We asked our Creative Spaces 23/24 Alumni to reflect on their experience completing the programme. Lastly we have Sahar El-Hady, read about her experiences as a spacer below.
Sahar speaking at the 2024 Creative Spaces Showcase
Having made my home in Dumfries in 2021, just as in-person events were beginning to bounce back after the pandemic, I was very quickly introduced to The Stove Network by my new friends and became a keen supporter of their activities. It was a pleasant surprise to find young people and vibrant community events in such a rurally dispersed region, and the connections I made through this engagement made me feel immediately at home in what was then a very new environment for me. I began to see a future for myself here and am lucky enough to have found the means and networks to be able to stay.
Sahar at Creative Spaces Event – Draw Me Like One of your Dumfries Girls
After attending last year’s Creative Spaces Showcase, a friend encouraged me to apply for the Associates programme. I was inspired by Jodie Barnacle-Best’s talk about her “wiggly life path” and saw in it similarities to my own trajectory, having graduated with a master’s in Science to then start work in the creative industries. I thought, why not do this for 10 months while I’m working part-time, put these questions about my career direction to rest once and for all, and then get a proper full-time job which uses my degree after it’s done?
Looking back now, I can only laugh at the thought of me being happy in a 9-5, five day week job without creativity or change for the rest of my life. In fact, I now relish the openness of my freelance days more than I could have imagined when I started Creative Spaces. Not only has repeated exposure to a large number of full-time artists across the region dispelled the stigma around “unreliable income” and the myth of “the struggling artist”, I’ve also made leaps and bounds in accepting my own creative ambitions and surrounding myself with the people and support who will help me to pursue my dreams – who I’ll surely need to lean on all the more now that I’ve hit the ground running.
As well as providing a great group of new friends, and multiple paid opportunities to use your creativity, the structure and support of Creative Spaces was just what I needed at this point in my life. Monthly mentoring meetings with the experienced and kind-hearted DJ McDowell, absorption into the non-hierarchical and multi-talented Stove Team, and dedicating two days a week to freelance creative projects until it becomes habit, all have nurtured my creative practice from a tiny seedling hiding under a rock to a sunflower in bloom.
I’ve always been someone who doesn’t know what they want but has a growing list of things they don’t want to be or do. Now, thanks to Creative Spaces, I am (at the advanced age of 26) firmly on the path towards what I want to do, due to the simple yet priceless resource of being given the time and encouragement to think about it. For this, I will always have the amazing Stove Team to thank, so huge love and gratitude to each and every one of you – I promise you’ll not be getting rid of me or my Pam au Latte café order anytime soon!
Written by Sahar El-Hady
Situated in the heart of Dumfries, Creative Spaces collaborates with young creatives from across the region, providing young people with opportunities to engage in the arts. Whether it’s through events, workshops, mentorships, or our annual Associates Programme, we aim to enhance Dumfries and Galloway’s creative scene by offering free access to opportunities and paid commissions.
Korey Patterson, presenting at the Creative Spaces Showcase
We asked our Creative Spaces 23/24 Alumni to reflect on their experience completing the programme. Next up is Korey Patterson, read about his experiences as a spacer below.
Creative Spaces Showcase 2024 – Image by Owen Davies
The Creative Spaces Programme is responsible for igniting my Illustration career. I wouldn’t have otherwise had the time, resources or support network to initiate the beginning steps of becoming a professional freelance Illustrator. It wasn’t my original plan for the outcome of the programme, but it became a necessity for me after realising that illustration was something I could develop into a feasible career path.
My time at The Stove filled me with confidence in my unique abilities and prepared me for working in the Creative freelance world as well as the general business world. I’ve gained necessary experience in fields I didn’t consider relevant before, and I’m very grateful for those opportunities.
Korey drawing a goose for Laurieknowe Primary Pupils
Having the time and funding specifically was one of the most useful elements of the Programme as I am much more considerate to the dedication of personal development and training/practice in Illustration. I have also been given lucrative opportunities for me to utilise my illustration during (and now after Creative Spaces) which has been a direct consequence of being an associate. Without this opportunity, I would have never deemed my skills worthy enough to start a career in Illustration, but now I have solid confidence that I am deserving of a chance to prove I’m the best person for the job.
