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Conversing with a Town

By Matt Baker

Eight years ago a group of artists in Dumfries started a conversation. Standing here in 2019’s ‘A Year of Conversation’, this initial spark has grown into 4 separate social enterprises, which between them provide regular employment for more than 40 people and a working partnership between the community, Council and Government towards a new future for our town. 

And, what have we have learned? We’ve learned that keeping the conversation going is the single most important thing of all – for conversation is an open space of possibility, it is owned by no-one, rather it is stewarded, nurtured and protected by everyone who takes part. Inclusive Growth is the new mantra of Scottish Politics – it’s a vision of a society and an economy that does not simply value numbers, but rather supports economic activity that benefits communities, places and ALL the people who live there. For this idea to make any sense at all, it needs to be shaped and held in a conversation, one that is rooted at a profoundly local level, a conversation that is open and free to roam without limits imposed by those who wield ‘power’. Rather, the true power must be in the principle of conversation itself. 

In 2001, our conversation in Dumfries began with a on open question: ‘What is the purpose of a small market town in 21st Century rural Scotland?’. Dumfries had fallen on hard times, there were in excess of 70 empty shops in the town centre. What is now popularly cried the ‘Death of the High Street’ (big retailers pulling out of High Streets because of online shopping and Out of Town retail parks) was already happening fast. We wondered what creativity and culture could do to help, it wasn’t that we had any answers to the problem that we wished to promote…on the contrary! But, we saw how important the health of the town centre was to the sense of identity within our community. We knew that town centres were places for people to gather to celebrate, to protest, to remember – but what are the mechanisms of interaction between people (commerce, leisure, services etc) that are necessary to maintain a town centre as a place for us all to gather in?? The withdrawal of big national and international concerns from our town centre created a vacuum, but it also presented an incredible opportunity for a new kind of town centre – one founded in an ‘inclusive localism’. We knew that this could only grow from a spirit of conversation which made a space for everyone’s voice to be heard. We have helped steward this conversation for eight years now – asking our question in myriad different ways..town dinner parties, a crowd-sourced Town Charter, a giant chalk drawing in the local square, an annual festival celebrating the role of the river in the town, a 2 year exploration of Dumfries’ relationship with Norway, a monthly open-mic evening for new writing – spoken or sung. We now operate two High Street buildings as ‘can-do places’ or ‘arty community centres’ or ‘alternative town halls’ depending on the flavour of the town conversation as you choose to see it. 

This is what could be called ‘Conversational Practice’, but really, it is just a set of shared values about the way to treat people and to operate as a human being. Being in conversation is a useful metaphor that encompasses the three core values of our collective work in Dumfries..which could also be seen as necessary ingredients for a good conversation?: 

  • To work through collaboration (not in isolation) 
  • To take risks  
  • To put people first and consider the emotional landscape of all actions 

The Stove Network is taking part in A Year of Conversation in two ways: through the first two weeks of May we are staging an interactive exhibition and series of events to explore ‘Art in Public Space’ which centres around a series of conversations with artists working in public. Then, in June, we are shaping all of our regular programming activity into a ‘Month of Conversation’.  Our conversation month will also mark a significant shift in our practice as we move onto a new topic of conversation – the new conversation space that we will help to hold for our town is ‘how we grow our own culture’ and how everyone can give themselves permission to be part of that endeavour.  

 Pop in for a chat! 

Matt Baker is a public artist, since 2011 he has focused on long-term activist strategies for the social, economic and political structures of his home region in South West Scotland. He was one of the founders, and is based with, The Stove Network in the heart of Dumfries town centre. www.thestove.org 

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D-LUX invites Dumfries to PLAY BIG in the town centre!

D-LUX Festival of Light will return to Dumfries Town Centre for their third annual event, and this time they are taking video games out of the house and on to the High Street! The event runs from 31st January to 2nd February and will have a focus on the gaming industry, aiming to bring interactive storytelling to Dumfries.

D-LUX brings warmth, light and curiosity into Dumfries Town Centre at the darkest time of the year, where artists explore new ways of illuminating the darkness. For 2019, D-LUX want to celebrate gaming culture and bring it to the High Street. The games industry is now bigger than Hollywood, the audiences are bigger, the ambitions and bigger, the budgets are bigger; and Scotland is rather good at making them!

‘Our Moon’ projected in the town centre as part of the Burns Night Parade.

D-LUX intends to light up the town with large-scale video projections of much loved and retro video games, as well as illuminating sides of buildings and shop windows with stories that are normally shared at home. All the games will be played live, and you can take part and play the games or just wander through the town and watch!

