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News Project Updates

Atlas Pandemica – Charting Two Years

This March sees the artists involved in the public art project, Atlas Pandemica, host series of events to launch the Limited Edition Atlases. The launch coincides with the 2nd anniversary of the first Covid Lockdown on 23rd March 2020.

Details for each of the four public events are below:

The Cafe at the End of the World

22 March 2022

Join Atlas Pandemica artists Robbie Coleman and Jo Hodges and interdisciplinary researcher Joe Wood for tea and cakes and a discussion about how we might respond to the end of things.

Has Covid changed our view of how we live and can we use what we have learnt about grief and loss to explore and respond to the climate emergency and the fragility of the systems we live within?  Can the holistic outlook of the hospice movement  and ideas like ‘total pain’ or a‘palliative present’ be used to frame wider environmental challenges in our terminally ill ecosystems and provide a framework to respond to anthropocentrism, hyper-individualism, relentless economic growth and the cult of technology? When we are faced with widespread species extinction, extreme weather events and loss of habitats and homes, are there new ways of thinking that might give us a more meaningful basis for our actions?

BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE

It’s a Fair History.. A walkthrough the March Fair

23 March 2022

The Spring Fair returns to Dumfries after a 3-year absence. Did you know the last time the March fair was cancelled was during the outbreak of World War II? Learn some fair history and meet some of the Showpeople who travel to Dumfries from across Scotland to make it happen. 

Artist T S Beall and Showperson and Dumfries Fair Organiser Raynor Cadona will lead a walk through the fair and along the banks of the Nith, stopping at sites relevant to Dumfries’ fairs – past and present. Attendees will have a chance to meet some of the Showpeople who have operated in Dumfries for generations. 

BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE

Charting Two Years, Pandemic Tree Planting

25 March 2022

Inspired by one of Karen Campbell’s short stories in her Atlas Pandemica collection ‘Here Is Our Story’ Dumfries and Galloway Council Community Assets Supervisor Brian McAviney alongside Elaine Murray, Council Leader and Rob Davidson, Depute Leader will plant a ceremonial oak tree at Dumfries Museum on 25th March at 2pm.

As part of the public ceremony Karen will read from her collection and JoAnne McKay will read from her Atlas Pandemica project ‘What Remains’. Judith Hewitt (Museum’s Curator East) will receive an Atlas Pandemica atlas on behalf of Dumfries Museum.

BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE

For Love, Not Money?

27 March 2022

Annie Wild’s Atlas Pandemica project explored the life experience of unpaid carers during the pandemic and the significant role this group of people play in supporting the economy and society. People with any form of caring responsibility are invited to come and take part in a facilitated discussion in a friendly environment on their experiences during the pandemic. All welcome – occasional carers, former carers, paid carers, and people who aren’t sure if they are carers or not.

BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE

About Atlas Pandemica

The Atlas Pandemica project ran from June 2020 until November 2021 when it was featured in COP26 in Glasgow.

Atlas Pandemica is a compendium of 10 projects led by creative people, each investigating a different theme highlighted by life during the COVID pandemic. Projects worked directly with people in Dumfries and Galloway, focussing on the impacts and the learning from the community’s experience of the evolving pandemic.

The Project was conceived and is managed by the team at The Stove Network and curated by Matt Baker and Robbie Coleman. The project was supported by Scottish Government’s ‘Supporting Communities Fund.’

The project now has been published as a limited-edition Atlas which comprises a set of 10 maps, each of which presenting one of the Atlas Pandemica projects as a map to a kinder world.

All of the Atlas Pandemic Maps can be viewed here.

The Atlases

The work of the 10 artists who worked with communities impacted by the Covid pandemic has been published as a set of ten ‘Maps to a Kinder World’ within a special limited edition of 50 Atlases. The Atlases are being presented to people and institutions that Atlas Pandemica believe will make good use of them in taking forward some of the positive lessons learned during the last two years. Watch out for coverage of the Atlases being presented around the country.

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News Opportunities Project Updates

Musician in Residence

Unexpected Garden – Stranraer

Musician in Residence

Term: 1st April 2022 – 11th Sept 2022

20 days (or 115 hours worked flexibly across more days), plus attendance/performance/presentation at the culminating Harvest event in September 2022.

Fee: £4,368 

(21 days at £208, 20 days residency programme and 1 day attendance/performance at the Harvest event) There will be a small allowance available for local travel and subsistence.