I heard about the role through word of mouth and I was encouraged to apply from friends and family, the job sounded class and I would have been dispirited if I didn’t get it. But I got selected for an interview which was a fun and great experience. If I was nervous for anything, it was how I was going to get along with my potential colleagues. But that was quickly dispelled during my interview and within the first few weeks working with Sahar, Mia and Martha. It might sound cliche but I genuinely feel like I have made friends out of my colleagues within the Creative Spaces team. From being anxious to know if we’d all click, to having dinner at each others houses, was a natural development that I’m really glad happened but not entirely unexpected giving just how well we worked as a team and the warm and pleasant nature of each of them.
The role is a lot of fun, because of the people you work with but also the type of jobs you’re responsible for whilst working as an associate. Programming events is an electric atmosphere as it starts with just throwing fun and interesting ideas around and trying to not get too excited and ahead of yourself over. Then when you have more serious responsibilities, you have a plethora of people there to guide you through what is expected of you. I felt like, the Creative Spaces team were so keen to all be on the same page all of the time, there were no moments when I felt behind on any projects or that I wasn’t up to speed on anything Mia, Martha and Sahar knew.
Korey sketching Devine Tension for Creative Spaces event – Draw Me Like One of our Dumfries Girls
Surplus to the fixed duties of the Creative Spaces programme, I was frequently giving side tasks and projects to help with from other members of the Stove team. For me, this was a form of encouragement and chance to hone my creative practice within a professional environment. This I feel was a direct response to identifying my personal ambition of developing my Illustration – which was a consequence of being in the Creative Spaces programme and Stove environment. There was a period where I was struggling to overcome the feeling of imposter syndrome which seems natural whilst being amongst so many artists and creatives. However, my mentoring sessions with DJ McDowall gave me the confidence in my abilities and reminded me that my practice is unique to other illustrators. The mentoring sessions are such a valuable asset to the programme and we all benefited from them immensely whilst working at the Stove.
Korey’s Personal Project
My goal before applying was to become a competent freelancer by the end of the programme. Since the position has ended I’ve been commissioned to do live illustration for multiple organisations around the local area. This is something I would have never had the confidence to do before applying to Creative Spaces. I will state that the programme is responsible for these work opportunities which all count toward building Korey Patterson Freelance Illustrator.
Written by Korey Patterson
Situated in the heart of Dumfries, Creative Spacescollaborates with young creatives from across the region, providing young people with opportunities to engage in the arts. Whether it’s through events, workshops, mentorships, or our annual Associates Programme, we aim to enhance Dumfries and Galloway’s creative scene by offering free access to opportunities and paid commissions.
We asked our Creative Spaces 23/24 Alumni to reflect on their experience completing the programme. First up is Martha Ferguson, read about her experiences as a spacer below.
Creative Spaces Showcase 2024 – Image by Owen Davies
Last May, I joined the Creative Spaces programme with Sahar, Korey and Mia; excited yet nervous to throw myself into something completely new. Having appreciated the work of The Stove from afar, I wasn’t sure if I had anything meaningful to offer as someone without a creative practice and with very little knowledge about community arts.
However, during the recruitment process and our induction week, I was reassured that I wasn’t expected in my role to spend 14 hours a week coming up with groundbreaking ideas through blue sky thinking. To my pleasant surprise, I learned that the reality of creative work is that a significant proportion of it is logistics – something that was much more my comfort zone as an ex-paralegal.
What came as the biggest surprise to me, and perhaps the greatest gift I have taken away from my 10 months, is how much I actually enjoyed the parts of the role that initially terrified me. It is precious proof that I can actually be a creator myself and be part of a community that I have deeply admired as a bystander my whole life.
At such an early stage of my creative career in set design, I know how difficult it is to explore your interests and create a practice on your own. On this point, I feel extremely lucky to have been given the opportunity to experiment with and learn from other creatives within the safe realm of community arts. Getting the chance to engage with different parts of the community and through a variety of mediums opened my eyes to types of creative work that I didn’t realise existed and helped me understand what I am passionate about.
I’m glad that we decided from the outset to develop our programme based upon our areas of passion – a decision which felt like a bit of a risk in terms of being as inclusive as possible and catering to the wide range of interests of our target audience. However, it was a risk that ultimately paid off because who wants to attend an event that feels detached from the team that produced it and inauthentic? This lifted what felt like a huge responsibility to engage with and change the lives of every single young person in D&G. I learned after ten months that simply providing a space and time for like-minded people to meet and talk reaped huge benefits in and of itself.
