Categories
Musings News Project Updates

Year in Reflection

What has The Stove achieved over the last year?

2022 was an exciting year for us here at The Stove. From developing new projects, expanding and delivering ongoing ones and growing opportunities for creatives in the region, we’re immensely proud of the team, and so thankful for the continued support of our members, customers, communities and partners, all of whom have played a part in the story of The Stove.

Looking back at all the fantastic things the Stove team have accomplished from April 22’ to March 23’, we asked our team to reflect on their highlights of the year:

Saying Hello and Goodbye

From April 2022 onwards, we had a year of providing opportunities at the Stove. During this time, we awarded the total value of £237 537 of contracts to people, 56% of which were under 25 and 86% were local.

We said goodbye to two members of staff this year who have left to grow and complete projects and career goals of their own, Edith and Beth. We said hello to five members of new staff over the course of the year. This year we were fortunate to work with a brilliant new team of Creative Spacers; Alice, Emma and Morgan, and we said hello to two new members of our comms team; WWDN Content Creator Malcolm, and Marketing Assistant Erin. Last year we also welcomed our community events producers, who have been supporting Open Hoose; Leanne & Mia. You can learn more about our team via our The Stove Team page. Our Production lead, Sal Cuddihy, shared the following thoughts about our producers;

“Its’ been an absolute pleasure having Leanne and Mia join our team this year to pilot a Creative Event Producer program, they both have done some amazing things this year, working with a wide range of communities to deliver events. Now with Meg as our newest edition to the production family, I’m super proud of them all!”

Sal Cuddihy (Production Lead) on our Community Event Producers

22/23 Projects at The Stove

Open Hoose

Open Hoose is a project at the heart of the Stove’s community venue. Ideas are given the space, time, resources and support of the Stove Network to launch ambitious projects to galvanise and gather our communities together.

The projects that have been nurtured through our Open Hoose programme this year have been; Doughlicious, Free Improvisation, Queer Club, The Hoose, WRITE!, Climate Kitchen, Nith Life, Doongamers and Repair Shop.

Our Community Events Producers shared the following about their involvement with Open Hoose: 

“My Highlight of last year was watching community groups grow through our Open Hoose program in numbers and ambitions throughout the year.”

Leanne Bradwick (Community Events Producer)

Working on Open Hoose events makes you realise what’s possible when you empower the community to take a lead in local programming. The possibilities are endless and the impact this has had on individuals and the wider community has been invaluable.

Mia Osborne (Creative Spaces & Community Events Producer)

You can read more about Open Hoose HERE.

High Street Multiverse

High Street Multiverse is a digital, public art project run by the Stove Network, supported by Dumfries & Galloway Unlimited. This project saw different QR codes being stationed at different points on Dumfries High Street with different content to access when scanned.

You can find out more about High Street Multiverse here.

Brave New Words

Brave New Words continued throughout 2022, before coming to a bittersweet ending. Brave New Words was the Stove’s monthly open mic night for writers, artists, musicians and songwriters to share words spoken or sung to an audience in the heart of the town centre. 

“Brave New Words – I cried, I laughed, I contemplated and I was inspired!'”

Lindsey Smith (Finance & Operations Manager)

You can read about Brave New Words HERE.

It sadly saw its last hurrah but keep an eye out on our programme to see any future developments

WWDN & kNOw One Place

2022 was a big year for WWDN – our creative placemaking network. WWDN supports partnerships between artists and community organisations across Dumfries & Galloway, co-creating with local communities to develop new projects, local plans, training, and enterprise. 

Kathryn Wheeler, our WWDN Project Lead shared the following about the previous year.

“Last year has been one full of changes, as most are in both the areas of community and cultural working. The focus of my work has grown more and more towards the development the What We Do Now project, working with the team here, and the community organisations involved, to shape a network that can support creative projects to emerge from communities across the region with the aim of starting new and inspiring things in those places. A highlight for me was September, when we were able to stage Scotland’s first ever Creative Placemaking forum, welcoming artists, community groups, policy-makers, funders, to share their ideas on the value of this work and the impact it could have for our communities if properly supported. For me it really highlighted how our small corner of the world is punching way above its weight.”