D-LUX will creative a collision of the public realm with interactive digital storytelling. Some stories are white knuckle rides of pure adrenaline and jeopardy, some are staggeringly beautiful role-playing games taking place in distant Galaxies, some are digital communities building alternative models of society. All are part of our contemporary world and D-LUX want to bring them into the heart of Dumfries. They hope that by bringing what is often private into public display, they will be able to show the community of Dumfries what opportunities might be available to young people in the gaming industry in a playful and entertaining way.

The Oven lit up as part of the ‘Whose Hoose Is This’ Project with the Midsteeple Quarter.

To explore the gaming culture in Dumfries, D-LUX have commissioned avid gamer Peter Bain to be their Community Engagement Officer. He believes the most exciting part of the project is the community element, going on to explain that the gaming industry has been shifting more and more in favour of online gameplay, and while that global connectivity has its benefits, there’s still something to be said for keeping it local. “I’d much rather play a game with a friend sitting across the room than across the country or even the planet. Scaling that experience up for the whole town and creating a visual extravaganza on the High Street sounds to me like a lot of fun!”

D-LUX will take place across several locations over 31st January to 2nd February. All events are free and will be on from dark until late. If you would like to be involved or to keep up to date with their events, visit their website here: www.d-lux.org.uk or find ‘D-LUX’ on Facebook.

For 2019, D-LUX is sponsored by Mark Jardine of Jardine Funeral Directors.

Passers by play with the lights in the town centre as part of ‘Town Centre Illuminations’.
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Musings

My first year as Public Art Project Worker with Creative Futures

by Kirsty Turpie, December 2018

I began the position of Public Art Project Worker with Creative Futures Lochside and Lincluden in January this year. I was involved in the project last year as a Trainee Creative Producer, which seen me support Public Artists and attend community events. I really enjoyed being a Trainee Creative Producer so when the chance arose to become employed in this line of work I was excited and ready for it.

My challenge…to get residents in North West Dumfries engaged in Public Art projects. I was raring to go, and set up a weekly drop in at the Creative Futures hub under the name of Art in Action. The drop in ran for 5 weeks, and there were 5 local residents attending. We looked at local and international artists and public art examples and created small sculptures.

The name Art in Action has stuck and I have took it on the road to Lochside gala, a pop-up gazebo workshop in Lochside, Lochside and Lincluden Primary Schools and Nithraid.
One of the main projects I’ve been focusing on is the revamp of the Lincluden rhino statue. After research and consultation it was decided that I would offer the community a chance to create a new colourful look for the base of the rhino through the medium of mosaics. And, oh, have I fallen in love with them! I got up to speed on the mosaic techniques fast so that I could bring them to the public. In order to provide the mosaic workshops I had to do some preparation of ordering materials and experimenting. I’ve really enjoyed this part of the job. My background is in Graphic Design so I haven’t had too much opportunity in the past to work with large scale materials. So having to phone up builders yards, go to collect large pieces of wood and tile grout and having to use power tools to cut the wood to size have all been new and exciting responsibilities.

Kirsty and some of the team behind the new mosaics for the Lincluden Rhino

Another project that I have taken on through this position is the Lochside Primary School commemoration sculpture. This project has been a great opportunity to connect with the community on an ongoing basis and understand how to portray their ideas and history. In May I began working with the primary school pupils to design a totem pole featuring their memories of the school and it’s history since opening in 1962. It was lovely to hear the children’s memories and see them using paint and collage to get them down on paper. Back at the Creative Futures hub I drew up the final design comprised of six cement shapes to represent each era the school has been open. Mosaics would also be used in this design to create the children’s drawings and patterns and give the primary children a chance to learn this way of working. It is fair to say that they have enjoyed having a go. A small group of them came to the community centre and created the primary school logo out of mosaics and put it on to the first cement shape. In the summer I held a two day pop-up mosaic workshop in Lochside where families from the area took part. It is so rewarding being able to give people a chance to try something new and get creative. They always surprise me with their original ideas and creative flair.

Pop up mosaic workshops on Lochside Road


Something that has really stood out for me this year was in the October holidays when the Creative Futures team helped me to produce a whole week of art activities appropriately named ‘Art Week’. It was amazing to have the freedom to come up with a programme of events, and included in this a bus trip. Being able to organise a bus trip to be enjoyed by so many from the area and give them the opportunity to connect with public art, was truly brilliant. We took 32 people (adults and children) to Glenrothes in Fife where there are over a hundred pieces of public art. We went on a walk around the town led by local community workers who told us about the history of art in Glenrothes. It was great to hear people talking on the way back about how Dumfries could be different.