Martha’s Personal Project
Completing a personal project was the part of the Creative Spaces programme that terrified me the most. I remember early last year discussing with my parents the conclusions I had drawn from obsessive online research on the best way to get into art departments within film and TV if you have no production experience – to produce a self-led fictional design project. It acts as a well-rounded portfolio piece that showcases various skills attractive to hiring managers, and skills I unfortunately did not have. I remember how defeated I felt after that conversation knowing that completing a project like that felt so out of reach.
The fact that one year later I can proudly say my personal project achieved this goal of mine is testament to how much my confidence in my own capabilities has grown with the support of Creative Spaces. But also the importance of organisations like The Stove who lend the necessary expertise, funding, time and space to create – a privilege that most aspiring creatives do not have. I often wonder what stage I would be at now if I hadn’t collected these valuable experiences through Creative Spaces or, even scarier, if I would have given up on my dream completely. If I had the power, I would make Creative Spaces a compulsory rite of passage for every young person in D&G as it gives you the freedom to explore different ideas with the necessary support and a level of independence needed to survive in the scary world of work.
Written by Martha Ferguson
Situated in the heart of Dumfries, Creative Spaces collaborates with young creatives from across the region, providing young people with opportunities to engage in the arts. Whether it’s through events, workshops, mentorships, or our annual Associates Programme, we aim to enhance Dumfries and Galloway’s creative scene by offering free access to opportunities and paid commissions.
The Stove’s CEO, Matt Baker, recently participated in a summit between Scottish Government and COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) called ‘Connections and Partnerships: The Value of Culture in Communities’.
The aim of the event was to encourage partnership working in culture, at local and national level, to support cultural activity at community level.
Exploring challenges, opportunities, and potential actions for change, the event was also attended by some cultural leaders to inform discussions.
Angus Robertson MSP Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture introducing the event.
We caught up with Matt to find out what he was chatting about and how the idea of shining a spotlight on ‘Cultural Value’ can positively impact those working in the creative, social, environmental, and economic sectors at local level.
Matt’s talk followed a presentation by Inverclyde Council about their Culture Collective project 2021-23.
(Culture Collective is rightly celebrated in Scotland, and beyond, as an innovative new approach to connecting national and local cultural opportunity for communities).
‘Like Inverclyde, Dumfries and Galloway had a Culture Collective project which built capacity in community groups to work with creative practitioners to support their work in communities, particularly people and places that had been hard to reach previously.
WWDN Culture Collective Project for Dumfries and Galloway
The legacy of this project for Dumfries and Galloway is the WWDN network which was formally launched earlier this year. This is a vision of our region working together to share resources, capacity and knowledge, using culture to benefit communities.
The principle is that community anchor groups are supported to build experience in working with creative practitioners.
Different communities work together on joint initiatives and all this activity will support a population of local creative freelancers and small cultural organisations.
Community groups and creative practitioners are members of WWDN and use the network to develop new projects and share best practice etc.’
Matt then turned to the practice of Creative Placemaking as an example of one working methodology which can support partnership working across different sectors at local level and draw new support for culture into communities.
‘This approach builds on 12 years of work by The Stove implementing creative placemaking practice in Dumfries town centre.
Our work centres on a simple idea; to use creativity as a tool to support community-led change. Change for individuals, for groups, for social enterprises and for places in their entirety through place planning and the like.
At The Stove we call this ‘Grow Your Own Culture’, a belief in the intrinsic value of participation in creativity, that people making their own culture is equally as important as consuming culture made by other people. This approach often leads to unexpected outcomes right across the spread of social, economic and environmental impact.
In Dumfries, creative projects with communities shaped a conversation across the town about its future, and critically how local people could be involved in making that future. To cut a very long story short, this led to a campaign to ‘buy back our high street’, which became the Midsteeple Quarter project.
Now, five high street buildings are in community ownership and are being developed by the community with over £10M inward investment to date.
What has also become clear through this work is that forming partnerships and bringing culture into collaboration, with other placemaking agencies, helps the creative sector to thrive. In the last year The Stove has cascaded partnership projects to local creative freelancers with 180 individual commissions worth over £200,000 in total.
This year, with South of Scotland Enterprise, The Stove released ‘A Creative Placemaking Approach’ which is published on a creative commons licence and free for anyone to use.
