We’re excited to announce that In Our Region is coming to life as a pop-up exhibition in The Stove Network in Dumfries. Through open conversations and powerful image-based storytelling, the project connected with four young people from across the region to explore identity, belonging, lived experience, and what young people truly need from the places they call home.
Join us at The Stove Network, 100 High Street, Dumfries
Tuesday 7th April, 5.30pm – 7.30pm
The exhibition will feature: • Photography by Rhys Robert Thomson • Interviews with Jamie Morrison, Adam Molyneux, Eden Beck, and Josh White • Perspectives from Sanquhar, Whithorn, Annan, and Kirkcudbright • FREE refreshments • Space for conversation and connection
This is more than an exhibition, it’s a chance to listen, reflect, and celebrate the voices shaping our region’s future.
Over the past few months, bold, colourful posters have been appearing across Dumfries and Galloway.
Communities become connected. Streets become stories. Pathways become possibilities.
They’ve been visible in bus shelters, shop windows, public spaces and community venues across the region.
These posters are part of Moving Stories, a region-wide creative campaign led by The Stove Network. Designed to spark curiosity as an invitation to pause during everyday journeys and reflect on how we move.
What Is Moving Stories?
Moving Stories is a region-wide creative campaign celebrating the everyday journeys that connect communities across Dumfries and Galloway.
It is developed and delivered by The Stove Network — a Dumfries-based creative placemaking organisation working across the region — and supported by Dumfries and Galloway Council as part of a wider programme of transport improvements.
Every journey is part of something bigger. From the first step to the final stop, movement connects us to place, to people and to possibility. Walking to school, wheeling to see a pal, taking the bus to work — these are the movements that shape how we live, connect and belong.
Applying The Stove Network’s Creative Placemaking approach at a regional scale, Moving Stories brings people together around active and sustainable travel — focusing on how and why people move, as well as the routes, services and transport networks they already use. The campaign also explores new opportunities as they emerge through lived experience, local identity and shared stories.
Since launching on 1st December, Moving Stories has shared films, conversations and creative moments that reflect how everyday movement is happening across the region. It has built relationships with partners and communities, launched a public survey, and begun gathering real-life stories of travel in Dumfries and Galloway.
The posters are visible markers of that ongoing work.
Why Here, Why Now?
Dumfries and Galloway Council is delivering a £15.6 million programme of transport improvements designed to support more “joined-up journeys” across the region — bringing new active and sustainable transport options to communities, making greener transport more accessible, and strengthening the existing transport network.
This includes:
Multi-Modal Transport Hubs Making it easier to switch between walking, cycling, buses and electric vehicles.
Bus Improvements Joined-up improvements across the network, including new electric buses, real-time passenger information and enhanced waiting facilities — improving reliability, accessibility and passenger experience.
Cycle Infrastructure Improvements Supporting everyday journeys and leisure use, strengthening local connections and visitor access.
This programme strengthens the region’s transport infrastructure, creates new opportunities for joined-up journeys and improved connectivity, and supports access to work, education, healthcare and community life — making everyday travel easier.
Moving Stories responds by bringing these changes into public view — highlighting positive, real-life stories from people who use the existing transport network in their day-to-day lives: a bus journey to work, a bike ride to college, wheeling to see a pal or walking along familiar routes.
By sharing these lived experiences, the campaign builds awareness and understanding of how active and sustainable travel supports everyday life across Dumfries and Galloway — helping us get where we need to go.
The phrases you are seeing — Communities become connected. Streets become stories. Pathways become possibilities — are reminders that movement is not only about routes and services, but about connection, identity and shared experience.
When people move, places connect.
What’s Next?
Across nine communities, The Stove is working with local groups, creative practitioners and partners to develop place-specific creative interventions that explore how movement shapes daily life.
From sonic walking trails and youth-led biking projects to short films, public installations, workshops and story-gathering events, each intervention reflects local identity while connecting into the wider regional programme of transport improvements.
Creative Placemaking in Action
This is The Stove’s creative placemaking practice at work — embedding creativity within everyday places and relationships, creating visible moments that help people recognise how joined-up journeys function in real life, and opening up conversation about how we move now and how we might move in the future.