Katherine Wheeler (Partnerships & Project Development)

Malcolm Struthers our WWDN Content Creator shared the following thoughts about their involvement with WWDN last year,

“It has been a pleasure to help share the story of What We Do Now, and how it has grown and developed over the past year. In particular to help showcase the variety of activities that have taken place across the region, in the communities that are part of this ground-breaking initiative.

Malcolm Struthers (WWDN Content Creator)

KNOONE Place took place in Dumfries in September 2022 and was an ambitious, future-thinking discussion on how communities can use creativity to lead the development of their places. 

You can read KNOONE Place HERE, and you can visit the WWDN website HERE.

Nithraid

A highlight in our calendar every year, Nithraid returned with a splash in in 2022. Nithriad Festival celebrates and explores Dumfries’ long relationship with its river and its importance to people and the communities it connects in the past, present and future.

Each year we hold a River Race to celebrate our heritage and connection to the Nith. The 2022 race was saturated in sunshine and saw lots of people venture along the Nith.

Production Lead Sal shared the following about last years race;

“Now part of the fixtures for coastal rowing and canoing we had over 40 different vessels competing on the river Nith, that and the weather being in our favour for a change, saw the river the busiest it has ever been with competitors and was incredible to see.”

Sal Cuddihy (Production Lead)

You can read more about Nithraid here, and follow the Nithraid Instagram account here.

Public Art

2022 was also a big year for Public Arts. Public Art activity at the Stove supports core programming with additional activities exploring temporary or permanent uses in public space, as well as offering support to external projects such as the fountain project. From the Progressive Seagull Alliance (yet to be trademarked but watch this space), to the beginning of the Fountain Restoration project, a wealth a public art projects have been carried out across the year. 

Reel to Real Cinema delivered monthly screenings of cinematic gems. From documentary to artists made shorts, independent to international film. We aim to bring people together to share food, film and discussion. Katie, our public art lead shared the following about Reel to Real, 

“In August we hosted a special screening of Long Live My Happy Head with the filmmakers, Gordon Shaw and friends. Gordon left a truly inspirational mark on all of us and I feel privileged to have been able to host the space. And just last month, we hosted a screening of [BREATHE] from Orchestras Live in the Dock Park bandstand, which felt like a such a good opportunity to experience film together in an unexpected setting.”

Katie Anderson (Public Art Lead)

Conversing Building exhibitions in the café this year have included work from Access Art, Holywood Primary School and HMP Dumfries in collaboration with Alice Myers. 

Wild Goose Festival

The Wild Goose Festival returned, bigger and better as ever. The week-long festival weaves art, culture, and nature together through a series of activities from interactive storytelling, nature walks, conversations to performances and creative workshops for all the family. 

“Wild Goose Festival welcomed 3000 visitors across 35 events at multiple venues throughout Dumfries and Galloway. The festival is co-designed and delivered in partnership with over 20 local and regional organisations, and is a platform to explore nature, creativity and place through celebrating the inspirational migration of 6 species of geese into D&G each year.”

Graham Rooney (General Manager & WGF Project Lead)

“My standout moment of last year was the successful launch of the Wild Goose Festival website. It was months of planning, collaboration, geese, and hard work. I’m very proud of what we achieved.”

Robbie Henderson (IT Coordinator)

Solway to Svalbard, an immersive, multi-artform response to the spring migration or barnacle geese launched in 2022. Created by composer Stuart Macphearson, filmmaker Emma Dove and sound recordist Pete Smith, this unique piece of theatre brought together original music with cinematic visuals, evocative soundscapes, and live storytelling.

You can visit the Wild Goose Festival here.

Dandelion

The Stove Network and Stranraer Development Trust (SDT) partnered with Dandelion, to create the Unexpected Garden at Burns House in Stranraer. Led locally by, Emerging Creative Producer, Bethany Piggott who worked with both the partners and community to deliver the project.

Stove Orchestrator Matt Baker shared the following thoughts about what was happening in Stranraer last year,

“The Stove project that gave me the shivers this year was the Harvest Festival in the Unexpected Garden in Stranraer, it had all the classic ingredients to transform a place into something exciting and gathering people from all walks of life to come together and celebrate their community and their love of their town.”