The document aims to lay out a methodology for creative placemaking so that the opportunities and impacts for partnership working across different sectors are clear, and local authorities, for example, feel confident to approach cultural partners about potential collaborations on placemaking projects in health, education, community development, innovation, regeneration and place planning’
Highlighting recent developments in Dumfries and Galloway with the Local Authority taking a creative placemaking approach to connecting larger strategies for economic development with communities on the ground through a place-based approach, Matt went on to talk about practical examples of this work in practice.
This diagram from the publication gives an idea of the spread of impacts from partnership working with the creative sector in the context of place.
Creative Placemaking Impact Diagram – From ‘A Creative Placemaking Approach 2024’
‘We believe this area of work has huge potential for connecting culture with other sectors through the shared agenda of placemaking for the benefit of both.
By way of example – the Economic Development department at Dumfries and Galloway Council is seeing the cultural sector as a vital bridge between strategic infrastructure planning and local communities.
With the advent of Levelling Up and Community Empowerment it is now critical to national funding that communities are directly involved in the design of capital projects – yet in D+G there is a wide gulf between economic development and the grassroots of communities.
In Stranraer, cultural organisations have been commissioned by the council to conduct creative community engagement which is giving less-heard communities a voice in the shaping and delivery of the capital development of the former harbour area and a former hotel on the High Street.
Discussions are also underway about using creative activities as catalyst to bring communities together to develop new ideas which feed into the economic development pipeline.
This work has proved so successful that six weeks ago, Dumfries and Galloway Council advertised, what we believe is, the UK’s first ‘Creative Placemaking Framework’ to enable the council to more easily procure the services of local arts organisations to undertake creative placemaking work.
Of course, there are challenges but it was very encouraging to see this area of work highlighted in the recent National Culture Strategy Action Plan (see S7) and I hope a greater understanding between COSLA and Scottish Government will play a significant part in delivering parts of that action plan.
Matt Baker is CEO and one of the founders of The Stove (est. 2011). The Stove was a progression of his practice as a public artist. Through his career Matt became increasingly concerned with the potential for creative process to empower communities. He sees The Stove as a long-term experiment in embedding a creative resource within a community – the work is a co-directed journey with local people and Matt remains completely absorbed and fascinated by where that journey is leading.
The Creative Spaces Project is looking for three new recruits to join its programme for 2024.
This is a paid opportunity for young creatives aged between 16 and 30, to join The Stove team on a part-time basis, for a fixed period of 10 months.
ABOUT THE ROLES
Fee: £672 per month (For each successful candidate)
Hours: Part-time, two days per week (14 hours)
Duration: 10 months, fixed term (Successful applicants will begin their contract on the week beginning 29th July, 2024.)
Contract Type: Freelance
Criteria: Applicants must be aged between 16-30 and have some form of creative practice, project or idea you would like to develop.
Deadline for applications: Monday 1st July at 12 noon
Based at The Stove Network in Dumfries, Creative Spaces works with young creatives from across the region providing a stepping stone into the arts and the world of being a creative freelancer.
Every year, Creative Spaces recruits three ‘Associate Artists’ t o complete a 10-month creative development programme where you will learn t o grow your creative interests, work with the Creative Spaces Team on various projects & events, and with guidance, will learn to develop your own personal project*.
Creative Spaces aims to build up and support Dumfries & Galloway’s creative scene. We d o this through putting o n events, hosting workshops, offering mentorships, and providing learning opportunities and networking connections to help people build their skills as creatives.
These opportunities aren’t just for people already working in the creative sector and you don’t have t o be an ‘established artist’, have a degree or previous experience to apply.
The Creative Spaces programme is designed to offer you the chance to explore the creative industries and try and find your place.
Interest and/or experience in t h e creative industries and community work Interest and / or experience in working with other people
Ability to self-manage your own workflow
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Adaptable
Engaging
Creative
COMMITMENTS
Time commitments will include a combination of regular hours (to be determined by team availability) and some flexible working across projects (evenings, weekend work).
