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Big Burns Supper at the Stove

Dead Famous Carnival

Last week, The Stove Network ran as the town centre hub for this year’s Big Burns Supper Festival, hosting a variety of events over the 10 days, as well as being the base for the very first D-Lux Festival of Light.

The Big Burns Supper festivities kicked off on Sunday with the annual Carnival. This year, blueprint100 team members created giant skeletons of celebrities and artists lost in 2016. Among these were David Bowie, Prince, Muhammed Ali and Carrie Fisher.

Dead Famous Carnival

On Wednesday, we hosted ‘Being Made in Dumfries’; an opportunity to see the next crop of local creativity before anyone else as local playwrights, writers, musicians and artists presented their ‘work-in-progress’ to an audience for the first time. Martin Joseph O’Neill, writer and Curatorial Team member here at The Stove, began the evening with a discussion of his second artwork in a series entitled ‘Midnight Streetlight Smalltown Rain’; an interactive installation which ran during the week as part of the D-Lux Festival of Light.

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The following evening, Holywood actor and D&G resident Gary Lewis hosted a special screening of the blackest of Glaswegian comedies – Orphans, starring Lewis and directed by Peter Mullen. The screening was followed by a Q&A with Gary. We had a great chat including the long and circuitous route getting started in acting, the value of independent film making, the uncertain future for film making post Brexit, and the most beautiful Scottish landscapes to work in.

To conclude our week of Big Burns Supper events, the Stove’s monthly open mic night had a special edition with ‘Brave New Words for the Bard’. The night was open to writers, performers and musicians with words spoken or sung to present their work in front of a live audience. The performances ranged from Brave New Words regulars and local young musicians Kate Kyle and Elia Davidson, as well as newcomers sharing their poetry and stories. Brave New Words will return at the end of this month with a special love themed evening.

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News

Blueberry Soup’s Red Cards

As part of our ongoing Reel to Real cinema series, on Thursday 21st of April, we hosted a screening of Blueberry Soup, a documentary exploring the constitutional change in Iceland following the 2008 financial crisis, and the re-invention of democracy through the rewriting of the nations constitution.

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Following the film screening, there was a Q&A with the films director, Eileen Jerrett via Skype live from Seattle.

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The red cards had become popular during recent protests in Iceland following the Panama Papers release, and caused Eileen to begin her #messagestoIceland, sending supportive messages to those still pushing for constitutional change in the country.

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Reel to Real is our regular cinema series of issue based and topic films, followed by open discussions, workshops and food share events encouraging our audiences to engage more indepth with some of the themes and topics discussed in the films screened.

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News Project Updates

Five Great Events for the Opening of The Stove

Open House sees The Stove Network populating The Stove at 100 High Street for the first time since building works began last year. It welcomes the town and the wider network to stop by, get involved, and experience some of what we hope to bring to Dumfries’ town centre. Open House is a series of varied events designed to showcase both The Stove’s versatility as a physical space and the ambition of the project for the town centre.

We begin with the third annual Dumfries Music Conference (DMC) on 24th and 25th April. As in previous years, DMC 2015 will feature workshops, talks, film, live music, expert opinion, and creative collaboration. Through a collection of brilliant partners and guests, we hope to educate, inspire, and entertain. DMC 2015 will mark the official opening of The Stove Building at 100 High Street. In celebration of this, we are going to fill the entire building with colour, music, and people.

On 28th April, The Stove hosts Open Mouth—a day of spoken word, performance, and cooking. During the day, The Stove building will hold workshops for school students, followed by a performance workshop at 5pm. A public performance begins at 7pm, featuring Moffat-based Sarah Indigo alongside other performers from the Scottish spoken word scene, as well as young people who have attended the daytime workshops.

Open Mouth has been specially created and delivered for The Stove Network by Sarah Indigo, Eryl Shields, and Open Jar Collective.

Produced in collaboration with Wigtown Festival Company.

On 29th April, House Warming invites everyone to drop by (12:30pm–4:30pm) to explore The Stove building, have a chat, and make a T-shirt.

From 6pm, there will be a Stove Members Gathering, featuring a public bonfire and Bannock-making in the town square with Open Jar from 7:30pm.

At 7pm on Saturday, 2nd May, join us at The Stove for the public launch of HAME, an impressionistic journey through Dumfries & Galloway, voiced by those who call it home. Film, voice, field recordings, and subtle music will intermingle and connect across two floors and extend into Dumfries High Street.

HAME is a film and sound installation by artists Mark Lyken and Emma Dove, specially commissioned for the opening of The Stove at 100 High Street, Dumfries.

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Every Tuesday, starting 19th May and running until mid-June, you are invited to Drop-In @ The Stove—pop in for a brew and a blether about The Stove and the town.

What would you like to see The Stove doing? What are your ideas for the town centre? What would you like to do at The Stove? We’ll be open, and we’d love to hear your ideas! Drop-In will run from 12 noon to 6pm every Tuesday, so just drop in as you pass by.

Keep up with the latest updates on Open House via our social media on Facebook and Twitter, using #OpenHouse.

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Musings Project Updates

A Hunt for the History of 100 High Street

Following our call-out last month for a documentary filmmaker, John Wallace has been commissioned to create a short film documenting The Stove and 100 High Street as we continue to gather momentum towards the grand opening this year.

