Written by Anne Waggot Knott, Project Researcher and Reporter
A spotlight on the work of community artist, Maya Rose Edwards, in Stranraer.
Diving into Stranraer’s history paints an evocative picture. A proud port town and a vibrant, prosperous meeting place. Its connection to the sea meant connections right across the world.
This rich history, full of local stories, memories and reflections are explored in the work of artist Maya-Rose Edwards. Commissioned and supported by The Stove Network, Maya is using their creative practice to spark new ideas about Stranraer’s waterfront and how it can once again form a vital part of the community, infrastructure, and identity of the town.
It’s been years since the all-important ferry terminal was moved to Cairnryan and, following a fire at Ayr station over six months ago, the train from Glasgow doesn’t currently stop at its unique waterfront destination on the East Pier. Maya’s project, ‘Harbour’, has identified the challenges faced by these changes. Through creative consultations and engagement activities with local people, they’ve supported parts of this community to continue to grow in confidence, to express their opinions and to work collaboratively to lead the change they want to see in their town.
Harbour Spray PaintingSails Workshop
Research shows that proximity to the coast boosts our health and wellbeing, yet Stranraer’s wide roads, car parks and security fencing separate the town from the seashore. Despite this, the community has responded to the provocations initiated by Maya’s approach, galvanising the town’s fighting spirit, to reconnect with, revitalise and reimagine Stranraer’s iconic waterfront.
It only takes a tiny bit of research to understand that Stranraer has been let down again and again. Grand plans for the waterfront have been unveiled before, or built, removed, or fallen into decline. Promises made but rarely sustained. But, despite the departure of the final ferry, there remains a canny vibrancy in Stranraer, a strong sense of place and pride, locals and incomers, warmth and tradition, prosperity, and innovation. It’s a wonderful place to be. Yet all this potential seems somewhat unrecognised by a very specific combination of circumstances, policy decisions, and an apathy borne of a long history of false starts.
Urban Collective Presenting at a Creative Stranraer Vision + Action Meeting
But now if feels as if the tide is turning. Strong glimmers of hope are arriving. There’s a cumulative explosion of funding and progress right now, much of it driven by arts, culture and sport: Creative Stranraer, the George Hotel, the Unexpected Garden, the Urban Collective, the Stanctuary, Spring Fling Rural Mural, the new Water Sports Centre, Dumfries & Galloway Council and various community groups are working in conjunction with Stranraer’s Place Plan and associated activities. This is a huge opportunity to rethink the waterfront. It’s time to seize the moment.
That’s exactly what Maya has helped people do over the last six months.
Maya has delivered collaborative arts activities and conversations with over 500 participants. Children and families built a Sea Witch from coastal plastic gathered by the Beach Cleaners – you can see it in the Harbourmaster’s Office window; newly-empowered college students painted a guerrilla mural showing just how much they love Oor Wee Toon; drop-in visitors set hopes and dreams afloat in paper boats, and young people made Portholes to the Future.
SilhouettesPortholes to the Future WorkshopSea Witch Sculpture made for Coastal Plastic Day Harbour Spray PaintingArrivals / Departures
At the same time, unexpected installations appeared. Mysterious doorways arrived along the seafront overnight, dreamlike portals for us to depart from the present and arrive in an imagined future. Silhouettes emerged on the security fencing at the East Pier, inviting us to take ownership of that wasteland once again.
Throughout, Maya worked deeply in and with the community. Everything has been co-created. Each work involved reaching out and forging new partnerships, listening to Stranraer and building layers of understanding.
All these interventions have brought people together and sparked impassioned conversations about the waterfront. Maya encouraged an openness about the challenges and frustrations, but also reignited hopes, dreams and actions.
We’re looking forward to ‘Raise the Sails’, a free waterfront festival in April. This will be a culmination of all the work so far, a chance to enjoy food, music, performance and a bonanza of community ideas.
‘Raise The Sails’
A special community festival taking place in the Unexpected Garden, Stranraer
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.
An opportunity to showcase your work and practice at The Stove.
The Stove Network is looking to commission an artist/creative practitioner(s) or community group to engage creatively with 100 High Street’s award-winning Stove Cafe through our ‘ConversingBuilding’ project.
It brings together a variety of creative works and projects that address local issues and engage with our local community, promoting and exploring ideas related to both local and global topics.
Ranging from subjects like ecology, heritage, and local democracy, Conversing Building delves into ideas, and discussions through diverse creative mediums, including sound, textiles, print, and visual art approaches to invite and inspire conversation and interaction with everyone that walks into our doors.
About the Commission
This is an open brief for creative practitioners to apply their own creative approach to the environment.
Practitioners of all types are invited to work with the Stove’s creative department and cafe team to realise a ‘takeover’ of the cafe space. drawing their own creative interpretation into the environment.
