Part of our Open Hoose Programme and inspired by conservation initiatives across the country, a new group wants to question and explore what exactly a Conservation Trust for the River Nith might look like. This is the ideal opportunity for those passionate about protecting one of our most extraordinary natural assets to get together and look for solutions faced by our River Nith.
Ran by a community steering group supported by The Stove Network & UNESCO Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere, Nith Life is a rapidly evolving initiative dedicated to engaging communities through creativity, technology and science to explore our connection to the River Nith, from source to sea.
If you would like to stay updated and informed on everything the group are up to do follow their Facebook page HERE.
Access Information: Level Access in rear of building through adjacent close to left-hand side of the Cafe (facing the front of the building). To ensure your experience with us is as best as it can be, please do let us know if you have any specific access requirements and we’d be happy to help. Please email Kevin or Sal on: [email protected] or phone 01387 252435 and speak with one of our team. We are able to provide walk-throughs of the building before attending our events as well as assign seating before your arrival.
Part of our Open Hoose Programme and inspired by conservation initiatives across the country, a new group wants to question and explore what exactly a Conservation Trust for the River Nith might look like. This is the ideal opportunity for those passionate about protecting one of our most extraordinary natural assets to get together and look for solutions faced by our River Nith.
February’s session features Suzanne MacIntyre, Reserves Manager from NatureScot talking about Caerlaverock and Kirkconnell Flow local nature reserves.
Ran by a community steering group supported by The Stove Network & UNESCO Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere, Nith Life is a rapidly evolving initiative dedicated to engaging communities through creativity, technology and science to explore our connection to the River Nith, from source to sea.
If you would like to stay updated and informed on everything the group are up to do follow their Facebook page HERE.
Access Information: Level Access in rear of building through adjacent close to left-hand side of the Cafe (facing the front of the building). To ensure your experience with us is as best as it can be, please do let us know if you have any specific access requirements and we’d be happy to help. Please email Kevin or Sal on: [email protected] or phone 01387 252435 and speak with one of our team. We are able to provide walk-throughs of the building before attending our events as well as assign seating before your arrival.
Part of our Open Hoose Programme and inspired by conservation initiatives across the country, a new group wants to question and explore what exactly a Conservation Trust for the River Nith might look like. This is the ideal opportunity for those passionate about protecting one of our most extraordinary natural assets to get together and look for solutions faced by our River Nith.
Ran by a community steering group supported by The Stove Network & UNESCO Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere, Nith Life is a rapidly evolving initiative dedicated to engaging communities through creativity, technology and science to explore our connection to the River Nith, from source to sea.
If you would like to stay updated and informed on everything the group are up to do follow their Facebook page HERE.
Access Information: Level Access in rear of building through adjacent close to left-hand side of the Cafe (facing the front of the building). To ensure your experience with us is as best as it can be, please do let us know if you have any specific access requirements and we’d be happy to help. Please email Kevin or Sal on: [email protected] or phone 01387 252435 and speak with one of our team. We are able to provide walk-throughs of the building before attending our events as well as assign seating before your arrival.
Grants for up to £500 Available Unexpected Garden – Stranraer
Dandelion is a national community food growing initiative that is coming to Stranraer. It is part of the UK wide UnBoxed Festival; a UK wide celebration of creativity taking place in 2022. The project will see a new Unexpected Garden and event space created on the harbour front with the local community that brings together food, culture, ideas, music and technology, driven by the concept of sow, grow, share.
Our ‘Grow Your Own Event’ grants have been created to give the local community the chance to host their own events in Stranraer’s Unexpected Garden. We will offer groups and individuals up to £500 to programme their own event which should meet at least one of the following criteria:
Improving wellbeing (physical and mental)
Enabling community participation in the arts
Promoting equality
Enabling participation in physical activity
Responding to the climate emergency and promoting sustainability
Increasing community access to the garden
Promoting the regeneration of Stranraer
Please note that we cannot accept applications promoting a specific religious faith or political party
Please consider the following when thinking about your event:
About the Garden
The Unexpected Garden in Stranraer can be found on the waterfront in Stranraer situated between Burns House and Ulsterbus. It is a community space where people can come together to grow food, take part in workshops, relax or attend one of our many events leading up to Harvest Festival in September.
The garden has a 6.5m x 6.5m stretch tent that can provide shelter for events and workshops.
We can provide folding tables and chairs as well as a battery powered PA and AMP system for live music and background music
We do not have any power supply to the garden so any power requirements will need to be brought in externally.
The garden and performance space is on the ground level with no stair access.
There is an accessible toilet on site for those who need it
Events must take place by 31 August 2022.
How to Apply:
Please complete our short application form to apply:
Alternatively, you can ask for a copy of the questions and submit a video, voice note or word document. Please email [email protected] for more information.