We’re looking to for a creative musician, to join our Unexpected Garden – Stranraer team to compose a new piece of music in response to a community garden being designed and built in the iconic harbour area of Stranraer.

The Musician in Residence opportunity is open to both emerging and established musicians who are working in all genres of music. We are happy to consider applications from duos and bands, as well as individuals.

Situated on a piece of land, affectionately known as the Grassy Knoll, on beautiful Loch Ryan, the Unexpected garden – Stranraer will provide an injection of colour and life to the harbour area, supporting regeneration.

This will become a space for the community, who will play a key role in the design and transformation of the site into a garden.

The project will promote and demonstrate sustainable gardening, be a space for community events and take inspiration from the town’s nautical identity and past, playing with maritime themes.

Interested? Here’s how to apply:

Tell us how your work and practice fits with the nature of the Unexpected Garden – Stranraer project specifically, and what appeals to you about this opportunity.

Please apply in a format that feels comfortable to you. This could be in writing (maximum 2 x A4 sides for a covering letter) or by submitting an audio recording or a video (maximum 10 minutes).

Please also provide 3 examples of your work and a link to your website or social media.

All applications should be sent for the attention of Beth Piggott, Emerging Creative Producer to: [email protected]

Deadline: Midday, Monday 10th March

For the full application pack, click here.

Please note that there are 10 commissions available all over Scotland, so although we want to hear from folk in D&G it could also be applicable to organisations across the country.

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News Project Updates

WWDN – Project Update

As the WWDN project develops, we’re excited to share with you an update from the towns, community groups (place hubs) and artists involved.

Currently in the research and development stage of the yearlong initiative, each of the five towns represented by the project, have begun to outline their respective project approaches, in collaboration with the commissioned artists and place hubs. Over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing with you, the ideas evolving in each place and hearing from the community groups from each town, with video and images provided by our Documentarian Duo, Patrick Rooney and Kirstin McEwan.

Stranraer is a town in a stage of transition, dealing with the effects of post-industrial decline but with a wealth of human and natural resources.

Stranraer Pier
Stranraer Millennium Centre

Working through the project Place Hub, Stranraer Millennium Centre, a state-of-the-art building, facilitating a diverse range of community activities; artists, Hope London and Rory Laycock have begun to connect with community groups.

Hope London
Rory Laycock

Testing ideas and encouraging participation through a series of activities involving visual art, animation, music, words and new technologies they aim to encourage people to release their passions about the community.

Their work has begun with seaside-style mini-murals with blank, comic-book thought and speech bubbles for people to dream about possibilities, insert their thoughts and comments, and take photos which can then be shared with the wider community via social media.

It is their creativity and ideas of people in the town that the artists aim to build into their project.

For more information about the artists and to follow their progress click here

The NW Dumfries project is called ‘Living in Flats Together’ and will see artists Alice Francis, Rosie Giblin and Andy Brooke work with the residents of the c.70 flats that make up the six housing blocks on Dunlop Road in Lochside.

Rosie Giblin
Alice Francis
Andy Brooke

The commissioned artists are working through the project Place Hub, LIFT D+G and building a working relationship with Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership who own and manage the flats.

Angie Gilmour explains more about LIFT D&G below:

The artists ran a workshop activity as part of the recent Lochside Gala and got a fantastic response from community members, their focus now is on an initial series of pop-up events for the Dunlop Road residents which will involve food and creative activities, this will be first of series of events aimed at co-creating with residents a shared set of aims for their year together.

The artists hope to develop new spaces for longer-term activities with residents through the year and co-create some meaningful improvements for Dunlop Road.

Community Sculpture at LIFT D&G

Follow Andy’s personal blog here and find out more about the artists and follow their journey here.

Stay tuned for the remaining updates from the towns, community groups (place hubs) and artists involved…

OutPost Arts will work with artists Jim Buchanan and Sian Yeshe to re-activate existing play and meeting spaces, and create new digital spaces for young people focusing on themes of ‘Ownership & Voice’.

Sian Yeshe

Emerging artist, Sian Yeshe, is working with young people in Langholm through the Arts Bronze Award in Langholm High School, exploring the role of film and filmmaking in the creative expression of young people’s voices. Whilst in residence, Sian is exploring the use of digital technology to create in collaboration with young people, an online space, owned, managed, and programmed by people under 25 in Langholm.