Visiting artworks in Glenrothes!

Not only the bus trip but the rest of Art Week was fantastic too. We ran the workshops 11am until 3pm and invited children to bring their own lunch. This gave us plenty of time to get artistic. Some of the local children came every day. Holding these daily workshops has shown me how much my confidence has grown over the past few years in this line of work. I now feel really confident planning and delivering workshops across many art forms.
All in all being part of the Creative Futures team this year has been brilliant in so many ways. It has given me the opportunity to run many different workshops, given me the challenge of adapting to using new materials, the chance to work on large scale projects, and learn how it is to work as an artist in a community setting. I am really grateful for the responsibility and opportunities I’ve been given, the team I’ve been working with and the new connections I have made within the community. I now feel a welcome addition to community events and people know they can come to me if they have any creative project or workshop ideas. I’m looking forward to continuing these projects and developing new ideas in the new year.

Stay in touch with the Creative Futures project by following their Facebook page here
More about Kirsty Turpie and her art practice on her Community Art page here

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News

Groundswell: New Sculptures for Lochside

The second of a series of public artworks will be unveiled in Lochside in a public celebration on Wednesday, 12th December.

The artwork Groundswell is comprised of a series of six sandstone sculptures made from Locharbriggs stone by artists Susheila Jamieson and James Gordon. Over the past six months, Susheila and James have been based at the Family Centre on Lochside Road, carving each of the stones on site there. The artists thoroughly enjoyed their time in the community of Lochside and all the conversations they had with local folk and the workshops they did for the children.

The site for the works is based in the area of DGHP’s new properties at The Meadows, Lochside.

Groundswell is one of four Lochside Public Art Projects, commissioned by DGHP and managed by The Stove Network, who are based in Dumfries town centre. The first, Tattiefields was unveiled in September, and the final artworks will be installed in the next couple of months.

James and Susheila who are based in the Borders, were selected for the commission following an open call earlier in the year. James and Susheila said, “The idea behind these sculptures is to commemorate local quarrying and working of stone. Dumfries was built of sandstone and it’s history has been carved into it. Sadly, work has recently stopped at the local Locharbriggs quarry, the boulders for Groundswell were some of the last to be taken from the quarry.

We have really enjoyed, and will miss, working outside the Family Centre in Lochside.  It has been an  ideal way to meet people from the local community and we really appreciated all the encouraging , friendly comments and chats! Working in the public eye hopefully has let people have some insight into the process behind creating Groundswell.”

The artworks will be officially unveiled at the site in the Meadows at 3.45pm on Wednesday, 12th December. All are welcome to attend Full details available here.

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Musings

Contemporary Creative Currents in Scotland in memory of Gordon Robertson

Last week we were delighted to host the event ‘Contemporary Creative Currents in Scotland’ featuring two illustrated talks by national cultural figures –  Andrew Crummy and Collective Architecture. Presented by The Saltire Society and The Stove Network, the event was in memory of Gordon Robertson who was an active and much missed member of both organisations.

The first talk was by Ross Aichison of Collective Architecture; an award-winning, 40-strong, employee owned studio across Glasgow and was established to pursue themes of participation and sustainability in architecture. They are are one of the most exciting young practices in Scotland and unique in the way that they are structured to give all who work there a say in the work of the practice. Ross gave a fascinating acoount of the design ethos of collective and two specific current projects, one in Dundee and the other in the old school site in Lockerbie.The next talk was from Andrew Crummy, an independent artist. Andrew Crummy has a unique place in the history of community art in Scotland. His mother, Helen Crummy, started the highly influential Craigmillar Festival Society which began as a grass roots festival for local children and grew to become a launch pad for household names such as Billy Connoly, Bill Patterson and Jimmy Boyle.

Andrew grew up within this amazing cauldron of creativity and gave a first hand account of the people and the ethos of the community projects in Craigmillar and the associated works around the country. Andrew himself became an artist and is best known for leading the Great Tapestry of Scotland Project which involved over 1000 volunteer stitchers and is now being housed in a specially built venue in Galashiels.Andrew wrote the chapter on Scottish community art in the book published last year called ‘Culture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art – The British Community Arts Movement’. At the event, Andrew announced that the rights to this book has now been bought by Manchester University who have made it available as a free download link here

The evening was in memory of Gordon Robertson, a man of wide-ranging and eclectic interests, which were rooted deeply in his local community in Dumfries and his upbringing but ranged across genres from painting to writing and opera. He was particularly keen on international travel and a regular on exchanges to Gifhorn (Dumfries’ twin town in Germany) whilst at the same time nurturing a strong commitment to the culture and history of his beloved Dumfries.

