Not To Be Sold Separately

From Emily Cooper

Months of planning, budgeting and most importantly, creating; and the Young Stove were finally ready to burst on to the art scene of Dumfries and Galloway with our debut exhibition. “Not to Be Sold Separately”, our maiden voyage into exhibiting as a collective, embarked on the 3^rd of July and was met with a storm of excitement and positive comments.

As a group of eight young artists, all with contrasting styles and creative visions, coming together to form a cohesive show, seemed a daunting task, however rather than it becoming an obstacle it became one of our greatest assets and resulted in a vibrant, diverse collection of work that reflects us as a group of people.

Installation day had its own challenges as we had only a matter of hours to transform a beautiful, yet unconventional space with complex lighting and to install all of our work before opening the same night. The learning curve was a steep one as our experience level ranged from exhibition veterans, to those of us (myself included) who had never exhibited publicly, but, remarkably we pulled it off without a hitch! Having complete creative control and being responsible for hanging our own work was an invaluable experience when it comes to exhibiting in the future.

“Not to Be Sold Separately closes on the 26th of July and travels to Dumfries to be reimagined and reopened at the start of August. With a new space, new pieces and with even more artists added to the line-up, it’s gives us an exciting opportunity to redevelop and build on the success of the exhibitions’ first leg. Mill on the Fleet has been a fantastic opening venue. Transplanting a thoroughly modern, edgy, collection of work into such a historical and characterful building has resulted in a glorious, colourful, discordance, symbolic of the Young Stove.