Moving Stories is underpinned by a legacy-focused approach that encourages longer-term thinking beyond the initial creative interventions. Ideas, relationships and projects that emerge through this work are offered follow-on support through capacity building, skills development and tailored advice around accessibility, partnership working and future resourcing, where this is useful and timely for local partners.
By connecting activity across communities through a shared regional narrative, the programme strengthens collaboration between places and supports the gradual development of regional networks. In this way, Moving Stories positions active and sustainable travel not only as infrastructure, but as a catalyst for ongoing connection, wellbeing and community-led change across Dumfries and Galloway.
Coming Soon
On Monday 23rd February, the next Moving Stories film will premiere — focusing on bus travel and the role it plays in connecting communities across the region.
New films, stories and creative work from across the nine communities will continue to unfold in the coming weeks.
Moving Stories is a region-wide creative campaign developed by The Stove Network, supported by Dumfries and Galloway Council, and funded by the UK Government.
We have 3 roles available this year, each with a different focus.
Location: The Stove, Dumfries Application Deadline: 12 pm (noon) on Friday, 6th March
The Roles
Wild Goose Festival:
This role is for someone interested in wildlife, ecology and the natural world, and curious about how art and culture can engage with environmental issues. A background or interest in writing or storytelling, performance, music or sound might suit this role.
You’ll develop a creative line of work connected to the Wild Goose Festival, working with creative practitioners, partners and young people throughout the year. This role will contribute creatively to the development of outreach and education programmes in schools, with partners and with the programming & delivery team for Wild Goose Festival.
This role suits someone who cares deeply about the natural world, who has a passion for inspiring the imaginations of young people and families, and can work effectively as part of a team.
What We Do Now
This role is ideal for someone with a strong connection to Dumfries & Galloway beyond Dumfries town centre, and an interest in public art, social geography and local decision-making. A background or interest in socially-engaged practice might suit this role.
Embedded within the What We Do Now programme, you’ll explore creative placemaking as a practical way of working — collaborating with communities and contributing to projects rooted in real places.
This role suits someone who has exceptional communication skills, can listen deeply and let that listening inform a creative process. You should enjoy working with others and building relationships.
The Print House
This role is for someone with an interest in print, creative writing, design, illustration or comics.
You’ll learn how The Stove’s Print House operates, work alongside the development of community programmes from concept through to delivery, whilst growing your creative practice. You’ll work particularly closely with the Off the Margin programme, supporting creative projects with marginalised and under-represented communities.
This role suits someone who enjoys making, learning by doing, and using creativity to widen access and participation.
Rate of Pay and Conditions
Pay range £753.20per month. 14 hours per week (2 Days). One day in the office, working with other associates, with the second day being more flexible.
How to Apply
Feel free to be creative with your application; have fun! We will accept any of the following formats:
• Covering Letter (no more than 500 words)
• Video (no more than 3mins)
• Voice note
Answering the question “Why do you feel that a Creative Spaces Associate role is the right opportunity for you right now?”
Please specify which of the three Associate Roles (WWDN, Wild Goose Festival or Print House) you feel would be the best fit, and why. Please note that we will consider your application for all 3 positions, but it’s useful to know what your preference is. You can include in your application an idea for a specific project – workshop, event, creative output – which would link to one of the specific roles.
Please make sure that you include a CV or text sheet with your name, contact details and up to 5 examples of recent work (this could be images, videos or write-ups).
Please submit your application by email to [email protected] (max file size of 10MB) with the heading ‘Creative Spaces Associate’
For more information about the opportunities, check out the linked document here:
We are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible programme for everyone. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and experiences, and are happy to discuss any access requirements or adjustments needed to support people to apply and participate fully. Applicants will be invited to complete an Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form, collected anonymously to help us monitor and improve inclusion across our work.
This Midwinter, we invite you to experience something truly special along the Dumfries riverfront. From the 15th – 17th January, The Stove Network will present Phanto Spectra, a free immersive audio-visual journey that brings new light to one of the town’s most fascinating, and often overlooked, cultural histories: the legacy of Scotland’s Travelling Showpeople.
Over the past two years, our team has been working closely with local partners and with members of the Showpeople community, whose traditions of illusion, spectacle and early entertainment run deep through Dumfries. Their influence stretches from historic fairs and ghost-show performances to the beginnings of cinema itself. Phanto Spectra is our way of honouring that heritage while inviting audiences to see the riverside in an entirely new way.
