Support Us

Tag: Community Art

Categories
News

Groundswell: New Sculptures for Lochside

The second of a series of public artworks will be unveiled in Lochside in a public celebration on Wednesday, 12th December.

The artwork Groundswell is comprised of a series of six sandstone sculptures made from Locharbriggs stone by artists Susheila Jamieson and James Gordon. Over the past six months, Susheila and James have been based at the Family Centre on Lochside Road, carving each of the stones on site there. The artists thoroughly enjoyed their time in the community of Lochside and all the conversations they had with local folk and the workshops they did for the children.

The site for the works is based in the area of DGHP’s new properties at The Meadows, Lochside.

Groundswell is one of four Lochside Public Art Projects, commissioned by DGHP and managed by The Stove Network, who are based in Dumfries town centre. The first, Tattiefields was unveiled in September, and the final artworks will be installed in the next couple of months.

James and Susheila who are based in the Borders, were selected for the commission following an open call earlier in the year. James and Susheila said, “The idea behind these sculptures is to commemorate local quarrying and working of stone. Dumfries was built of sandstone and it’s history has been carved into it. Sadly, work has recently stopped at the local Locharbriggs quarry, the boulders for Groundswell were some of the last to be taken from the quarry.

We have really enjoyed, and will miss, working outside the Family Centre in Lochside.  It has been an  ideal way to meet people from the local community and we really appreciated all the encouraging , friendly comments and chats! Working in the public eye hopefully has let people have some insight into the process behind creating Groundswell.”

The artworks will be officially unveiled at the site in the Meadows at 3.45pm on Wednesday, 12th December. All are welcome to attend Full details available here.

Categories
Musings Project Updates

Tattiefields Community Evening

From Katie Anderson – Lead Artist for Tattiefields
Tattiefields has awakened a true fascination with all things tattie-related as I’ve spent the summer working and re-working ideas for a new public space as part of a housing development in North West Dumfries. From the names of potato breeds, to their origins, growing seasons and varieties, good recipes to creative projects – I’ve started to go a little tattie-mad.

We decided to host an evening to share this new obsession, towards creating a bit of identity for the Tattiefields site, and also to become the first point for sharing the proposed designs for the location. Exciting times.

Tattiefields 1

The evening included a creative workshop inventing potato men, women, children, animals and aliens…, a curry cooking workshop, the sharing of new designs, a tattie buffet and ended up with some film screenings and the impromptu judging of the best tattie people creations. The event allowed Kirsty Turpie and I to really embrace our love of food as art and art as food, with (I hope) excellent results!

Tattiefields 2 _ KMcE
Tattiefields 3 KMcE
Tattiefields 4 MM
Tattiefields 5 KMcE
Tattiefields 6 KMcE
Tattiefields 7 MM

I’ve had some really great feedback to the designs, and now looking forward to getting into the production phases for the project! I am still very keen to speaking to anyone who is interested in developing a project to support vegetable growing, either in gardens in and around Lochside, or on site at Tattiefields in the Spring. If you have an idea or are interested in sharing some vegetable growing skills, please get in touch by email katie<at>thestove.org.

Tattiefields is part of The Stove Network’s Lochside Public Art Project, working in partnership with DGHP and Creative Futures Lincluden and Lochside.

Big thank you to project assistant Kirsty Turpie, Michael, Liam Templeton, Agne and Jimmy and Matt B for all the support in pulling the evening together. Thanks and image credits to Kirstin McEwan and Michael. To see the extended picture gallery, visit our Flickr page here