You’ll be required to attend weekly meetings and take part in project development and delivery of work across our programme:
1 x Fixed day per week based in The Stove (either on Tuesday or Thursday)
1x Flexible day per week (either working from home or in The Stove)
Weekly Creative Spaces meetings with Creative Spaces Producer Weekly Projects meeting (With the full StoveTeam)
HOW TO APPLY
Deadline for applications: Monday 1st July at 12 noon
Please submit your application by email to [email protected] (max file size of 10MB) with the heading Creative Spaces – Associate
Feel free to be creative with your application. We’ll accept any of the following formats, but please remember to let us know:
Why do you think joining the Creative Spaces programme will benefit you?
Why do you think now is the right time to apply to this programme?
What do you hope to achieve?
Please include brief details surrounding a project you would like to pursue as part of Creative Spaces (this could be a series of workshops, an event or any other creative output).*
*Please note that this idea is just so we can understand the kind of areas you may be interested in and any projects you wish to pursue. This is not a final idea that you have to take forward.
APPLICATION FORMATS:
We’ll accept any of the following formats:
Covering Letter (no more than 500 words)
Video (no more than 3 mins)
Image pack or portfolio (10MB or less)
Voice note
Just make sure that you include a CV or text sheet with your name, contact details and a few examples of recent work (this could be images, videos or write-ups).
It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too. Wherever you’re from, and whatever your background, we want to hear from you.
What Gives You Hope? From the Gaither Inn – Image Credit: Erin Aitchison
Artistic Director, Martin O’Neill has spent almost a decade creating, developing, collaborating on and championing some of the brightest creative ideas to come out of our town through his work with The Stove. All of which have been co-created with for and by our local people. However, at a time where so much uncertainty looms over all of us, not just in the creative sector, we challenged Martin to reflect on the last year, and asked him; “What gives you hope?“
Homemade Hope
By Martin O’Neill – Artistic Director
The last few years… they haven’t exactly been a fairground, have they?
Each New Year, the promise of better unfurls like a golden ticket. Although initially adorned with fine intents, clear plans, and a bright outlook… it gradually reveals itself to be more akin to Glasgow’s Willy Wonka experience – complete with gloomy Oompa Loompas, bargain bucket backdrops, and a quarter cup of lemonade. Happy New Year folks!
So it’s forgivable, when asked ‘what gives you hope?’, to re-coil and grimace given the last few years.
Hope is not often a word we hear in the news. Its closest relative ‘resilience’ is banded around in party political slogans; spun and doctored till they’ve lost much of whatever profundity they were meant to stand for. ‘Resilience’ now appears before us akin to a Frankenstein’s monster. Its made up of all the different parts, and looks about right – but there’s no soul about it. The word has been so chewed up by billionaires and politicians it’s been rendered tasteless. But this isn’t a blog about billionaires. I’ll save that one for another day.
With that said in many ways, there’s hope for… hope.
But hope encompasses more than its definition suggests; ‘a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.’
Across various scientific disciplines worldwide, entire factions have dedicated to study hope. From neurology to social science and economics, the study of this hard-to-put-into-words feeling is uncovering stuff that may well determine the future of our world and us in it. Hope’s significance extends from longevity and survival to happiness and humanitarianism. It’s becoming a key factor in determining an individual’s happiness and resilience, making waves in our understanding of mental illness. Moreover, its impact on fostering progressive and healthy communities is increasingly recognised.
So I’d like to take you on a little voyage through hope as I see it – the places where it thrives and the people that nourish from it. From Stove-led projects to the quiet things we’re up to no one really hears about, and to others in D&G, working their way day-by-day to what some might call utopia ‘Dumfrutopia’?!
Homemade Mutant Hope Machines
What a title!
In February, during the Stove’s annual general meeting, we welcomed researcher, artist, and all round ruddy guid guy ‘Dr. Duckie‘ (also known as Dr. Ben Walters) to discuss his PhD research. Titled ‘Homemade Mutant Hope Machines’, Ben’s research was completed with the queer performance collective ‘Duckie‘ from Vauxhall, London.
Duckie is a pioneering LGBTQ club collective born in Vauxhall, London 25 years ago. Known for its eclectic mix of music, artful stage performances, and inclusive atmosphere, Duckie has evolved from late-night revelry to a respected arts organisation. Their portfolio includes award-winning shows like ‘C’est Duckie!’, immersive experiences like Lullaby and The Class Club, and a vibrant LGBTQ history program. Beyond their core community, Duckie extends its reach with socially engaged projects targeting diverse audiences, supported by Arts Council and National Lottery funding. With a dedicated team and a host of collaborators, Duckie hosts over 130 events and workshops annually, always aiming to blend fun with creativity.
