainty around changes in guidelines and restrictions has meant having to be flexible in planning, or waiting until the last minute, but generally this has not been a disruption on outdoor working.

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News Project Updates

Speeding Backwards: Kyna Hodges

by Kyna Hodges

As part of the ‘Speeding Backwards’ project there was to be a woman’s build weekend. The weekend was to help plan and construct a bicycle trailer that will house a dark room and equipment for taking photographs using the wet plate collodion process (you can learn more about this here) The build up to the weekend was nerve racking, still the questions of ‘Can we? Can’t we?’ floating aground with the restrictions seeming to change daily.

But the day finally arrived, food planned and workshop laid out! On the first day Emily Tough, Beck Tucker and Myself all got to know each other and then went into the workshop to get to know the tools. One of the most empowering things as a woman learning construction can be understanding the use of tools and what they can do. It gives you an idea of what is possible and how. We applied the tools to the task of creating a box that we designed and began to execute. I took portraits of the interns using the wet plate collodian process that the trailer is destined to house.  

 On the second day our female builder Alice Francis arrived and we set to work looking at how to construct the trailer, it was so inspiring being around all these different creative and problem solving minds. When having meals together it helped to cement us as a group and come at a problem with the same energy. After lunch we set about looking into the interns individual projects that they had been asked to prepare. The weekend ended on a high of everyone getting a start and insight into their own projects and the mass giveaway of tools!  

The next phases of the project are to complete the build and begin to contact primary schools about seeing them in the spring. This is when the other intern Faye McKellar will be joining to deliver educational workshops and create a slow moving wonderment down the coastline of Dumfries and Galloway. 

To learn more about Kyna Hodges’ practice, you can email her at [email protected] or visit her website https://kyna-hodges.com

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News Project Updates

Messages: Elsewhere Installation

Messages. Helen Walsh 2020.

Messages is a new artwork installation created by artist Helen Walsh, and sited in the windows of 113-115 High Street, Dumfries.
The installation will be on view from Monday 21st September to Monday, 19th October.

Messages

“We use envelopes to send mesages, to communicate, to share our ideas, our secrets, our hopes and dreams. Envelope also means to wrap and protect and in my installation I want to look at both these ideas. These envelopes represent some of my hopes, dreams and fears for us post Covid-19.

I’ve made the envelopes from transparent paper so you can see some of the contents, a sharing of my hopes, dreams and fears. I hope you’ll share some of yours with me by taking an envelope from the box provided, working on it and then returning it to us at The Stove Network so we can add it to the installation.”

Get Involved

To get involved collect an envelope from either 113-115 High Street, or The Stove cafe and share your hopes and ideas of what life should be like after the Covid-19 pandemic. You can share these ideas however you like, drawings, words or another way – and return it to the Stove cafe addressed to ELSEWHERE. Alternatively, if you are based outwith the town centre, post us your ideas to ELSEWHERE, The Stove, 100 High Street, Dumfries. Envelopes should not be larger than C5.

Elsewhere

“The High Street is somewhere we thought we knew, and now it’s different, it’s elsewhere.”

Elsewhere is a research project by The Stove Network that looks to locate creative activity in the High Street of Dumfries as a means of exploring public space during a time when we as a community are responding to, and recovering from, the effects of COVID on our sense of place.

Helen Walsh is an artist and creative practitioner living on the Solway Coast. Helen specialises in drawing and textiles, particularly embroidery. Helen is continually fascinated by the natural world and our connection to it. Find out more about Helen and her work online here

Helen’s work is located in 113-115 High Street, a property recently purchased by Midsteeple Quarter. Find out more about the project here

Elsewhere is part of Atlas Pandemica. Find out more here

Elsewhere has been supported by Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Regional Arts Fund.

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News Project Updates

Lowland: Re-Imagined

In the good old days, if you recall, before the big bad virus swept across the world. You know, that flu that awakened our most primal of fears, leaving us high and dry, bleaching banana skins from the supermarket shelf and losing all concept of social cues and humility. The ‘good times’, before bumping into an old colleague in the supermarket left you equal parts scattered like some unassembled jigsaw and petrified, marooned and struggling in vain to stitch together some semblance of a normal, pleasant English sentence from the ruined, anxiety ridden attic of your mind whilst gripping a bottle of disinfectant (anti-viral of course) just in case they dared step foot within your 2 meter sanctuary of social isolation.

