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 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.
We chatted to our Creative Spaces Producer Mia ahead of the 23/24 Showcase taking place on the 28th of March. Hear more about the programme, her highlights of what this year’s associates got up to and what you can expect at the showcase!
Q. 1 – Can you give us a very quick summary of what Creative Spaces is?
“Creative Spaces is a collective of young creatives aged sixteen to thirty who work with and advocate for the region’s young artists. We run a development programme every ten months where we hire in three emerging artists that work closely within the project and within the wider Stove.“
Q. 2 – Can you tell us a bit about your role as Creative Spaces Producer?
“So my role basically means that I support the associates throughout the ten months. So, I work with them closely, looking at their goals and their aims and what they want to get out of the programme and then help them develop the programme around that. I’m also there as the link between them as individuals and freelancers, and the Stove as an organisation. I work with them to develop different training and different opportunities that would be good for them as individuals, taking into account their creative practice and what they are like as creative freelancers. But, aside from that, I also work on the development of the programme in general and the engagement between Creative Spaces and lots of different organisations and partners.“
Q. 3 – Who were the CS Associates this year?
“So the 23/24 group of Creative Spaces are: Martha Ferguson, who is a set designer, who works within production design. Sahar El-Hady, who is a theatre-maker and an actor. And, Korey Patterson who is an illustrator and musician.”
Martha FergusonKorey PattersonSahar El-Hady
Q. 4 – What has been your favourite project that CS team have worked on this year?
“So, I think I’ve got two favourites from the year – although it’s really hard to pick because all of the projects have been amazing. One of them was the Muckle Mixer which was a freshers mixer that we did at the Dougie Arms. It was a really really good laugh and it got really really good engagement, and was an overall nice night. Quite different to that, was when we worked with Laurieknowe Primary over four days to delivery a series of small workshops with the primary school pupils around Wild Goose Festival. It was so lovely to work with primary school kids and watch how excited they got about geese!”
Q. 5 – Each of the associates is working on their own personal project that will be presented at the showcase. Can you give us a sneak peek of what they are working on?
“So I kinda want to leave a little bit of mystery, because they’ll be presenting fully what they have been up to at the showcase. But, what I’ll do is give you a couple of words, that I would say, describes what they are doing. So – Sahar: Discourse on immigration. Martha: Dystopian. And Korey: Robert the Bruce.”
Q. 6 – The CS team have been on quite a few adventures this year – where has been your favourite place that you visited?
“So it definitely has to be Bristol! We have been to a lot of really really cool places and seen a lot of amazing organisations, but, Bristol just completely topped it off. We had such a good time! We were so inspired and we left Bristol feeling like there was this new energy and I think it was a real turning point in everyone’s heads about not only what the team could do as individuals, but what Creative Spaces could do as an organisation in Dumfries. So, Bristol! One hundred percent.”
Q. 7 – What has been your highlight with the current round of associates?
“So my highlight has got to be working with such an amazing group of people. And, I mean, I say the same every year but, the team dynamic is always what makes you so energised. Every single person is so different but what they bring to the team is just so harmonious. Working closely with the Creative Spacers over the last ten months has been my highlight. It’s not been one singular instance, it’s been the whole thing!“
Q. 8 – The 23/24 Showcase is on the 28th of March – what can people expect from it?
“So I know the term ‘good vibes’ is usually quite cringe, but, I actually think that the showcase is such good energy. It’s hard to explain – I mean obviously there is the literal explanation which is you are going to see people presenting what they do and what they are about, and it’s a culmination and celebration of young creatives. But, the energy in the room is just always almost meditative. You leave and everyone just feels so good! It’s so empowering, but it’s fun and it’s silly, but also quite laid back. It’s just really quite inspiring. I think everybody leaves with a sense of how we have a really cool thing happening here and let’s just shout about it!”
Q. 9 – And finally – CS will be recruiting the next round of associates later this year – what do you say to someone who is considering applying?
“The first thing I would say is definitely come to the showcase! We don’t put on the showcase specifically for recruitment, it’s not part of the application pack. But, I would say that you can definitely notice people who have come to the showcase in comparison to people that haven’t. They have way more context when it comes to the programme. I think it sets them up in good stead because they can really see what the showcase and Creative Spaces is all about. I think it makes people feel a lot more confident if they are starting the role when they have seen what the last year’s group have done. It also gives the opportunity to ask questions in real life.
That brings me on to the second thing which would be – don’t be afraid to reach out! We’re a really nice group people and we love hearing about people who want to apply and having a chat with folk that have any sort of questions about the application process or about the programme in general.