Martin Joseph O’Neill, The Stove Network Artistic Director, shares:
“Phanto Spectra is a bold new direction for The Stove – an experiment in technology but also a continuation of our commitment to honour the stories that shape this place. The Showpeople of Scotland are a lineage, a bloodline back to the earliest forms of immersive entertainment. This project celebrates that legacy while also telling a wider story about our town – its memories, its connections and the generations who have lived alongside the fair and will continue to do so.”
Using original binaural sound design, theatrical light and carefully crafted scenic elements, the experience invites visitors to explore a dreamlike environment where traces of the historic Rood and Spring Fairs subtly re-emerge. The riverbanks become a space where memory, atmosphere and storytelling intertwine, offering a reflective and imaginative encounter with the past.
Developed with local artists and presented as part of our ongoing Hear Here programme, Phanto Spectra also responds to the present moment. As Dumfries continues to transform through major flood defence developments, the work reflects on how the riverfront shapes our collective identity and how it might continue to do so in the future.
Phanto Spectra is free, accessible and open to all, with pre-bookable time slots available.
We look forward to welcoming you to this unique exploration of history, place and creative innovation.
Exhibition dates: 21st November – 21st December 2024
We’re inviting artists, makers, and creatives of all kinds from Dumfries & Galloway to showcase your talent in our cosy Stove Café this festive season. Whether you’re a painter, printmaker, jeweller, or craftsperson—this is your chance to share (and sell!) your work as part of our Midwinter Exhibition.
From unique artworks and handcrafted items to festive cards, decorations, and creative twists on holiday traditions—we welcome it all. This is an opportunity to brighten the season with your creations while supporting local artists in the lead-up to the holidays.
Our Midwinter Exhibition will run from Thursday, 21st November to Saturday, 21st December, with pieces available for purchase during our regular cafe hours (Monday–Saturday, 9am–3pm).
How To Submit Artwork:
Artists may submit up to a maximum of two artworks per person.
2D artworks should not exceed 60cm in any direction, and 3D artworks should not exceed 30cm in any direction.
Artworks must be dropped off during one of our scheduled drop off dates (see below), or by appointment only
Artists must complete a contacts form before leaving any artworks. These will be available during our scheduled drop off dates or by emailing [email protected].
Any unsold artworks must be collected on Monday 6th January 2025.
Artwork Drop Off Dates: Artworks can be dropped off on the 18th and 19th November, between 11am-5pm.
*Conversing Building is an ongoing project at The Stove, that looks to activate spaces around The Stove through a variety of visual and public art projects and displays. For more info on the project visit our project page here.
Maya was recommissioned for Phase 2 of the Harbour project in July-November 2024 to continue their creative engagement process toward developing a community design concept for the new piece of dredged land within the Waterfront re-development. Alongside gathering local insight for the co-design process, Maya hosted a programme of events and engagement at Creative Stranraer to test ideas and continue engaging people in the creative vision for the future of the town under the regeneration. Visit Harbour Project Phase 2 Blog Update 1 here to read the first chapter of Maya’s journey.
Harbourland is an Opportunity to Make a Whole New Part of Stranraer.
As part of the process of extending the marina, some dredging must take place to make Loch Ryan deep enough for larger sailing boats. Within the plans for One Waterfront a new area of land will be created next to the East Pier using the material dredged from the loch. I’ve been working with local people to imagine what this new area of land could be:
‘The safest harbour is a world between land and sea. Harbourland is an ecosystem – a place to witness and protect many forms of life and provide a space for them to survive, thrive and connect with one another. It is place that belongs to everyone and somewhere that will show the best of Stranraer to visitors. Harbourland asks: ‘how can we act like the oyster and build an area that benefits both people and the coastal biodiversity? What are the types of ‘surfaces’ that communities in Stranraer can attach to and make their own?’