Matt Baker (Orchestrator)

Read more about Dandelion here.

Creative Spaces

Fuelled by experimentation and play, Creative Spaces is predominantly about working collaboratively to engage, inspire, provoke and provide both experiences and opportunities for young people in Dumfries & Galloway. 

Creative Spacer Producer Mia shared the following about the 22/23 Creative Spaces achievments: 

“If there’s one thing this years Creative Spaces team did with bells on, it was engagement. From Dundee to Stranraer, Wester Hailes to Caerlaverock, the team have engaged with a plethora of community groups, organisations, charities and people in order to build a larger picture of what the creative industries looks like in not only D&G but the whole of Scotland and to inspire wins from other places here in Dumfries. The associates have engaged with young people from across the region championing the creative industries whilst also engaging with our board and membership to inform proactive change internally from the perspective of young creatives.”

Mia Osborne (Creative Spaces and Community Events Producer)

You can read more about Creative Spaces HERE

It’s true that ‘the people make the place’, particularly when talking about the team here at The Stove. Working with such a talented and dedicated team is a joy, and I cant wait to see what we achieve together over 2023.

Kevin Stewart (Head of Communication & Engagement)

Looking forward…

You can find out more about each of our ongoing projects here, and you can look at the the work we have completed over previous years in our archive here.

We have events at the Stove all year round! You can check out our current event programme here.


Nithraid River Race 2023

September 2 @ 12:30 pm 3:30 pm

Nithraid is back! Join us on the river and battle it our for the best time. Sailing, Rowing , Kayaks and other water vessels welcome!

The Nith is a tidal river that runs through the historic market town of Dumfries, connecting the town to the sea, which in the 18th century saw the town and its neighbouring villages of Glencaple and Kingholm Quay become Scotland’s largest and busiest trading ports.

To celebrate this rich history, we hold an annual River Race, which sees teams of coastal rowers, sailing boats and various person-powered vessels race the river, battling for the best time with each boat carrying a cargo that was traded in those times.

The river’s importance to Dumfries as the region’s largest market town is immortalised in the Nithraid logo. Our festival mascot, ‘Salty Coo’ symbolises the historic journey made by herds of cattle, led by their farmers, across the river at low tide, from Maxwelltown on the west bank to the cattle market at Whitesands on the east side of the river. This historic crossing site now marks the half-way point of the Nithraid River Race.

Please read the following notes and race rules as you will be required to declare that you have read the race rules and notes and agreed to comply with them when when booking your ticket.

Course Notes and Race Rules

Date: Saturday 2nd September 2023Course: Glencaple to Mill Green, Dumfries and back. Pre-race brief: Glencaple – venue TBCStart time: 1300 BST (+ or – 0.30) Entry fee: £15 per boat.Classes: Unrestricted sailing dinghy race. Coastal Rowing Assoc. St Ayles Skiffs.Racing KayaksOther watercraftHW Dumfries: 1430hrs. BST

Course:The 2023 Nithraid is a River Race in two parts over a navigable section of the river Nith between Glencaple and Dumfries. Final details of the start procedure will be given at the pre-race briefing. Please refer to the maps posted on the Stove/Nithraid website

Part 1. Glencaple to Dumfries

Start: 1300 (or later) at Start Line, Lifeboat Station.

Finish: Dumfries Finish Line, between Mill Green Dumfries and Whitesands steps.

Interval for Picnic Lunch on Mill green

Part 2. Dumfries to Glencaple.

Start: 1500 approx. Dumfries Finish Line 

Finish: Start Line, Glencaple Lifeboat Station

Notes: Nithraid is a celebration of the river Nith in the life of the community and a regular racing fixture on the national calendar. Please tell everyone you know who may be interested in taking part to contact the organisers. 

Race start & times: Because of the strength of the flood tide the start will be a staggered running start with a time taken as each boat crosses the start and finish lines. Details will be confirmed at the briefing. Times below are for guidance. Crews should arrive with enough time to prepare their boats for racing, leave them at the slipway then attend the briefing where numbers and other details will be given out.