The third thing would be don’t read the application pack and think ‘oh my goodness, maybe this doesn’t fit with me’. The Creative Spaces programme is so special because it really fits around the individual. The special thing about the past few years is every year has been different and everybody’s individual experiences has been different. Because, we work so closely with the individual through mentoring and through one-to-ones, that we can really adapt what the programme does for you based on your personal needs and goals.”
The Creative Spaces Showcase is taking place from 7:00pm – 10:00pm on Thursday the 28th of March. Hear from guest speakers from Dumfries & Galloway who work in the creative sector, learn more about the Creative Spaces programme and how to get involved and enjoy live performances!
During January, the Creative Spaces team took a trip to Bristol on their final ‘go-see’ trip of the year. The purpose of this trip was to meet with representatives from a variety of creative and cultural organisations in Bristol, particularly those that work with young and emerging creatives. The following article is a round up of their time in Bristol and reflections from the trip.
Korey
Meeting with Rising in Bristol – Watershed Venue
Rising is a Community Interest company and non-profit creative agency. They strive to cater/influence/support young creatives and artists under 30 within the city. With a fundamental goal to make creative facilities more accessible and lucrative for artists, Rising shares a lot of similarities with the Stove Network. The Creative Spaces team had a fun, light hearted conversation with members from the Rising team – Jess, Syd and Euella in their part time workspace – Watershed. We found ourselves relating to each being in a company whose focus is to bring young people in the community to a creative space to socialise, learn and interact.
Being from a smaller town I naturally assumed that Rising had a bigger issue on their hands since their operation was based in the big city. But their obstacles were more or less the same, especially concerning outreach and engagement. It was comforting to know that a city wide organisation doesn’t automatically guarantee anything in terms of the engagement numbers or the progress of development in the relative local creative sector. One thing we bonded on was the phenomena known to Rising as “The Returners”- young creatives who leave for university with the intention of staying away to then return with the desire to change or make a difference in their hometown. The Rising team we met were impressed and inquisitive about the Stove Network and Dumfries and Galloway’s creative output and compared their format with the Stove’s. Rising has what they like to call “Pollinators”, who are creative mentors/tutor/instructors who pollinate the city . The details of the Creative Spaces programme definitely left an impression on them as they were actively taking notes. To go to a meeting such as this was an eyeopener because I almost thought of us (being representatives for The Stove Network) were going to be asking all the questions and looking to them for advice but, instead it was a completely mutual experience where each team got an equal share of useful information and a compulsion to work together at some point.
One aspect of Risings’ format that sparked our interest was their membership system that recruits once a year. We took personal interest in their approach to engaging with their members – having one-to-one mentorship meetings with a member of the Rising staff, invites to exclusive events, and access to Risings own and partnered paid opportunities, most of which would be detailed in their weekly newsletter for members.
Then we wandered over to the Aardman studio building where Martha was scheduled to meet Peter Lord. The rest of us sat blissfully in the lobby where there was so much to look at and admire, such as a genuine Oscar award for Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit, along with Baftas, Models and figures from Aardman films, and books filled with sketches and rough drafts of storyboards and character designs. The building was very inviting inside and looked like a brilliant place to punch in and out of each day. It was inspiring to think that real people were involved in these very real jobs inside this building and that it’s not in some distant Hollyweird land that appears to be a closed club.
Martha
Aardman Studios Tour
On our first morning, Mia gave me the very exciting news that Peter Lord of Aardman Studios may potentially be able to speak to me as I have an interest in working in Film & TV. I tried not to get my hopes up as he has an incredibly busy schedule… but after staring at my phone all day, I received a call!
We checked out nearby Spike Island as we patiently waited for 4pm to stroll over to Aardman Studio. The lobby was like a mini exhibition in and of itself, with a giant Shaun the Sheep model, a cabinet displaying an Oscar and Bafta trophies, and cartoon office props at the reception desk.
Having a personal tour of the game design office, the various animation studios and even some hot sets by Peter Lord himself was surreal. I was shocked to learn that animators are essentially actors who carefully manipulate the limbs of clay models in response to recordings by the voice actors. I was also shocked to see how many cameras are on set – something that is required to ensure each frame is shot from two positions for 3D productions.
Each location was bursting with memorabilia and original props from sets I grew up watching and confirmed how much I wanted to be part of this world. I had the chance to pick the brains of veteran animators and modellers and discuss everything from their typical day, to the way work processes were being affected by new technologies and AI.