Pause for air.

Well, before all that, we had such things called ‘plays’. ‘Plays’, or ‘live TV’ (not really, but bear with me) were these real-life moving pictures where people called ‘actors’ would perform words written by writers, too strange and socially awkward for most other professions.

These ‘plays’ would be performed in ‘theatres’. Theatres were buildings that came in all shapes and sizes. From majestic stone coliseums in Greece, to tiny wee almost-shed-like structures near Whithorn on the Galloway coast. Yes, they were quite the hit for some time. People would travel in their millions to a tiny, expensive over-crowded city in Scotland to watch some semi-sane people dance and prance their way on stages in dive bars and portaloos. The legends of the Internet are rife with memories and photographs of these most magical, dumb and dangerous shenanigans.

Then the Big Bad came and ‘plays’ weren’t able to take place in theatres, with people, sitting right next to you, loudly chewing Werthers Originals, letting their mobile phones ring loudly occasionally interspersed with quiet farts now being considered a health risk. So much of them went online, in Instagram stories and glitchy Zoom sessions where you got to sit and stare at yourself, striking the odd socially-conscious facial cue to let them know you were in fact listening and not just scrolling through cat videos on YouTube. The same too happened here, at the Stove with the ‘Lowland’ play, ready to be performed in Lochside, Moniaive and Langholm, Lowland sank back into the dusty shadows of the rehearsal room and sat, patiently waiting for the time to return. Realising after three to four months that maybe wasn’t looking all that likely, it was time for a re-imagining!

Originally conceived and developed with the help and guidance of local young writers, poets and dramatists, Lowland initially explored what it meant to ‘belong’, using postcards filled out by Doonhamers, featuring drawings, poetry, stories and the occasional dirty joke. Over 500 of these postcards were filled out during poet Stuart A Paterson’s residency with the project over a year ago.

As time went on, the play started to take a bit of shape. Several adaptions, rewrites and voyages into dead-end dark tunnels later, the play was ready to be rehearsed with a talented community cast of local actors, writers and performers. Just as it was coming to the scripts-down, lights up, camera action…the big bad burst on through the stage door and it all went quiet.

Since then, the play has been re-adapted as a podcast in 2 chapters (originally it was meant to be a radio play but there was just too much swearing). Following on from the cast’s first digital get-together and read-through of the adapted script, we are embarking on a journey into the world of audio plays!

We can’t say it’s been easy. Four months of mourning for live theatre and foggy lockdown head doesn’t do a playwright any good. And the pubs were closed. Yet now, ladies, gentlemen and everyone in-between we are delighted to be returning to the rehearsal room (albeit in cyber space) and are almost ready to buckle down and get recording! Lowland: The Play is on its way. And we can’t wait for you to hear it…

So, what’s it all about?

‘Let me get this straight. You’re telling me I have to present some new fangled resources centre, right in the middle of the scheme, with little to no idea what it will actually be used for. On top of all this, they’re all here, Barnside, for a consultation. Only, there is no such thing. I’m nothing more than a salesman. And if I don’t do this. I destroy three years of clawing my way back out of the gutter…for a job.’

Barnside is sinking and the residents are on the edge of revolution. The local council, in its bleary wisdom, have been drafted in to ease the tensions. Only, not everything is as it seems and sooner or later, something’s got to give.

A play in two acts, inspired by over 500 postcards reflecting on life in Dumfries written by Doonhamers. Lowland: The Play features a community cast, devised through collaboration with local writers’ groups, communities and members of the local council, Lowland is the tale of a consultation gone wrong.

As Angela, a council officer, prepares for a consultation, one year in the making, her boss throws a curve ball, eradicating all her best intentions, leaving her and her assistants in disarray and woefully unprepared. As a storm rages on outside, a community prepares a coup d’état…

Lowland is a tragi-comedy, offering a satirical and emotional look at the nature of community, power, local democracy and belonging.

Next Up: Meet The Cast

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