Approx. start times

Sailing vessels: 1300 Others: 1300Coastal Rowing Assoc: 1315Racing Kayaks: 1330Return – All vessels: 1500 (at your discretion)

Distance, tide and wind:The distance is 5.25 miles each way. The race will be with the tide in both directions but, please note, one leg is likely to be against the wind. 

With the wind assisting it will take sailing boats about 1 hour. Against the wind it could take 2 hours. Normal winds in August are SW. The incoming tide can be quite strong at Glencaple, care must be taken when launching.

Winner:There will be an overall winner in each class: sailing, coastal rowing, kayak and other, based on their aggregated times, up and downstream. A timetable will be published so that crews can also see their split times. Boats will be given cargoes at the briefing which they will carry from Glencaple to Dumfries. To complete the first leg of the race cargoes must be deposited at the stakeboat on the Dumfries finish line. 

Prize-giving at the Barbour Hall after the race.

Safety:Boat crews must wear buoyancy aids while on the water. There will be safety boats in attendance. A competing boat shall give all possible help to any person or vessel in danger in the absence of a safety boat.

Bridges:There are three bridges on the course, the clearance under the lowest is about 14ft. in the centre of the span. Sailing vessels with an air-draft of anything approaching this will have to lower their masts, or capsize, to get under them. A Mirror dinghy, for instance, can get under by dipping the gunter, but a GP14 must lower its mast.

Anyone who has not taken part before and needs information or guidance about this, please contact [email protected]

Trophies:Would last year’s trophy winners please return them. They have every chance of winning them again this year 

Nithraid Racing Rules: 

General: There are likely to be concentrations of competing boats at the start, finish and at bridges. The river is a restricted space so please let common sense and good sportsmanship prevail. Normal racing rules apply and:1. When in proximity to sailing vessels, all other boats are considered as ‘powered’ and must give way if on closing courses.2. All vessels approaching each other on reciprocal courses must pass, port-to-port.

Sailors: There are no marks on the course. 

1. Normal racing rules apply between sailing boats.

2. A sailing boat being passed by a powered vessel must not change course unless tacking of necessity, and if so, shall hail or signal the overtaking boat of its intention to tack in advance.

3. A sailing boat overtaking a powered boat may pass either side and must hail them in advance.

4. A sailing boat that is rowing will become a powered vessel while rowing.

Coastal Rowing and Other boats: 

1. Boats may pass either side of each other. An overtaking boat must hail the boat ahead in advance. 2. A boat being overtaken must not alter course to avoid or block being passed. 

£15 Per boat

Choose your relevant category from the options below: Coastal Rowing OR Sailing & Other Vessels

OPEN HOOSE – Nith Life

March 28 @ 6:00 pm 8:00 pm

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 rive Nith.

The Stove Cafe will be open for pre-event food and drinks from 5.30pm, the event will start at 6pm sharp.

100 High Street
Dumfries, DG1 2BJ United Kingdom
01387 252435
View Venue Website


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
.

Categories
News Opportunities Project Updates

Nithraid River Race 2022

Nithraid River Race is back for another year!

On Saturday 13th August 2022, teams of intrepid sailors and coastal rowers are invited to take to the Nith in their vessels to race from Glencaple to Dumfries and back, battling it out for the best time.

Where did it all begin?

Our River Nith connects us all in Nithsdale. Nithraid Festival celebrates and explores our town’s long relationship with the river and its importance to the people and communities it connects – be that the past, present or communities of the future.

Nithraid 2018

The Nith is a tidal river that runs through the historic market town of Dumfries, connecting the town to the sea. In the 18th century, the town and its neighbouring villages of Glencaple and Kingholm Quay became Scotland’s largest and busiest trading ports.

To celebrate this rich history, we hold an annual River Race, which sees teams of coastal rowers, sailing boats and various person-powered vessels race the river, battling for the best time as they make their way to the finish line.

Nithraid 2021

Why take part?

Nithraid is a fun-filled and action-packed event with great memories to be made for those who take part as well as those who watch the race unfold. After all, the race itself isn’t always straight forward! 