It was particularly refreshing to see how hands on the work is at the studio despite how large scale the productions are. Learning that the analogue methods of stop-motion animation could not be replicated by CG work made me optimistic that the hands-on creative process that drew me to the industry will hopefully be protected.
Sahar
Arnolfini Arts Centre
On the Friday, we went to check out Arnolfini, an international centre of contemporary arts located on the picturesque harbourside. We started off by looking around the exhibition they had on, ‘Eregata’ by Ethiopian artist Elias Sime. There was a vast installation of ceramics and a lot of his art incorporated found objects, electrical parts and discarded wires woven into large tapestries and 3D sculptures.
Martha and I then joined in with a weekly Women’s Craft Club held at Arnolfini in partnership with Bristol Refugee Festival. We enjoyed a chilled out time making jewellery with women from lots of different backgrounds, each absorbed in their own craft project.
The team then met with Keiko Higashi, Head of Engagement, in the cafe at Arnolfini and talked about what we get up to at The Stove. It was great to see the strengths of the Creative Spaces program through her eyes and be able to discuss different strategies on a level pegging with someone who had so much professional experience.
She shared a bit with us about what she does in her role and the history of the building. She talked about the challenge she is currently working on – diversifying their exhibitions. They have a huge amount of foot traffic in the building but their actual engagement is much less when you discount people coming in to use the cafe/toilets as not everyone is there to interact with the exhibition. It was really interesting to hear about challenges from her perspective of having a huge building in the middle of the hustle and bustle of a city centre, and it made me reflect on the similarities and differences with our reality at home.
After our morning at the art centre, we went to the nearby Bristol Old Vic, which is the English speaking world’s oldest continuously working theatre. They had an fun interactive exhibition on sound design for theatre, Foley art, and the use of analog tools in theatre to create gunshots and other sound effects. I liked the way they designed the exhibition, with interactive displays, buttons on the wall you could press to hear audio recordings of actors doing vocal warm ups, and machines you could use to make rain and thunder sounds. It made it feel like we were backstage designing the sound effects for a show!
In our free time we walked around St Nicholas market, saw a bit of street art, and walked to Millennium Square for a Wallace & Gromit themed escape room, ‘The Great Escape’. We also got to visit a cool area of Bristol called Stokes Croft and sat in The Canteen, a venue that has free live music and locally sourced vegan food.
Last Day
We did a heritage walk around the streets of Bristol city centre, viewing some of the iconic street art, graffiti and murals, and stopping in to see the cathedral and the historic Bristol Central Library. We visited a board game cafe on the Christmas Steps for some inspiration for the Vennel, and finished off our trip by touring some charity shops and the Bristol Museum.
On reflection, visiting Bristol was inspiring and motivating as we were each left with a positive sense of envy. To bring what a place like Bristol has to Dumfries feels achievable. It was great to see positive spaces being held for young creatives to connect with each other. With a renewed motivation from our trip, we feel we can bring more vibrancy and youth-led creativity to our town.
By our 23/24 Creative Spaces Team Korey, Martha & Sahar.
The 2024 Creative Spaces Showcase is taking place on the 28th of March! Keep an eye on the CS socials for updates.
In the run-up to Wild Goose Festival 2023, the Creative Spaces team worked with pupils from Laurieknowe Primary School to deliver a series of creative workshops on the migration of Geese and their relevance to the region. We would first like to say a huge thank you to Laurieknowe’s P4 class and both teachers who were brilliant to work with!
The first day Creative Spaces went into the primary school we were pretty nervous. We had a plan but were also prepared to be flexible as we didn’t know what to expect from the class. The P4s were really excited to see us and paid close attention as we introduced ourselves and showed them a short video about bird migration. When we asked them questions afterwards, they were all eager to put their hands up and show off their recall skills. We started to see their different personalities shine through and were reassured by the energy of the class – they were so ready to learn about geese!
The next task was map-based. We put a big world map onto each of the 3 tables in the classroom and worked in groups to identify the places where the different species (Barnacle, Greenland White-Fronted, Light-Bellied Brent, and Pink Footed Geese) breed. The first challenge for the kids was spotting Scotland (it’s tiny!) and then understanding that the geese fly hundreds of miles to get here from Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard and Canada even though it’s only a few centimetres on the map. We gave them little card cutouts of geese that they could move around the map – some of the kids’ geese were much more interested in flying to Africa and South America than following their usual migration patterns.