Categories
News

The Tinderbox Orchestra Heads to Dumfries for The Big Jam

The Big Jam 2
The Big Jam

A ‘punk orchestra’ will come to Dumfries over April and May to collaborate, compose and improvise with young musicians during five Saturday workshops, as well as offering an opportunity to perform at the Theatre Royal. The Big Jam workshops, presented in collaboration with Dumfries Music Conference, and supported by The Stove Network and D&G Arts Festival, will provide musicians with the opportunity to work with the Tinderbox Orchestra. The Orchestra, which features a fusion of instruments, styles and people, write and perform original compositions. The group will host a series of free workshops in Dumfries town centre that are suitable for musicians aged 12 and over.
Founded in 2010 as a small community youth orchestra with a difference, Tinderbox has grown to become a ground-breaking youth arts organisation, charity and social enterprise. Tinderbox aims to ignite a spark in young people; one which fills them with confidence, imagination and a sense of possibility, and which enables people to achieve things they never thought possible. Tinderbox Orchestra will collaborate with Dumfries Music Conference to undertake a five-week project in Dumfries during April and May, which will culminate with the group’s performance at the town’s Theatre Royal on 27th May. During these five-weeks, free workshops will be held for five consecutive Saturdays, starting on 22nd April at Lovers Lane Studios from 12-4pm. Musicians will have the opportunity to play with a real-life orchestra and learn the craft of scoring an orchestral composition to go along with their own performances and song-writing endeavours.

Participants are invited to attend all or some of the sessions and to bring along their instrument, so that they can play with the group. The sessions will focus on a different piece each week, which will interweave around writing a group composition. Experiment with ideas, collaborate with other musicians and become part of the country’s loudest, most innovative orchestra.

For more information, visit DMC on Facebook @DumfriesMusicConference

Categories
Musings News Project Updates

Beyond Doubt Into Love

What would Dumfries say?

Sometimes things start small.

Thank you Lauren!!

Whilst working with the Young Stove to imagine what The Stove could be, this popped up. The Stove would really have quite a lot to say. What about the rest of the town? If the old buildings in Dumfries could speak, what would they say?

If the old brig would speak, what stories would it tell?

Would it shout loud, or whisper quietly to a neighbour? We thought it best to ask around.

Responses flooding in, and orange speech bubbles floating around town (what would Rabbie say, sat with his view of the High Street?), what places have the loudest voices? Voices started to come thick and fast, helped along by Herald Moxie and a band of merry Young Stovies.

Want to see more speech bubbles? A selection are available here

What speech bubbles could we stand up for? What voices could we wear?

There comes a time when it is good to call in an expert. Our expert on hand, was talented and patient printmaker and artist Sarah Keast. An island of calm amongst apparent chaos, the Stove was a ship sailing in a wild afternoon of frenzied t-shirt printing.

And still we printed on. We ran out of t-shirts, did a quick t-shirt run, printed more t-shirts and ran out of ink before the afternoon was through, printing nearly 140 t-shirts in four hours. The Young Stove showed themselves to be an unstoppable tide of creative energy.

Beyond Doubt Into Love may well be a t-shirt for a moment in time. One things for sure, they are a rare and precious commodity, created by our community, and if anyone has a large mens in the neon pink – we’ve had a request for one.

This is less of an end, and more of a beginning – keep an eye out for speech bubbles: once you start noticing them, they tend to pop up all over the place…

#GetDumfriesTalking

Categories
News Project Updates

Rushes from Trading Journeys

Firing up the foundry
everyone had a shot of firing up the foundry with pedal power

The Stove Network’s Trading Journeys began with artist Alice Francis and her fine friend Douglas setting off for Wigtown