A collection of his paintings was also exhibited in The Stove Cafe space. In Gordon’s later years, it was his artwork in particular which held his greatest interest – his style and his different use of mediums was wide ranging and topics were diverse with particular focus on local landmarks but also featured interpretations from his travels to Germany and Iceland. 

He frequently had his paintings exhibited in venues across the community, he was very knowledgable on multiple subjects and wrote many articles on topics of historical interest and would speak at local events – he was a passionate Burnsian and therefore a ‘weel kent’ face in the local community. If you ever passed him in the street and exchanged a pleasant ‘How are you Gordon’ you had to be prepared for a long response… and more often than not you would leave knowing something that you didn’t know before the encounter started!

His death at the age of 82 earlier this year will leave a void in the community and his enquiring mind along with his ability to retain a vast memory of historical knowledge even in his later years will be sadly missed. However, the small selection of his work which was exhibited will allow his memory to live on and is a fitting lasting legacy to a very special Doonhamer. 

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News

Lochside Public Art Project: New Artists!

Following our recent call out for artists to work on two new commissions as part of the Lochside Public Art Project, we are delighted to introduce the artists that were selected! The application process was highly competitive, with a variety of brilliantly different artists applying from across Scotland to work on the project.

The Lochside Public Art Project consists of four separate projects, two currently ongoing, and these two new projects that are just starting, all four will be completed by the end of the year. The project has been created by The Stove Network in partnership with DGHP, (Dumfries and Gallloway Housing Partnership) to create new permanent artworks as part of their new housing development, The Meadows, in Lochside, North West Dumfries.

Our call out was for two separate commissions:

Corners and Offcuts
A commission to look at ‘left-over’ and ‘in-between’ spaces around the new housing development, that can create interesting places for residents to pause, and can utilise some of the underused parts of the site. For this project we have commissioned Susheila Jamieson and James Gordon, artists and stone carvers based in the Borders, and have previously worked on Summerhill’s Land Art project. More about their previous works available online here

‘Jamieson and Gordon are a design company specialising in creating public and socially engaged art installations in the UK and abroad. Susheila Jamieson is a professional sculptor and arts educator, and James Gordon, a landscape designer, also sculpts. We produce commissioned artworks in consultation with local communities. Cultural heritage and other aspects of place are often a starting point for developing ideas. Much of our work is abstract and is often inspired by the wider landscape and aspects of nature. Past commissions include work for Woodland Trust Scotland, Newcastle City, East Lothian, South and North Lanarkshire, Clackmannanshire and Dumfries and Galloway councils, Sustrans and various housing associations.We use materials that enhance or reflect the environment including Corten steel, green oak, stone, galvanised steel, ceramic, bronze and glass. Our work is unique, robust and intended for outdoors.

Developing designs for artwork is often undertaken in conjunction with community/stake holder groups, and we enjoy working with and running workshops for varied groups including schools and adults.

We are delighted to have been selected to create new work for Lochside. We have worked in Dumfries before and know that different areas of the town have different identities. We are keen to create work that reflects and celebrates the unique character of DG2.   The artworks will be “carved in stone” and we are looking forward to working with the local communities of Lochside and Lincluden to develop ideas and designs. “Taster workshops” are being planned where local residents can come and try stone carving and tell us what they would like to see incorporated into the artwork – these will be advertised on the Creative Futures facebook page, and in the North West Dumfries area.’

Susheila Jamieson and James Rachan – new artists for the Corners and Offcuts commission!

Signs and Symbols
Our second commission, Signs and Symbols looks to create a new visual presence across the Meadows site, taking inspiration from the wildlife and environment of the surrounding areas, the new housing styles, and ideas from local residents. For this project we have commissioned Glasgow based Design by Zag, graphic design company ran by Kat Loudon and Kirsty Geddes. More about their previous work available online here

‘Design by Zag, run by Kat and Kirsty, is a design company based in SWG3, Glasgow. As trained graphic designers, we have a strong focus on research which we use to formulate ideas, drive concepts and create relevant and meaningful projects.

We are delighted to be have been selected by the Stove Network and DGHP to work on the Signs and Symbols commission. We look forward to meeting the people of Lochside to create this piece of work for the local area.’

Kat and Kirsty of Design by Zag: new artists for the Signs and Symbols commission!
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