After learning a lot in the classroom about where the geese in Dumfries come from, when and why they come and go, and the challenges they face on their long journeys, we relocated to the hall for an active break. We had come up with a loose concept for a game, where we held up the flags for different countries that the kids had to ‘fly’ between. A few of them played different risks such as predators (foxes, eagles, badgers), wind turbines, bad weather etc. The ‘geese’ had to make it safely to their destination (Scottish flag) without being caught by a ‘risk’, otherwise they would join the obstacles in the middle of the hall. They had a blast with this active learning, amongst the noise and chaos, and enjoyed the challenge of running in V formations like the geese fly.
Active Break to learn more about geese.
We then went back to the classroom for a drawing activity. Each child received a comic strip template designed by Korey and drew/coloured in the story of the wild geese migration. They were really impressed by Korey’s ability to draw a goose and were queuing up to get his help with it. This seemed to be the recurring theme of the day, with everyone asking Korey to tie their shoelaces as they left at 3 o’clock! It was an all-around successful afternoon, and we went home feeling very tired but encouraged.
Before starting Day Two, the team were slightly daunted by the task of engaging the class for an entire day about geese and incorporating more research-based lessons. These nerves immediately disappeared when recapped what the class had learned from the previous session and realised how much they had remembered from only one afternoon.
We decided to dedicate the morning to teaching the class about Goose habitats – what they need to nest and to protect themselves from various dangers. In groups, the kids designed beautiful three-dimensional habitats out of coloured paper and freestanding elements arranged inside shoeboxes. We then moved on to the computers so that the class could complete some further research and fill out their ‘Goose Facts’ booklets.
Colouring in geese cartoon strips
This helped the kids differentiate the different goose species that come to D&G and put all their findings in one place. Just before lunch, we switched things up and held a goose-making workshop where the kids had the choice of dressing our pre-made chicken wire geese in newspaper scraps or making miniature tinfoil geese. What was most impressive was watching the pools of PVA glue and mountains of newspaper scraps disappear and the classroom return to its previous state in a matter of minutes before the lunch bell.
In the afternoon, we decided to put the kids’ learning to the test with a newsreader task complete with costumes. Finally, we brought in our goose expert extraordinaire Hagen Patterson, to answer all the questions the kids had come up with over the past two sessions. They loved having their burning questions answered and it was hilarious watching the Q&A go off track with a couple of questions (shout out to the pupil who asked which goose was the tastiest to eat). However, the highlight was definitely Hagen’s true-to-life goose calls which showed the class a fun, tangible example of the differences between the various geese species they were learning about.
We felt a great sense of achievement after the second day as we achieved a better flow between the various lesson plans and felt genuine excitement from the class about geese migrating to our region.
A very magnificent goose!
On Thursday the 12th of October the Creative Spaces team headed into Laurieknowe Primary School for the final time. The class were just as excited to see us, and the feeling was mutual. During the third visit, the team felt more comfortable and at ease with the P4 class. The lessons were well received and as the kids had familiarized themselves with us, they were genuinely engaged, and the lesson continued at a good pace.
The lesson of the day was centred around Scots language and poetry with the theme of Geese. Mia grabbed the class’s attention immediately with a self-written Scots Poem about Geese visiting Dumfries. At this point, it was interesting to see which Scottish words the kids already knew or didn’t know. This was a great way to introduce some Scots Words to the pupils’ developing vocabulary.
So, using words provided (and explained) by us, and some useful goose facts, the children were then prompted to write their own poems. They did brilliantly and it was a great pleasure to help translate regular English words into Scots for the kids. That in particular was something they were all excited about, and even though it wasn’t mandatory, all the pupils stuck to writing about Geese.
The brilliant poems were available to view at the Wild Goose Festival Hub in the Lorebrune Centre during this year’s festival. Towards the end of the day, we also finished off our miniature goose sculptures with some coloured pens and got some great results, which were also displayed in the WGF Hub.
Hear about the Dystoveia Escape Room from the Creative Spaces Team. This project transformed Room 2 in the Stove into a dystopian escape room in August 2023.
Why an Escape Room?
On one of the blessed sunny days in June, our creative producer Mia asked us two million-dollar questions: what kind of things do we like to do for fun? And how could we bring that to D&G? After a great creative session where each of the CS team individually mind-mapped our answers, we discovered a common thread between us: an escape room! Why did such a thing not exist here?
