Chapter One saw the Stove take over the vacant ‘Bakers Oven’ in the High Street for two days in November 2016 for a series of workshops and discussions around the Stove’s Living on the High Street project. Activities open for the public to get involved in included; a pop up living room, soup kitchen, art installations, cinema and performance art pieces :

• Come Dawn was a 12 hour intensive writing performance, by Martin Joseph O’Neill, running from dusk until dawn.
• DTAS (the Development Trust Association Scotland) hosted a workshop exploring community asset transfer, and growing community ownership across Scotland.
• Frank Brown’s amazing scale models of Dumfries buildings, past and present, created out of matchsticks.
• Regular screenings of John Wallace’s House on the High Street short documentary.
• The Stove Network’s AGM.
• Temporary installation In Flight, created by artist and photographer Morag Paterson down a disused close off the High Street.
• The Dumfries Pledge, signed by 200+ invested in creating a new future for Dumfries around the ideas of bringing back residential spaces to the High Street.