Jim Buchanan

Artist Jim Buchanan is exploring play as a means of activating forgotten spaces within the town. From play parks to trails, Buchanan is focused on uniting community voices around the possibilities of play through a variety of creative activities from parkour to projection to illuminate and inspire new imaginative possibilities for the future use of these areas.

Find out more about Jim, Sian and Outpost Arts here

A multipurpose arts centre, A’ the Airts, works with the community in the production and development of community festivals, art projects and related activity.

A’ The Airts, Sanquhar

Artists Jack Stancliffe and Saskia Coulson and Colin Tennant are working with A’ the Airts to engage young people in a creative project, exploring their relationship to their town and their voice within it.

Jack Stancliffe

Jack Stancliffe, a creative practitioner in fields of education, amateur art, and contemporary performance, will be facilitating a playful and energetic approach, inviting young people into an artistic response to the town, where it was, where it’s going and how we get there.

Saskia Coulson & Colin Tennent, CT Productions

Filmmakers and photographers, Saskia Coulson and Colin Tennant, will work collaboratively with young people to create visual stories that explore and share their understanding of identity and connection with place, and will invite other creative practitioners from music, design and gaming to connect with and inspire the young people of Sanquhar.

Saskia Coulson and Colin Tennant prepping for interview with Patrick Rooney.

For more information about the artists and to follow the project, click here

The What We Do Now project, in Castle Douglas, has begun by finding practical ways for the community to meet the commissioned artists, Martin Danziger and Kiera Manson.

Martin Danziger

The artists attended Castle Douglas’ food and bike festival in July, running three short circus workshops for children, on Market Hill in the Talking Horse marquee, which was very well received by the community!

Kiera Manson

Martin and Keira have engaged an action research approach to get to know CDDF and the community through participating in a live event to understand a better what the community needs and hopes for.

Through conversations, and active participation, we hope to begin to shape our What We Do Now project in Castle Douglas around community interests and needs. Our hopes are to build a vision that incorporates community arts as central to our development of Castle Douglas as a family friendly town and a place for creative play.

Discover more about the artists and CDDF here

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News Project Updates

Creative Spaces Presents:

A Doonhamer’s Guide To The End of The World

This November, in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland, Creative Spaces presents: A Doonhamer’s Guide To The End of The World.

This series of events runs alongside COP26, the global climate conference that brings together climate experts from around the world. Hosted this year in Glasgow, COP26 will see decisions made that will change the path of the planet and humanity in the face of climate change.

On Thursday 4th November 7pm – 9pm, the team will be opening the series with a public discussion around climate change and the planet. If you’re under 30 and passionate about the environment, or are looking to learn more about climate change and COP, come along and help fuel the conversation.

BOOK YOUR TICKET HERE

The second event in the series, on Saturday 13th November 12pm – 3pm, is an afternoon of environmental talks at the historic Caerlaverock Castle. A bus will be leaving from The Stove at 12noon, so if you’re interested in attending this event, reserve a ticket here to confirm your place. You’ll be treated to an environmentally friendly (and delicious) lunch and refreshments when you book a ticket. Warm jackets and waterproof shoes are recommended!

BOOK YOUR TICKET HERE

Ever wondered what a zine is or how they are made? For the third event the Creative Spaces Team are running a zine making workshop in The Stove cafe on Thursday 18th November from 7pm – 9pm. Come along and learn how to make your own zines, or work on a contribution for the eco-zine the team are working on together. Zines are self-published and grown from a D.I.Y. making history – come along and let your creative energy flow for the evening!

BOOK YOUR TICKET HERE

For the last event in the series, Creative Spaces in collaboration with Dumfries Women’s Sign Writing Squad, are running a protest sign making workshop. Prepare to stand up for the planet in style. Join the team in The Stove on Thursday 25th November, 7pm – 9pm, they’ll bring the paints – you bring the passion.

BOOK YOUR TICKET HERE
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News Project Updates

The Riverrun Series

Wild Goose Festival 2021

The Stove Café is proud to present, as part of this year’s Wild Goose Festival and in partnership with Wigtown Festival Company, the RIVERRUN SERIES.

Over three days, within the festival programme, Riverrun celebrates poetry and literature and features special guests including: Tom Pow, Hugh Bryden, Robin Crawford, Malachy Tallack, Alec Finlay and Esther Woolfson.