We initially thought this might be too ambitious an idea for a bunch of amateurs. However, a good friend of mine (shoutout to Seb Summers) kindly booked us a slot at his escape room in Glasgow. Our visit to Riddle Rooms, led to us learning a lot about what makes an escape room good and the mechanics behind it. The possibilities of what we could create ourselves seemed endless, so deciding our theme early was key for honing our ideas. This made us consider the room as an unravelling story as opposed to a random mixture of puzzles.
OUR CONCEPT:
Dumfries has fallen under the control of an oppressive regime. Your team of rebels have managed to infiltrate the high-security government control room and the town is locked down on red alert as they try to hunt you down. It is up to you to save the town in time and to escape before state officials discover you.
Following an in-depth storyline that unveils the secrets of Dumfries and the authoritarian regime, you and your team must work together to uncover hidden clues and solve a variety of puzzles to progress and beat the clock.
We wanted our participants to feel like they had stepped into a parallel universe, completely different to the town they knew. So, we blacked out the windows, turned on the AC, and set the scene with a distorted video of our mole (played by the talented Sahar) leaving instructions for the rebels (the participants). Without a huge budget to work with, we circulated our props list far and wide and managed to collect a lot of cool stuff that helped transform the room. Finishing touches like a doomsday timer, fake cobwebs, chains and hazard tape really pulled the room together.
What we hadn’t anticipated was how much of our planning time was taken up by logistics. Without any access to fancy tech, we had to come up with solutions (painful zoom trialling and walkie-talkies) to make the scenario feel as realistic as possible with close to zero in-person contact with the room. The timings of the room also required a lot of planning. Every participant in an escape room approaches the experience differently with unique problem-solving skills. In the end, Room 2 had transformed into a complex labyrinth of puzzles, where we made sure the room wasn’t too easy or too difficult to complete in the hour – something we discovered when trialling the room with different groups of people.
It’s time to escape…
Once the escape room was set up and ready to trial, we had two teams come and test the room for any bugs or potential problems that would cause any mishaps. The trials were successful for two reasons; it Identified what worked and what didn’t, and it revealed itself to be a fully-fledged legitimately enticing escape room.
The night we opened, all our participants were keen to get started and they all had brilliant positive feedback once they had escaped the room. Each team that participated were all enthusiastic and up for an evening of puzzles and hilarity which made each game as lively as the last. Whilst being informed of the room rules and the mission brief, it was clear that participants were becoming increasingly intrigued and excited to get started. Perhaps this was because the room’s particular story was unique to Dumfries/The Stove. With the aid of a lot of in-house equipment, we were able to create a convincing atmosphere which was as functional as it was aesthetically immersive. As the creators and facilitators of the evening, we had an enjoyable night. This felt fantastic, as we had come so far since our ambitious idea a couple of months previous. Since we had no major technical issues or mishaps, it was safe to agree it was a successful night. We felt like we had accomplished something great when there was a demand to potentially do it all again!
WHAT WE LEARNED…
Dystoveia was a very popular and successful event. With only eighteen spaces available (three groups of six) we didn’t have to do much advertising before it sold out, and we found that there were many friends and family who expressed interest after all the spaces had already been taken.
Once the groups had booked, in hindsight we could have gotten in touch earlier to tell them the time slot we wanted them to come in for. If we were to run this event again, we would also request contact numbers from those who signed up so we could communicate with them more easily.
We learnt that arranging the room and the puzzles took a lot more time than expected when we began constructing the space. We only gave ourselves a week which felt quite rushed, but thanks to the Stove team’s flexibility we were able to have two trial runs to iron out any mistakes or sticking points before the day of the event.
TOP TIPS
A free escape room in a town without any escape rooms was a brilliant idea, and it sold out very quickly! If you are looking to create an escape room from scratch, here are our learnings.
1. Make use of resources online for puzzle ideas – there are lots of ideas out there, and many are cheap, low-tech and relatively easy to put together.
2. Develop a strong back story, narrative and characters for the escape room – the fun in the experience is largely due to how immersive it is, try to completely transform the space.
3. Do your research – visit at least one escape room with a group of friends/teammates and record what you learnt.
4. Find people to help you with trial runs – you will learn a lot!
5. Don’t put too many distracting decorations in the room – everything will be seen as a potential clue so make sure you do a deep clean and make sure nothing is in the space that you don’t want to be there.
Thank you to everyone who got involved with Dystoveia; from testing puzzles, lending décor to the space, to coming along to the event! It was a team effort, and we definitely couldn’t have done it without you!
By our 2023 Creative Spaces Team – Martha, Sahar & Korey.
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