We are open to all forms and styles, from printmakers to installation.
We encourage applicants to consider how their work may address or speak to local concerns in an open and inspirational way.
Considerations
Our cafe is a busy space, and we are unable to lose out on seating spaces. Proposals must take into consideration how the work will complement the established environment of the cafe and not disrupt the day-to-day running of the enterprise.
The Stove Cafe is a place where people work, eat, chat, drink and play so do consider this with your proposal.
Proposals should consider how creative interactions with the space are sensitively balanced with the rhythm and life of the cafe and how interaction is best served within it. For example, proposals which require significant floor space are unlikely to work, as too proposals which centre on projected image/film may not be feasible due to daytime lighting obstructing the view.
Traditional exhibitions or previously exhibited work are invited however applicants must consider how the work relates to/compliment the Conversing Building projector, contributes to dialogue connected to our town centre location, and how they may go about re-imagining the work for the space in question.
Previous examples of Conversing Building projects can be found here.
Fee and Materials
The total fee and materials budget available is £1,750.
How this budget is split is subject to your proposal and will be agreed with the selected artist or project before the start of the commission, but must be inclusive of all additional costs including travel and VAT.
Schedule:
Application deadline: 5pm, 14th January 2024
Selection process: Week beginning 15th January 2024
Final selection made: 23rd January 2024
Installation dates Week beginning: 11th March 2024
Exhibition running time: 18th March – 13th April 2024 (inclusive)
Exhibition takedown: 15th April 2024
Application Process
An outline of your approach. (max 500 words). Submissions can also be made via video or audio file. If you would like to submit your approach in another format please do enquire with us as we are happy to accommodate any accessibility requirements in this regard.
Up to 3 examples of your work
A CV (or similar) outlining your experience to date
Proposals should be sent to [email protected] with the heading: Cafe Culture: Arts Commission
If you would like to speak to a member of the team to discuss your idea, please get in touch.
Our Public Art Lead, Katie Anderson, tells us about the Keep Looking Up Roaming Installation, The Stove’s artistic response to this year’s Wild Goose Festival.
As part of this year’s Wild Goose Festival, I’ve been invited as part of my Public Art Lead role to create and host a playful birdwatching experience inspired by the returning migratory bird population. Appearing in and around Dumfries town centre, this new artwork will explore bird watching in a creative way at dedicated pop-up spaces produced for viewing and listening to birds and their behaviours.
As ‘Roaming Birdwatchers’, the artwork – of no fixed location – will ‘pop up’ in four different public spaces around Dumfries. This interactive artwork will ask those passing by to pause and reflect on our non-human winter residents.
Audiences and members of the public are invited to join the Wild Goose Festival affiliated artists and partners in an outdoor environment to observe the skies and consider our relationship with the non-human inhabitants of our everyday spaces. The artwork comprises a series of colourful deckchairs, a commissioned soundscape using audio recorded from local visitors and alternative viewing devices for seeing the birds and wildlife differently.
The project is inspired by the Wild Goose Festival’s theme ‘Keep Looking Up’ and includes a series of project flags that will appear around the town. Each flag will encourage those passing by to look skyward and spot the returning bird population as they continue to arrive. Also, each flag will act as a message of hope and optimism in challenging times. How can we see the town differently, and what new ways of seeing can help us uncover unique understandings of our place?
The Keep Looking Up roaming installation will be found in and around the town centre on the following dates:
Thursday 19th at 1 pm – 4 pm
Friday 20th at 1 pm – 4 pm
Monday 23rd at 2 pm – 5 pm
Thursday 26th at 1 pm – 4 pm
The pop-up locations will not be published in advance, but sites could include Dumfries High Street/Fountain Square, the Whitesands, Greensands and Dumfries Museums sites. If you would like to find the roaming installation, please pop into the Wild Goose Festival Hub in the Loreburne Centre for information on the day.
Small pebbles can make big waves, right? And change doesn’t happen overnight – it’s a slow burning, incremental process for the most part, but every so often there are moments when you can really see the change happening.
On the 1st June, the Dumfries Fountain was turned back on after many years without a water supply. Unveiled from behind the metal hoardings that have fenced off a section of the High Street whilst works took place to completely restore this Victorian beauty to its original glamour.
I’ve been on the Dumfries Fountain Restoration project team for a few years now on behalf of The Stove Network. My role involving the support and drive for a wider community engagement plan as part of the works. Supporting artists and community activists to take part in the project and have their voices heard.
Why this? Why now? What impact does this restoration, caretaking and renewal have on our town?
It won’t solve the potholes in the road, or absentee landlords, or sea gulls or long-term employment, but as an iconic monument that has stood in the heart of the town for over 100 years, that witnesses and stands as a marker of where we have come from and where we are going – monuments like the fountain are surely worth preserving. We need investment into the town, an approach of care and responsibility for the landmarks that give our everyday a sense of place and identity, and a vision for how our public spaces can be.