Dandelion is a national creative community food growing initiative that is coming to Stranraer. It is part of the UK wide UnBoxed Festival; a UK wide celebration of creativity taking place in 2022. A new community garden, known as an Unexpected Garden, will be created on the harbour that brings together food, culture, ideas, and technology driven by the concept of sow, grow and share. There will be 12 unexpected gardens across Scotland including floating gardens in Falkirk and touring garden on the back of an HGV lorry in Caithness. At the heart of the project, we want to reconnect people with the food they eat, how it’s grown and show them that in the unlikeliest of places food can be grown. There will be a summer events programme which will culminate in a harvest festival in September – with the aim of re-establishing it as a cultural festival for the town.
Why we’re doing it?
Dandelion is committed to empowering young people, inspiring the creative sector and offers new opportunities for the Stranraer community – which is why we’re taking part. Working in partnership, Stranraer Development Trust and The Stove Network are proud to be part of this new initiative that’s going to get hundreds of people growing their own food across Scotland, with over 400 schools taking part and a new archive or stories about growing, gardening and the unique history and memories of the town and local traditions.
What have we planned?
Our Unexpected Garden will be a hive of activity over the summer with a range of volunteer opportunities, events, workshops, and our take on the Harvest Festival. The garden will be a fantastic opportunity for people to come and learn the basics of food growing, try their hand at gardening and become part of a vibrant community; we are looking forward to welcoming new and experienced gardeners (I include myself in the latter).
People will be able to attend our free events and workshop programme over the summer which will encompass talks, music, crafting, music, and art, as well as veggie and herb plug giveaways and vertical farms on tour. Find out more about our programme of events on our Facebook Page.
Process up until now?
Over the course of the past few months, I’ve enjoyed having the opportunity to chat with members of the community to hear what they want to get from the garden and the types of activities they’d like to see there. The garden will be a community project that will continue to evolve over the summer, and I am looking forward to watching it grow as more people visit the garden and leave their mark on it.
Part of my own personal process has involved moving up to Scotland from a small town in Leicestershire and coordinating the build of a new community garden; two things I never imagined happening in my wildest dreams; a comforting reminder that you never know what’s around the corner. I’m sure the garden will continue to remind me of that.
We’ve been lucky to have the support of Northern Lighthouse Board and CalMac who are donating old nautical items including a 27ft lifeboat and 2 big colourful ocean buoys to the garden to help us create a garden fit for a seafarer. Burns Real Ale and Dumfries & Galloway Council have kindly allowed us the space to bring the project to Stranraer and Ulsterbus, who will be providing access to water for the garden have also kindly housed 25 tonnes of soil & mulch.
The team at Dandelion are looking for passionate, reliable and enthusiastic people (Change Makers), who share the belief that people really do lead change.
If you’re passionate about community, place and planet and want to come together with like-minded people to support a programme anchored in driving positive social change, they’d love to hear from you.
Volunteer opportunities are available at the Unexpected Garden Site in Stranraer and across the other Dandelion project site throughout Scotland.
The deadline for applications is 12pm on 20th May 2022
No experience is necessary, however, there are some qualities they’re looking for:
Enthusiastic, reliable and flexible;
Friendly personality with good communication skills and initiative;
An interest in contemporary culture;
Ability to commit to a minimum of 2 x 4hr shifts at the festivals or across other public facing events
Be 18 or over
Dandelion Change Makers roles consist of four distinct areas, working alongside one another to support the Festivals and Free For All events.
Meet and Greet: these volunteers really are the face of Dandelion, they are the friendly faces from whom audiences gather programme information, highlights and guidance from the minute they enter one of our live events. The Meet and Greet team will be around to answer audience questions throughout their visit to the festival, offering insight into the programme or sign posting people to key areas of the site. Our Meet and Greet volunteers are super knowledgeable and love talking with people and supporting our audiences to have the best experience ever. So, stop by and say hello!
Event Support: these are the volunteers who support us to help things go smoothly across our events – you might find them signposting the crowd during a walkabout performance or greeting audiences when they enter the a tent for one of our performances or talks. Event Support volunteers are on hand to help our events run smoothly and efficiently, with audience experience always front and centre.
Artist Support: not always visible to the public, our Artist Support volunteers will be behind the scenes supporting the artists to make sure not only that their individual shows go smoothly, but that they get a fantastic welcome to Dandelion and the community in which our events are taking place – they are the people who ensure that our artists go home shouting about how amazing festival and our places really are!
Access: these are the volunteers who go the extra mile to make sure that visitors who may have access and or additional support needs get the most out of their visit to our events. They are able to answer all your questions and guide you to the right places at the right time to make sure that you get to experience all our performances, talks and workshops.
How to Apply
The online application form gives you the opportunity to make either a written, audio or video application. Whichever format you choose, you’ll be asked to answer the same questions. No assessment will be made of the writing style or the production quality of audio or video recordings. The application form can be found here.
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