John’s proposal to explore the relationship between the building and the town as it transforms into an arts space for Dumfries has led him in search of old images of 92–102 High Street, Dumfries—and he needs your help!

The property at 96–102 High Street has housed a variety of businesses and trades over the years, including a game dealer, a fireman, several milliners, David Coltart Drapers, Reid’s Shoes, millworkers, and an umbrella maker. More recently, it was home to First and Seconds Ladieswear before becoming Happit.

However, despite hours of scouring old photo collections and online archives, only a few glimpses have surfaced—the best found in a 1956 film of Guid Nychburris Day.

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A still from and old Lyceum picturehouse feature on Guid Nychburris 1956. Watch it online here

“The front of the building kinks away from the rest of High Street by about 15 degrees,” explains filmmaker John Wallace. “So, in all your classic postcard views of the Midsteeple from the English Street end, it can’t be seen at all. Meanwhile, in views from the Midsteeple, it’s hidden by Burton’s or the coffee house that was there before.”

Can you help? If you have any photos of High Street featuring The Stove building, please get in touch with John (details below).

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Image thanks to Peter Quinn on the Old Dumfries facebook page

John is also keen to speak to people who have had a past connection to the building. Were you a taxi driver when there was a rank outside The Stove? Have you worked in—or do you know anyone who worked in—Reid’s, Coltart’s, Happit, or First and Seconds? Did you live upstairs?

If you have any stories or connections, please get in touch with John, either by phone at 07720 710 934 or by email at [email protected]

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News Project Updates

Parking Space: Level Up

From Callum Davidson

“Back in October I got the chance to take part in Parking Space set up by the Stove and Sleeping Giants. Such a great weekend meeting all the people there, having a great time skating and filming and just soaking up the good times. The whole idea that every level you went down was a new event to watch and take part in really made it for me. Here’s some stills from a video in the works from the event I filmed with Mutual Motion.”

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Watch Callum’s short film created as part of Parking Space here:

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Keep up with Callum and his film and photography work online:

Twitter: @MutualMotion

Facebook here

Tumblr: http://mutualmotion.tumblr.com/

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News Project Updates

Taxi to Dumfries?

Guest Blog Post from Emma Dove

Mark and I are about five weeks into our residency with The Stove. One London taxicab and twenty-four conversations in said taxicab later, and we’re starting to get a feel for the place…

A little bit of background on that. We had heard that The Stove was planning to hold their AGM in an underground car park… Ok then. But not just an AGM; in fact, this usually empty car park will be filled with games, projections, skateboarders, and a cinema…

Ok then…

These are the sort of wild off-hand statements that we have become accustomed to expect at Stove meetings, amongst chat of salty coos and wooden-spoon-themed offerings to gypsy kings. Hang on a minute; what’s a salty coo? Well, after a little more explanation, we are beginning to grasp the nuances of the rich, diverse and ingenious ways that The Stove Network is engaging with a town in flux and a wide geographical area with a rich and beguiling history.

We came away thinking, firstly, “These guys are bloody brilliant” and, secondly, “What can we do in an underground car park in two weeks’ time?”. As mentioned in the last blog, we wanted to find a way to start exploring the theme of human migrations and find a way to get people chatting about home—the good bits and the not-so-good bits.

What sort of warm, friendly, and familiar space could we create within an underground car park? The sort of space where people feel happy to open up and chat? The sort of space where we can set up all of our kit and record these conversations in an unobtrusive way? The sort of space that somehow keys in with the themes of “home” and of “travel”…?

A mad week of logistical grafting later and the taxicab arrived, driven all the way up from Chingford in Essex by a lovely chap called Wullie J, and was given a whirlwind makeover in time for its Parking Space debut.

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We weren’t sure what to expect, both of the wider Parking Space event and our small part within it. We agreed we would be happy if five or six people came in for a chat and so were absolutely delighted to have a total of 24 folks through the shiny black doors within two days, each with their own different story to tell. Each visitor marked the places that they spoke about on a map of Dumfries & Galloway, and we plan to follow up some of these places to film during our residency.

In terms of the wider event, the space was bubbling with activity as curious visitors slowly made their way down through each level of the car park, lured by the unusual sounds that ricocheted and tumbled together through the space, invitations to street games, dancing lights and projections upon pillars and walls, not to mention the people hurling themselves into the air mounted upon small wooden chariots (skateboards). A feast for the senses.

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A few of our visitors in the Gab Cab

To be privy to the AGM side of things was also fantastic for us. The personal value that everyone present felt for the organisation (and for each other’s work) was palpable, much of which was expressed through talks and images and emerged further through the public art discussion facilitated by Dot to Dot Active Arts and The Open Jar Collective, fittingly chatted over a plate of hot stovies and a glass of wine. A really valuable evening to be a part of.

We’ve lots of ideas and inspiration to explore over the next few months, and we are planning an artist talk in December to share some of these. We will also be talking about some of our work to date, sharing some of our “Hame” work in progress (including some Parking Space rushes…) and screening our previous film, Mirror Lands.

Details to follow shortly.

Gab Cab photo © Galina Walls

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