Ridin through oor cobbled toon,
as foretold by song an rune.
Room in yer herd fer everybody,
artist, gardener, or warrior.
Yer milk tae nourish a' o' us,
high street neighbours or aff the bus.
A rogue shines bright as ye descend,
intae the tide while clowns attend.
Salty Coo above everyone,
mooin oor toon intae autumn.
Salty Coo astride yon Nith,
meltin oot o' Viking myth.
By Jimmy Russell.
As part of Nithraid 2015, we gathered a collection of Nithraid themed poems from our members and artists. Jimmy Russell, writer and part of the MooCoo Collective for this years Nithraid procession has contributed the first poem of 2017. If you would like to contribute one to our growing collection, please get in touch!
Blog post written by (and with thanks to) Jimmy Russell
Nithraid 2017’s Viking theme continues The Stove Network’s broader exploration of historic and current Nordic cultural influence in Dumfries & Galloway. In support of this Moovement Coollective (MooCoo) will be leading a procession of community groups with the Salty Coo through the town to meet the boat race and a Viking encampment at Mill Green. MooCoo is a newly formed performance trio comprised of Agnė Zdanavičiūtė, Jimmy Russell and Leo Marsh, three young artists living and working in Dumfries. The three members of MooCoo each bring something unique to the group.
Inspiration for the MooCoo team comes in the form of CIRCA, the Clandestine Rebel Clown Army
Leo is a costume maker and performer who has worked with Oceanallover and often contributes to Brave New Words. Their work is rooted in vulnerability and connection, exploring topics such as sense of self and belonging through the lenses of gender and sexuality.
Jimmy is a researcher, writer and performer who has worked on the Our Norwegian Story and Lost Chronicles of Gallovidia projects, while regularly reading at Brave New Words. His interests lie in history, community empowerment and costume design, all of which find some outlet with Nithraid.
Agnė is a recent graduate in environmental science at the Crichton who is fascinated by public art interventions and wants to learn how to organise and deliver a performance. She also wants to challenge peoples’ ways of thinking and give something to Dumfries.
For the procession MooCoo are fusing Viking lore with clowning sensibilities to create a spectacle at the river festival that combines heritage with silliness. In preparation we are coordinating different community groups that will process with us, including the Sandside Garden Apaches and Galloway Longfhada Vikings, as well as musicians and our fellow clowns. Our troupe of MooCoo clowns are benefiting from training by experienced rebel clown Lance Goodey from Glasgow who is delivering sessions at The Stove and Sandside Community Garden over two weekends.
During Nithraid 2017 we want to challenge the popular imagery of Vikings as bloodthirsty marauders with the reality that their presence in Galloway represented a surprisingly peaceful coexistence between different peoples. Rather than perpetuate the narrative that overseas invaders threaten our way of life, we wish to highlight the cultural exchange that did and still can exist in our homeland, not least with Norse folk. That is why our slogan for Nithraid 2017 is ‘We Come In Peace’.
Auõumbla: the primeval cow of Norse mythology who nourished herself by licking a salty glacier!
In a predictably ridiculous fashion we’ll invoke the Nordic creation myth of Auðumbla: a primeval cow who nourished herself by licking salty glacier, which slowly released Búri, the first Norse god and grandfather of Odin. In turn Auðumbla’s milk nourished Ytar, a being whose body was used by Odin and the other gods to fashion Midgard, the realm of men. This story depicts creation as an ongoing and participatory process, a fitting message for Nithraid, which highlights the centuries old relationship between the river and Dumfries.
Clowning is something that has interested all three of us for some time. It seemed an interesting method of animating this myth and challenging typical tales of Vikingly violence. By adopting the dynamics of clowning – curiosity, engagement, presence, wonder – we want to inject a sense of fun and friendliness into local Viking lore, and invite people to question what they think they know about Norse-Gallovidian relations. The Nithraid procession will harness vulnerability to create a performance which is responsive to interactions and which blossoms in joyful, surprising directions.
In an effort to provide young musicians the opportunity to write, record, and release their own tracks; Blueprint100, in association with D&G Council and DGU, created the Song Factory. Running over the course of two months, participants were taken through various aspects of the music industry from songwriting to graphic advertising. Workshops ran every Wednesday from the 14th of a June to the 5th of July, with time to record until the 2nd of August when the final workshop was held.