The Stove Café will host two of the Riverrun events on the 18th and 19th at its venue on Dumfries High Street, the third will be hosted online as part of the Wigtown Wednesday series on the 20th.

First in the series is Riverrun 1 – Life Is Still Life which sees the launch of two new pamphlets published by Roncadora Press and featuring poetry by Tom Pow and artwork by Hugh Bryden both of these are responses to the natural world during lockdown. The first, Life, through a range of emails sent to Tom, which he shapes into moments of haiku; the second, Still Life, through Hugh’s painted observations of an immediate world of plants and objects, which Tom responds to in poetry.

Hugh Bryden and Tom Pow have collaborated on many publications over a long period of time. Initially with Cacafuego Press, which they ran together, and then with Hugh’s own Roncadora Press. With both presses, Hugh’s visual presentation and attention to detail have been paramount and recognised by a number of awards.

This evening’s illustrated launch will be an opportunity to see and to hear this new work and to buy the pamphlets.

Lift IS Still Life – Hugh Bryden

Riverrun 2 – The Lure Of The River, on Tuesday 19th October features Robin A Crawford, author of ‘Into The Peatlands: A Journey Through The Moorland Year’ (2018) and ‘Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers: A Treasury of 1000 Scottish Words’(2020).

Attendees at this event will enjoy a special preview of two new books about life on the river; The first, ‘Along the River: A year’s journey on the Tay’ (Birlinn, 2022) by Robin Crawford which interweaves history both human and natural from the Highland crannog on Loch Tay to the V&A at its North Sea Firth, an extract.

“You never enter the same river twice and yet it remains. Heraclitus’s river flows, everything flows but the water that my great grandfather swam in as a youth is the same river that ferried my Granny over from Fife before the First World War, that I road bridged as a boy, heard the wintering geese return to as a student, saw from the window of the maternity ward at Ninewells as my wife’s waters broke as our son was born. It is all rivers, it is unique.” 

The second is Malachy Tallack’s; ‘Illuminated by Water’ (Doubleday, 2022), a combination of memoir, nature writing and reflections on culture and history, examining why angling means so much to so many.

Malachy Tallack is the award-winning author of three books, most recently a novel, The Valley at the Centre of the World (Canongate, 2018). It was shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize and longlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. His first book, Sixty Degrees North (2015), was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and his second, The Un-Discovered Islands (2016), was named Illustrated Book of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards. Malachy is from Shetland, and currently lives in central Scotland.

  • Robin Crawford
  • Malaky Tallack

On Wednesday 20th October, Riverrun 3, The Urban Naturalist, forms part of the Wigtown Wednesday programme and will be hosted online, featuring authors Esther Woolfson and Alec Finlay.

This special event explores the idea of what it might mean to say, ‘we are all naturalists now’; and, in the light of covid and COP26 questions what our relationship to the natural world might be.

Esther Woolfson, author of ‘Field Notes from a Hidden City and Between Light’ and ‘Storm – How We Live with Other Species’ (both Granta) argues that encouraging children and adults to talk about urban nature is one of the most important and neglected areas of possibility for change that there is.

Woolfson began her writing career with highly acclaimed short stories. She has been Artist in Residence at Aberdeen University’s Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability, Writer in Residence at the Hexham Book Festival and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen.

Esther Wolfson

During the pandemic, Esther has become increasingly interested in the boundaries between human and non-human, the links between how we treat other humans and other species and in finding ways of altering the traditional, accepted ways of treating other species which appear to have led to the development and spread of SarsCov-2 and the drastic loss of species which is further endangering all life on earth.

She’s joined by poet and artist, Alec Finlay, who has developed a practice that draws attention to urban nature as a way of stimulating our imaginations and our well-being.

Alec Finlay’s work crosses over a range of media and forms and considers how we relate to landscape and ecology, including recent projects on place-awareness, hutopianism, rewilding, and disability access.

His recent publications include the Scottish Design Award best publication winner a far-off land (2018), made for Marie Curie, exploring landscapes of healing; gathering, a place-aware guide to the Cairngorms, published by Hauser & Wirth (2018); and th’ fleety wud (2017), a response to climate change and flooding, as part of an artwork being created in Hawick, in collaboration with Andrew MacKenzie and Gill Russell.