‘From 2014-2018, Ben did a PhD about Duckie’s work and coined the concept Homemade Mutant Hope Machines – a way of describing how people without much clout can start to build better worlds on their own terms.’
“Homegrown Mutant Hope Machines” broadly describes emergent, autonomous, and adaptive forms and processes that consistently cultivate hope for a better world, especially for marginalised populations. This title encompasses community groups, art projects, and organisations dedicated to enabling and empowering people. This is successfully done trough a values-driven approach centred on possibility, hope, and utopia.
In my own little world, hope took hold as the characteristic of not only our past, present and future projects here at the Stove, both now and then and yet to come, but that of nearly countless other groups and people across D&G.
A Manifesto of Homegrown Hope
In January, we launched the inaugural Gaither Inn event. It marked the beginning of a ongoing, dynamic series of gatherings designed to kick-start new ideas and possibilities for our town. The Gaither Inn also featured a mair than plentiful spread of haggis, neeps and tatties in honour of the Bard. With each course of food, a question accompanied, dividing the evening into three chapters. These were:
What gives you hope?
What are the ingredients of a space to nurture hope?
How do we achieve this together?
Invited to speak with their neighbours, everyone discussed these questions and worked towards creating a ‘Manifesto of Homegrown Hope’. Notes upon notes of handwriting from our ‘punters in residence’, (that would rival that of a chain-smoking Doctor in the 1970’s), combined with a sprinkling of poetic license, resulted in the following manifesto…
The Manifesto of Homegrown Hope
Of all the captivating headlines here, one stood out to me the most, ‘Vision & Visibility’.
History reminds us that significant change seldom occurs in obscurity. It is not typically driven by the majority or the zeitgeist of the masses, but rather by the vision of a determined few. So the notion of ‘embracing darkness’ to light the way forward is precisely where creativity, coupled with community, ought to exist. This is where the adaptive and autonomous nature of hope machines thrives: not in prescribing bold and concrete answers for the future, but in posing questions and consistently caring in their efforts toward an as-yet unwritten future.
Questions open the door to the future and are more powerful than answers in that they demand engagement. Engagement in the right questions is what creates accountability. How we frame the questions is decisive. They need to be ambiguous, personal, and stressful.
Peter Block
With that in mind, let me introduce you to a selection of Homemade Mutant Hope Machines. Some we’ve directly supported, others we’ve stood beside as allies, and a few have even sparked our own inspiration.
While there are countless inspiring projects happening across D&G, I’ll focus on those we’ve recently engaged with. Here is a glimpse into the ongoing work and the individuals driving us onward.
The Art Cabin: LIFT
Image by Kirstin McEwanImage by Andy Brook
Proposed by artists Alice Francis and Rosie Giblin, the Art Cabin is on the verge of becoming a reality. The project began back in 2021 during the initial phase of the What We Do Now project. Nestled in Dunlop Road, it will serve as a communal space for collective creativity. Above all, the word that epitomises the Art Cabin is “persistence.”
Persistence in the belief that it is the right thing to do. In chasing that one guy who does that one thing. Persistence in getting that one thing done so the other seven hundred things move to get the cabin open.
The Stove’s Operations Director, Graham Rooney, led the charge, and made it happen. The Art Cabin will be launching later in the year thanks to Creative Scotland funding. Achieved in part by the remarkable Morgan Love, a Creative Spaces alumni and LIFT team member.
Liz, a retired Macmillan nurse turned community pioneer, has spearheaded Doughlicious for several years. She has fostered a sense of camaraderie through the shared joy of making delicious sourdough together.
Her dedication extends to Summerhill. Liz volunteers her time to offer free, locally sourced, organic, homemade sourdough bread to those in need. She has successfully united the community in promoting homegrown, locally made, healthy alternatives to store-bought bread.
She is a truly remarkable individual who inspires us all every day.
Maya Rose Edwards: ‘Harbour’ Stranraer
Rarely does an artist, especially one so young, embody the principles of socially engaged and community arts as effectively as Maya Rose Edwards.
Throughout their tenure as the Creative Stranraer Waterfront Project artist, Maya’s project ‘Harbour’ has forged connections with the townsfolk in a manner that even the most outgoing individuals would find challenging.