As part of the restoration we have realised the importance of telling the story of the fountain. How it came to be here and it’s place in the history of the town. The restoration, now completed, forms part of this story. As we move forward, and to mark this a series of nine bronze floor plaques have been set into the cobbles surrounding the fountain, telling the history of the town through its connection to water.
The plaques designs are inspired by water droplets from the fountain, the textures of the sand out on the Solway and a small nod to cup and ring marks found in the depths of Galloway. Their penny-like finish feels in keeping with the space and since their unveiling, passers-by have been seen adding their own pennies back into the newly refurbished fountain bowls. Over time the plaques will develop their own patina as many feet and weathers move over them.
It’s not been a solo work by any stretch, working first with the creative team at The Stove Network, then writer and historian JoAnne McKay on the texts and dates, pattern maker Ruth Davies on the final patterns and printed elements, Lost Art who led on the casting and finishing works and Stevie at Kirk Masonry on the installation.
Projects like these are only possible with the attention and perseverance of many hands behind the scenes. Kirsten Scott and the St Michael’s Primary School class groups campaigned for years for the works to be undertaken and since those beginnings it’s taken many folks from a wide variety of backgrounds to see the project through, from council teams to the skilled artisans of Lost Art and various specialist contractors amongst many others.
The step over the threshold from bystander into a more active citizenship can be a bit of a leap of faith, but in raising a flag, pitching in, making space for the voices of others to be heard we create the potential for change, the act of making together a town of possibility.
Find out ore about the restoration process on Fountain’s own Facebook Page.
To celebrate the official unveiling of the Fountain, The Stove will be will be hosting a series of events, from talks about the restoration process with archaeologists, to creative workshops, history tours and exhibitions. Find our more here.
Katie has been a part of the Stove since 2013, and currently delivers her role on a freelance basis alongside her own personal creative work from her studio in Annandale. Her role at The Stove as Public Art Lead, supports core Stove programming with additional activities and events including Reel to Real Cinema and Conversing Building which offers specific support for projects that hold public art elements, and also develops it’s own distinctive projects that explore public spaces in and around the town centre.
Thursday 13th April saw the opening of Creative Stranraer on the corner of George Street and King Street in the centre of the town.
The space is a former shop unit that has been renovated by owner Mr Gillespie to achieve the vision of creatives in the town coordinated by Arts and Engagement Officer Janet Jones.
The opening night was a joyously happy occasion attended by a mixture of people from the creative sector, those involved in regeneration initiatives and the curious/willing.
There were speeches, music from Stacey Joy and family and charcoal drawing with the hub’s first artist-in-residence Jane Fraser.
Janet JonesStacey JoyJane Fraser
Creative Stranraer will host artist gatherings, workshops, events, exhibitions and become an HQ for information and exchange on all things creative that are going in in the town.
Creative Stranraer is imagined as a prototype hub that will lead into the much-anticipated redevelopment of the former George Hotel as a new cultural and community space for the town and surrounding area.
The whole Arts and Engagement project is woven into the George redevelopment initiative, to create momentum and organisation in the local creative sector prior to the George opening, it has been managed by Stranraer Development Trust (SDT) with funding from DG Council.
The Stove is commissioned by SDT to support the Arts and Engagement Officer and provide guidance and direction from our experience in Creative Placemaking regionally and nationally.
MuralPhoto & Poetry Wall
The Arts and Engagement project began in June 2022 and has been shaped around three strands of activity:
Community Engagement and Co-Creation – Janet has convened a highly successful and ongoing series community gatherings called ‘Vision and Action’ meetings with attendances typically 50+ local folk coming together to share ideas, hear about progress and for local businesses/projects to showcase what they are doing. Janet has also held a number of dedicated creative meetings for different groups within the cultural and creative sector locally.
Public Art Projects – to date the most highly visible public art project has been the mural on the Creative Stranraer hub building by artist Tragic O’Hara. Tragic has also undertaken workshops with local groups of young people and is now working with the Stair Park Skate Park group. Another public art initiative is the photo and poetry wall next to Gateway to Galloway at the harbour. In the pipeline is a planned Street Art festival for 2024 and numerous other small-scale projects bringing together local creative practitioners in partnership with businesses and community groups.
The Creative Hub – now open at the top of King Street!
All of the above activity is designed around the principle of the creative sector taking a lead in the regeneration of Stranraer by injecting some energy, vibrancy, sound and colour into the town and in the process inspiring and bringing people together and also creating opportunities for people to express their own creativity and support people to embark on creative careers in the local area.
The Arts and Engagement project has also been working in alongside the creation of the ‘community place plan’ for the town.
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