During these workshops those involved were able to work with poet Hugh McMillan; singer-songwriter Jamie McClennan; graphic designer Sam Sparrow; and producer and owner of Lovers Lane Studios Grant Christian Henderson. They worked in groups to create 3 songs overall, paying ample attention to both music and lyrics, and then – after a tour of the studios – were funded to record these songs.
The final workshop focused on publicising your music, so as well as being taken through some basic graphic design participants were talked through an interview in preparation for a slot on the Thursday Night Showcase on Alive radio the following night. Here they talked about how they found the course and either played their track or performed their song live. All recorded tracks will be regularly featured on the show from this point onward.
The response to Song Factory has been truly touching, with the involved Blueprint members receiving messages of thanks from many of those involved, and the songs created will be worthy additions to Dumfries and Galloway’s ever-growing music scene.
All photographs credited to Kirstin McEwan Photography.
Our Bounce Back project, led by Martin O’Neill has been popping up in and around North West Dumfries over the past few months, including film screenings and the launch of the Ignition Fund, as well as supporting other events in the Lochside and Lincluden areas.
A month ago, Bounce Back began a series of Upcycling workshops, sharing skills and ideas to repair and reimagine unwanted clothes into something new.
Workshops run every second Thursday, with sessions still to come on the 10th and 24th of August at the Lochside Family Centre.
Second Place was awarded to Andie Cooke, Megan ward, Cara Brunton and Ashley Mitchell.
Our recent exhibition in the Stove cafe is now on the move! Following a two week show in Dumfries, the exhibition is now installed and available to visit in the Southblock, in Glasgow during regular cafe hours.
The Midsteeple Quarter Ideas Exhibition features 15 different submissions to our Architecture Ideas Competition that was launched in April in partnership with the Glasgow Institute of Architects.
The winners were selected by our panel of judges (see here for details) and are as follows: Winner – First Place
Gordon Fleming, ARPL Architects Second Place
Andie Cooke, Megan Ward, Cara Brunton and Ashley Mitchell Third Place
Pioneer Landscape Architecture Drawing Commendation
Ryan Canning and Titas Grikevicius, Holmes Miller
Following the close of the Dumfries exhibition our People’s Choice Winner, selected by popular vote, has also been announced:
Gordon Fleming, ARPL Architects
Exhibition Dates:
Friday 30 June – Wednesday 12 July 2017
Exhibition Venue:
South Block, 60-64 Osborne St, Glasgow, G1 5QH
MQIC Winner’s Presentation and Debate:
We invite you to join us on Thursday 6th July, between 6-7.30pm, to see presentations by the winning 3 entries and to discuss the possibilities of architectural responses to the decline of our high streets. Free to attend with complimentary wine but please book here
If you missed seeing the exhibition in Dumfries, and can’t make the Glasgow venue, the competition entries are available to download as a pdf, available here
Three community projects have received funding from the Stove Network’s Bounce Back initiative. Bounce Back is a project supported by the Development Trust Association Scotland and aims to support community initiatives to help empower people living in the communities of NW Dumfries.
The Ignition Fund launched by Bounce Back
The three projects awarded each showcased a commitment to their local area by engaging people in new activities related to community resilience and significant engagement with local people.
A community initiative based in Sandside dedicated to transforming the old caravan site on Sunderries Road into a welcoming, inspiring and beautiful garden for the whole community to enjoy and participate in.
What’s their idea?
‘We are having a Big Lunch at the Goldie Park with food, music and arts activities for the whole family. The money will go towards hiring equipment for the entertainment and material costs to promote the Big Lunch event. At our first event in 2015 we had over 300 people turn up – this year we hope to make it bigger and better than ever so to engage with some of the more isolated members of our community.’
A Lochside institution – the baton twirlers are a small and friendly group comprised of coaches, assistants and parents based in Lochside and the surrounding area. Some of their athletes have even had the chance to compete at national level bringing home the title of national champions in 2013.
‘We are looking for funding to help towards new tracksuits for all members of the club. We have 26 members in our club who compete at a local and national level. The majority of our members reside In NW Dumfries. We are a strong community with club leaders, coaches, assistants and parents all working together to run the club. Having a club tracksuit for all girls is a huge part of us being able to go to competition!’
An ambitious group with a big heart LIFT are a community organization based in Lochside dedicated to helping their community by breaking stigma, supporting those in need and collectively transforming their local area for the better.
‘We would like to enter a float into this year’s Guid Nychburris parade. We want to ‘show off’ the fantastic array of wildlife we have in Lochside by dressing local adults and children up as foxes, swans and butterflies – all the wildlife local to Lochside!’