Sal Cuddihy, Head of Production for The Stove Network explains what makes Nithraid special:

“It’s great to see the diverse range of boats involved in the race… we’ve got four different categories of race entry, from sailboats, coastal rowing skiffs, rowing skulls and miscellaneous vessels too. Because of the mix of all the different types of boats, they all come in at different times which is so exciting to watch as they battle against each other to move up the river on the tide…

Nithraid 2015

…it’s especially fun to watch them move with the tidal bore as it adds that extra element of challenge. Sometimes, if they don’t get up the river quick enough, it gets harder for them to move with the water as the tide moves back up towards the sea. All these components make the river race a really fun and engaging spectacle – and there’s always an unexpected event, which usually provides some great entertainment!”

Nithraid 2015

If you like a challenge, fancy a day of fun on the Nith and want to get involved, enter the race!

“The River Nith is a defining natural dynamic of our area, and Nithraid is a wonderful celebration of it. The race, over the navigable length of the tidal reach from Glencaple to Dumfries, is open to any non-motorised craft and makes a great spectacle especially from the bridges, and is excellent fun for participants.”
 – River Race Producer, Mark Zygadlo

Nithraid 2016

Applications to enter this year’s Nithraid River Race are now open. Whether you’re a team of coastal rowers, a sailing crew or a single skiff, this is your opportunity to join the Nithraid community and take part in Nithraid 2022!

Categories
News Project Updates

Nithraid 2021

Wow… can you believe it’s been two weeks since Nithraid 2021?!

It was a spirit-filled, action-packed day, with lots to do and enjoy despite the wet weather!

We’re so pleased that everyone who took part in the river race was able to do so safely, braving the elements to give us a race to remember.

We also had some great activities taking place at Mill Green, with help from Dumfries Fountain Project, Creative Spaces, TS Beall, Heather Molloy of PAMIS and Simon Lidwell of Wordsmithcrafts.

It was brilliant to see some old friends and new faces taking part in the river race and visiting Mill Green, which really put into perspective how fortunate we were to finally be able to facilitate the race after a long, two-year wait. 

“Nithraid this year was a triumph in the face of the double adversities of Covid and the weather, we had a record turnout of boats and all the participants, as ever, were thrilled by the unique experience of journeying up our beautiful river on a big tide. The current context meant that we reached out wider than ever before through digital platforms meaning that people who cannot normally attend the event were brought into the heart of things – we also catered for people with multiple additional support needs and the D/deaf community with activities on site…”

Heather Molloy (PAMIS) as The Spirit of the Nith
Simon Lidwell (Wordsmithcrafts) as The River Rambler

…Nithraid is about bringing people together to celebrate the role of our River Nith in the town and region The Stove continues to find new ways to fulfil this mission and open up the fun to everyone in our community, demonstrating that community spirit for our visitors.”Matt Baker, Orchestrator

We’d like to say a huge, special thanks to the following individuals and groups who helped us to bring together Nithraid 2021:

All our partners and funders, as always, for their support: Historic Environment Scotland, Creative Scotland and Dumfries and Galloway Council

Mark Zygadlo, as always, for ongoing support with organising and facilitating Nithraid

Hamish Denerley for lead commentary during our livestream
Winston Denerley for BSL interpretation and livestream commentary

BattleStations for their technological support and facilitating our livestream

Heather Molloy from PAMIS Scotland and Simon Lidwell of Wordsmith Crafts for their immersive and tactile storytelling and performance of Source to Sea

Dumfries Fountain Project for their creative workshops

TS Beall, in collaboration with the Scottish Showpeople, for the informative and insightful signposting around the history of the suspension bridge

PAMIS for the supply of the ‘Changing Places’ toilet, helping us to provide accessible facilities at Mill Green

Only Foods and Sauces for providing on-site refreshments at Mill Green

Our volunteers for providing help on the day – you’re stars!

Barbour Hall at Glencaple for giving us a dry, warm place to brief and prepare all those involved in the race

Annan Harbour Action Group and their safety boats for ensuring the safety of those involved in the race

Andy Jardine for the beautiful on-site photography at Glencaple and Mill Green

…and last, but definitely not least, a HUGE thank you to all that made the race possible by taking part and those who joined us at Mill Green or tuned in to our livestream. 

It’s safe to say Nithraid’s return this year was a success, and we’re so excited for what’s to come in Nithraid’s future.

From all at The Stove Network, thank you, stay safe and have fun out there!

Until next time.