Harbourland Polling Station Results
If you came down and joined the thousands of tourists and celebrators at this year’s annual Oyster Festival, you may have come across the Harbourland polling station. As mentioned in the previous update, Oyster shells were historically used as the first ever ‘ballot cards’ during the early days of democracy in Ancient Greece. This year, I worked with the Rhins Mens Shed to create an interactive installation to bring this tradition back to modern-day Stranraer to inform the Harbourland consultation. Using the data gathered from countless conversations with local people, community organisations and from Raise The Sails Festival in April, I collated the main hopes for Harbourland into 5 key categories:
A sheltered place to sit and bide a while,
Tidal rock pools for coastal wildlife
A place to share stories of Stranraer
A space for community events and festivals
Interactive play structures.
Over the weekend, nearly 400 people cast their oyster shells to vote on what they would like to see as part of Harbourland. The oyster shells that are typically gathered for redistribution back into the loch were instead used to facilitate important conversations about the communities hopes for the future of the town, before making their way back to the water. We had older residents keen for interactive play structures so that they could ‘share the town with their grandchildren’ and ‘give them a reason to visit,’ along with younger generations of nature enthusiasts who were terribly excited at the prospect of tidal rock pools in Stranraer.
A landslide amount of votes for tidal rock pools was the outcome of the initial consultation as seen below. All of the information gathered from the Harbourland Polling Station is being fed directly back into the Waterfront regeneration.
Sandcastle Competition
At the end of September, I staged the Great Stranraer Sandcastle Competition on the shores of Agnew Park. I designed bespoke Stranraer sandcastle buckets inspired by the topographical oyster forms that I’ve been working with for participants to take home for future days by the Loch.
Sandcastle competitions are an ancient tradition for coastal communities, an excuse to spend time down by the water and exercise the creative potential of natural materials. We’re hoping to create a future waterfront that is a place where families want to gather and to feel more connected to. Stranraer’s waterfront regeneration is set to transform the town in new and exciting ways, and we’re keen for these designs to be co-created to ensure a future landscape that reflects the needs of all communities – both human and sea species!
Following from my ‘Siltcrete’ experiments, there’s a strong intention to make use of the dredged materials from Loch Ryan in the plans for the new piece of land in creative ways that benefit the unique natural environment. The competition gave people of all ages the opportunity to take part in co-designing future structures of the coast, to be inspired by the shapes of their local ecology, and to build ambitious sand sculptures down on a mostly disused shoreline.
Over 70 people came down to take part and Stranraer beach was transformed with people coming together to play and find inspiration from their native oyster beds. The landscape was soon transformed into a mass display of everyday creativity and celebration of local site-specific ecologies. Teams won prizes from categories including ‘best sportsmanship’ and ‘most imaginative concept’, and as ever, the creativity of Stranraer’s community didn’t disappoint. Some of the sand sculptures included the story of Esmerelda the lost mermaid, Oysterland castle, Ailsa Craig and her lighthouse, and a whale who loved smarties! By the time the tide was returning, the coastline was covered in hundreds of oyster forms, reminiscent of a community made oyster bed.
Harbour Hub Takeover
As the final installation within this latest phase of the Harbour project, I will be feeding back all of the community ideas, events and interventions that have taken place so far, and what there may be to look forward to in the next stage. This will take the form of a Harbour Takeover in the Creative Stranraer Hub (23 King Street). 3 display boards will detail each stage of the project, along with the initial design principles for the new piece of reclaimed land highlighted through creative consultation.
Alongside the 3 display boards themselves, there will also be a window screening of underwater footage commissioned by the SCAMP (Solway and Marine Partnership) project to captivate passers-by as our evenings begin to get darker. The film by the Newton Stewart Sub-Aqua Club and John Wallace documents the underwater world of the of the Solway Firth and gives us an insight into some of the ecosystems that we are aiming to foster through Harbourland. Huge thanks to the Community Re-Use Shop for their donation of a TV!
The final aspect of the takeover is a community boat report created by artist and consultant Anne Waggot-Knott. Anne was our researcher/recorder/reporter in Phase 1 of the Harbour project and has been embedded within the project since its conception. The Community Boat Reports are interactive, informative documents which are designed to be folded up into the perfect paper boat. These are available for all visitors to read, build and take home.
Come and visit the Harbour Takeover from October 16th through to November 11th at Stranraer Creative Hub.
Until Next Time…
If you want to find out more about the Harbourland proposal programme or the context of the project, please contact Maya on [email protected]
If you want to read more about the Creative Placemaking strategies currently taking place in Stranraer, please visit the What We Do Now resource written by Shawn Boden here.
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