Referring to their process as “making friends” rather than retreating into solitary research and introspection, as many artists do, speaks volumes about Maya’s ethos, which firmly believes in the transformative power of community engagement.
In Stranraer, Maya’s mission has been to foster dialogue, connection, and a shared vision for the town’s waterfront, rooted in its heritage and future aspirations. The culmination of this endeavour was a community festival, ‘Raise The Sails’, that celebrated possibility and imagination, marked by the symbolic act of “raising the sails” for a rejuvenated Stranraer.
Summerhill Community Centre: Anne Marie
Image by DEAR FRIEND FILMS
If you’ve not heard of Anne Marie then where have you been?! I’ve only had the pleasure of working with Anne Marie recently through our Creative Caerlaverock project. The project worked with the young team at Summerhill to engagee, promote creativity and excitement about the history and future of Caerlaverock Castle as a site of historical significance and burgeoning creative potential. If you haven’t yet seen the ‘Siege of Summerhill’ and the accompanying documentary capturing the work led by Stovie Sal Cuddihy then check it out, if nothing else, it’s a good laugh.
In even a short visit, it’s evident Anne Marie has managed to nurture a caring, supportive and connected space that I feel every community deserves. Or rather, if every community or neighbourhood had an Anne Marie, the future would be good in good hands.
Off The Margin
Images by Kirstin McEwan
One of our most recent projects was a deep-dive into the world of grassroots press and radical print. Over the weekend we were joined by journalists, print-makers and artists both local and national – engaging the town in conversations and workshops from investigative journalism with Karin Goodwin of The Ferret to podcasting, print-making and comic books.
What felt remarkably clear was the appetite and desire for Dumfries to re-connect with its vibrant printing heritage and sewed the seeds for exciting future projects in community news and print-based practices.
The hope here lies in the re-establishing of Dumfries as a place where opinion, expression, creativity and colour could once again return to the written and printed word – and away from the divisive and exclusionary worlds of social media. Watch this space.
Creative Spaces
Images by Owen Davies
Nothing embodies the essence of a “Homegrown Mutant Hope Machine” quite like Creative Spaces, especially its recent Showcase. Featuring a diverse array of local young creatives and entrepreneurs from across D&G, it was an evening that showcased the remarkable talent and potential of the region’s future leaders.
This initiative, nurtured by The Stove, has flourished over the past decade, evolving from Young Stove to Blueprint100. The work being done, led by the youth of D&G, is truly remarkable – from community projects aiding those in need to vibrant queer activism and artistry.
These young innovators ensure inclusivity in shaping the region’s future, a valuable lesson for us all. Despite the challenges and prevailing narratives of decline often associated with our aging population, these young creatives embrace a forward-thinking mindset. They are inspired by the possibilities of what lies ahead and are actively forging paths forward, even in the face of darkness.
Wild Goose Festival – the Partnership
The Wild Goose Festival is not just about the event itself, but the incredible individuals and organisations behind it. Comprising 24 partners spanning the arts, nature, community, tourism, and wildlife sectors, it serves as a beacon of hope.
In Scotland, there’s often a tendency for organisations to operate in silos, focused solely on their own needs due to financial pressures, policy shifts, and societal challenges stemming from years of government disinvestment. However, the partners of the Wild Goose Festival have committed to collaboration, working together to create a sustainable and vibrant event.
By celebrating our natural ecology and redefining the traditional festival model with a forward-thinking and hopeful perspective, these partners are paving the way for a truly unique festival experience. One where creativity, nature, and community converge to address the pressing issues of our time and inspire positive change.
Oor Hoose
Photos from the Oor Hoose Facebook page
Nothing embodies the spirit of “just do it” quite like Oor Hoose. Founded by Dumfries’ own Madame Jo and Devine Tension, Oor Hoose has provided vital support to young LGBTQ+ creatives and performers, nurturing their talents and empowering them to showcase their skills in the heart of the town centre.
As a gay Doonhamer growing up in the town, if you had told me such a space was going to exist, I would have called you a fantasist. But no, it’s very much a real thing – and it’s truly amazing to see. Now established as a community interest company, Oor Hoose has secured funding from the Hollywood Trust to offer workshops and experiences for young queer artists in D&G. With a Showcase scheduled for May at the Stove Cafe, I’m eager to witness the incredible talents of this remarkable crew.
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