#Nithraid2021

Categories
Musings

Source to Sea: A Reflection

Post by Nithraid Producer, Sal Cuddihy

Nithraid River Festival has been running as an annual event for the past eight years and I have had the absolute privilege of being the producer for the last five of them.  Last year’s event saw flood, rain and high winds pushing our team to the limit with adapting last minute to still deliver as much of the event as we physically could. After 2019 we thought, “Well, we’re not going to get anything more difficult than that”. Boy, were we wrong.

When the news hit in March that the entire world was under threat from a global pandemic, we were left with complete uncertainty and dread – much like the rest of the world. What is this thing? Are people going to be safe? How long will it last? When did lockdown and furlough become common words that we use in almost every conversation?

It became apparent very quickly to our team that even though the festival was scheduled to be in August, there was a high chance that the event would have either have to be cancelled completely or we were going to have to try and adapt the festival to a digital format – so we decided to flip Nithraid on its head. We looked at the core values of the festival and the reasons why we do it and who do we do it for?


To cut a long story short – we came to the conclusion that we do it to celebrate the River Nith. We celebrate its history and uses, we celebrate its beauty and we use it to inspire our creativity. We use it to teach our children about the wildlife and environment (special mention goes out to Huffy the Heron!) – but most of all we use it to connect with communities. With all of this in mind, we created the Nith inspired ‘Source to Sea’ project, exploring not just Dumfries but the entire River Nith and the communities that it travels through. Throughout lockdown, it was obvious we were on the right path as all over social media people were photographing the river on their daily walks and were appreciating it as they never had before.

Once we had a concept, the challenging part was trying to figure out how we were going to share all of these elements of the river as well as creating and sharing activities for families and children who were finding themselves stuck at home with little to do. We were delighted to have one of our fantastic funders, the Holywood Trust, on board with our reimagined River Festival. The Holywood Trust were a huge support to Nithraid and our entire team throughout the whole project, and we wouldn’t have been able to do this without them – thank you! This scale of online activity was very much new territory but I have the privilege to work with much more tech savvy individuals than myself and we were able to come together to figure out how to present our festival online. I think as it stands, we are now in Version 652 of the project as it turns out there was more than one problem that arose on a very regular basis. I give them all my love and respect for not running away at Version 150 (I will do the embarrassing shout out at the end!)

As we come to the end of our journey, we’ll be pulling all over the research together and sharing it with you in a beautifully designed map, created for us by local artists and graphic designer, Jamie Stryker. This map is the culmination of everyone’s incredibly hard work over the past 6 months. We’ll also be sharing Hugh McMillan’s lovely Source to Sea poem, where he has a dedicated verse for each area that we explored.

One of the hardest things about the lockdown was the difficulty in being able to research and that we were unable to reach out communities and go out and explore. But now we have information, footage and stories about the River Nith that you can use to learn about these communities yourself. I hope the project does what we set out to do and celebrates the river that connects us and brought so many people a sense of calm in amongst the chaos.

Big shout out time!

And a special thanks to Derry and Greg from BattleStations who trekked through the Carsphairn hills with  a lot of kit to try and find footage of the source of the Nith – which turns out wasn’t where I told them, sorry! You got the shot though!

All of those that took the time to chat to us as we were researching the content. One of my favourite moments was when Bob Clements told us the story of the Thornhill’s Rock Festival on the back of a lorry that was plugged into a house!

Finally, a massive thank you to the team that has held this all together. You have done so much more than these basic titles I have written but I have rambled enough and don’t want you thinking I have gone soft.

  • Rob Henderson – web design and master of tech-like witchcraft
  • Kirstin McEwan – marketing and social media queen that makes this stuff look easy!! It’s not!
  • Ruaridh Thi- Smith – project support and all round support to my sanity.
  • Liam Morrison- Gale – community lead & ultimate research Jedi Master
  • Jamie Stryker – Graphic designer and hero that makes the best maps in the whole wide world!
  • Martin O’Neil – Programmer, Word Wizard and keeper of the creativity.
  • Graham Rooney –  Stove Project manager and dude that keeps every single one of us from spontaneous combustion.

Thank you all! All the best,

Sal Cuddihy
Nithraid Producer

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