Alice and Dougal travelled the highways and byways of Galloway for three days to get to Wigtown
Alice and Dougal travelled the highways and byways of Galloway for three days to get to Wigtown
Alice Francis and Dougal in Creetown
Passing through Creetown
jam making in Gatehouse
Meanwhile in Gatehouse of Fleet some serious outdoor science was underway
Phoebe Makes Jam
Artist Phoebe Marshall explains the finer points of bramble and apple jam making
Charcoal Making
Charcoal making was also on the agenda….crucial to what was to come in Wigtown
Bicycle Powered Foundry on the move
On the Morning of 27th September Uula, Lorraine, Arny and Inti were first on the road – pedalling the bicycle powered foundry through the Galloway Forest Park towards Wigtown
Creetown Ferry Bell
Meanwhile in Creetown the Ferry Bell was decked out with it’s flags
Ringing the ferry bell
…the Bell was rung
Boat Launch Creetown
…and the boats were launched
Boats heading for Wigtown
carrying their precious cargo of charcoal, the boats headed for Wigtown following the long disused route of the Creetown-Wigtown ferry
Flyers in Wigtown
Word was getting around in Wigtown
Alice and Dougal in Wigtown
Alice and Douglas had arrived in Wigtown and made a standard from the tins they had collected
Trading Journeys Camp
The Wigtown Showfield was transformed into a Trading Journeys Camp
drumming in field
Where you could drum….
Moxie and her Troubadours
….compose a ballad with ‘Stove Herald’ Moxie and her troubadours…..
Mould making 1
…..make a mould for one of the 45 Wigtown Spoons under the close eye of artist Katie Anderson….
Jam making in showfield
….make jam……
Tea and scones
…..eat jam with scones and tea…..
Boat arriving Wigtown
Then the boats arrived at Wigtown Harbour
Procession 1
It was time for the Trading Journeys procession to move everything we had gathered from the Showfield to the Town Centre
Boat in Procession
One of the boats joined in
IMG_8477
…so did the foundry and the horse and cart…
arriving at County Buildings
…the procession arrived at County Buildings and made camp once more
Will and Megaphone
Will explained what would happen next
Firing up the foundry
everyone had a shot of firing up the foundry with pedal power
Dampers and Jam
Dampers and Jam were cooked
moulds waiting
the moulds people had made waited patiently
when the scrap aluminium melted in the foundry it was poured into the moulds
when the scrap aluminium melted in the foundry it was poured into the moulds
waiting for moulds to cool
Katie knows how long to wait….
opening the moulds
A Wigtown Spoon fresh from the mould
spoon moulds
freshly cast spoons waiting to be claimed by the people who had made the moulds
Finished Spoon 1
One of the first finished spoons – cleaned up by its owner……the wee copper tags had edition numbers 1-45
Finished Spoon 2
This beauty was made by our new friend Helen who had travelled all the way from Manchester to be part of Trading Journeys!
Spoon Dancers
The mysterious Spoon Dancers brought the day to a spectacular climax
Spoon dancers + tribe
The Trading Journeys Young Team who had been part of things all day – joined the Spoon Dancers for their exit stage left

HAPPY DAYS!

Photography by: Kim Ayres, Matt Baker, Colin Hattersley, Will Marshall and Colin Tennant

Categories
News

The Stove’s Herald!

A while back we put out an opportunity for something called a ‘Public Communicator and Herald’ – We had a strong sense of the spirit of the role, but found it very hard to describe exactly so the selection process was a very 2-way process. After much conversation and inspiration from all involved in the process, Ladies and Gentlemen we are very proud to announce that our Herald is Moxie DePaulitte!

Hello there, I’m Moxie and I’m delighted to be able to introduce myself as The Stove’s newly appointed Public Communicator and Herald which, at the risk of sounding like a Valley Girl, is just like, totally, you know, the coolest job title ev-ah.

I’ve been asked to write a short post introducing myself but, although I’m really good at talking about other things, I’m really don’t excel at saying things about myself so I enlisted the help of my four year old. This is what she said:

“She is nice and cuddly and warm. And she has a really nice job. She do some importment stuff and she always loves me and she always does nice stuff for us. And she uses all her money up for food for us. Her name is Moxie she does some pretty good stuff. Can I go back in the paddling pool now, please?”

So there you have it; a definitive guide to me, my work and my new role.

I think she’s pretty much covered everything but, just in case any of you aren’t fluent in Preschooleeze, I’ll translate…I’ve been involved in the arts for as long as I can remember and love the passion, power and opportunities the creative process stirs up. Sadly, however, art works are frequently just presented to us and the glory and excitement of this process is missed because we don’t know the why, the what, and the wow.
A lot goes on behind the scenes and, when a group is so absorbed in a project, it’s easy to forget that not everyone knows the back story; the reasons and the nuances behind a piece. It’s not transparent. So, this is where I come in: Part of my role is to help more people become aware of and involved in that very process; to make sure everyone understands what’s going on and that the cogs are visible as they’re turning.
The lovely people at The Stove know it can often feel like events go on around us and happen to us rather than with us and for us and they would very much like that to change.

On funding bids they probably call it ‘Building Stronger Community Relationships’ but, luckily for me, that translates as ‘meeting up with people for a cup of tea, chin wag and a biscuit’, so get in touch! Share with me your ideas and questions; I’ll be delighted to talk them through with you. Let’s see how we can get you involved.

email me [email protected] and I’ll get back to you.

Be part of something brilliant. You really can help shape Dumfries into the town you know it can be.

Skip to content