In 2018 Alec Finlay turned his focus onto the possibilities of rewilding urban spaces. In collaboration with The Walking Library (Dee Heddon & Misha Myers), he created a generous mapping project, Wild City, which is available as a book. This features photographic and written documentation of a series of participative walks through Glasgow exploring wild nature,reflecting on the politics of green spaces and the commons, and proposing imaginative pathways to adapt to and reverse climate breakdown.

This fascinating conversation of ideas and experience will interest any naturalist and any urban dweller. Tickets for this online even are free but need to be booked in advance.

For more details on each of the River Run series of events, visit the Wild Goose Festival page, or book your free tickets below:

Monday 18 October RIVERRUN 1:

LIFE IS STILL LIFE

7:00pm – 8:00pm The Stove Café, 100 High Street, Dumfries Free but ticketed

TO BOOK RIVERRUN 1, CLICK HERE

Tuesday 19 October RIVERRUN 2:

THE LURE OF THE RIVER

7:00pm – 8:00pm The Stove Café, 100 High Street, Dumfries Free but ticketed

TO BOOK RIVERRUN 2, CLICK HERE

Wednesday 20 October RIVERRUN 3

THE URBAN NATURALIST WITH ESTHER WOOLFSON AND ALEC FINLAY

7:00pm – 8:00pm

TO BOOK RIVERRUN 3, CLICK HERE

For more information on the Wild Goose Festival check out the festival page: https://thestove.org/wild-goose-festival/

Categories
News Project Updates

Nithraid 2021

Wow… can you believe it’s been two weeks since Nithraid 2021?!

It was a spirit-filled, action-packed day, with lots to do and enjoy despite the wet weather!

We’re so pleased that everyone who took part in the river race was able to do so safely, braving the elements to give us a race to remember.

We also had some great activities taking place at Mill Green, with help from Dumfries Fountain Project, Creative Spaces, TS Beall, Heather Molloy of PAMIS and Simon Lidwell of Wordsmithcrafts.

It was brilliant to see some old friends and new faces taking part in the river race and visiting Mill Green, which really put into perspective how fortunate we were to finally be able to facilitate the race after a long, two-year wait. 

“Nithraid this year was a triumph in the face of the double adversities of Covid and the weather, we had a record turnout of boats and all the participants, as ever, were thrilled by the unique experience of journeying up our beautiful river on a big tide. The current context meant that we reached out wider than ever before through digital platforms meaning that people who cannot normally attend the event were brought into the heart of things – we also catered for people with multiple additional support needs and the D/deaf community with activities on site…”

Heather Molloy (PAMIS) as The Spirit of the Nith
Simon Lidwell (Wordsmithcrafts) as The River Rambler

“…Nithraid is about bringing people together to celebrate the role of our River Nith in the town and region The Stove continues to find new ways to fulfil this mission and open up the fun to everyone in our community, demonstrating that community spirit for our visitors.” – Matt Baker, Orchestrator

We’d like to say a huge, special thanks to the following individuals and groups who helped us to bring together Nithraid 2021:

All our partners and funders, as always, for their support: Historic Environment Scotland, Creative Scotland and Dumfries and Galloway Council

Mark Zygadlo, as always, for ongoing support with organising and facilitating Nithraid

Hamish Denerley for lead commentary during our livestream
Winston Denerley for BSL interpretation and livestream commentary

BattleStations for their technological support and facilitating our livestream

Heather Molloy from PAMIS Scotland and Simon Lidwell of Wordsmith Crafts for their immersive and tactile storytelling and performance of Source to Sea

Dumfries Fountain Project for their creative workshops

TS Beall, in collaboration with the Scottish Showpeople, for the informative and insightful signposting around the history of the suspension bridge

PAMIS for the supply of the ‘Changing Places’ toilet, helping us to provide accessible facilities at Mill Green

Only Foods and Sauces for providing on-site refreshments at Mill Green

Our volunteers for providing help on the day – you’re stars!

Barbour Hall at Glencaple for giving us a dry, warm place to brief and prepare all those involved in the race

Annan Harbour Action Group and their safety boats for ensuring the safety of those involved in the race

Andy Jardine for the beautiful on-site photography at Glencaple and Mill Green

…and last, but definitely not least, a HUGE thank you to all that made the race possible by taking part and those who joined us at Mill Green or tuned in to our livestream. 

It’s safe to say Nithraid’s return this year was a success, and we’re so excited for what’s to come in Nithraid’s future.

From all at The Stove Network, thank you, stay safe and have fun out there!

Until next time.

#Nithraid2021

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