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Creative Stranraer – Job Opportunity

(This opportunity is now closed)

Our friends at Creative Stranraer are looking for a dynamic and entrepreneurial Hub Coordinator to support our Creative Community Hub in the centre of Stranraer.

Role: Creative Stranraer Hub Coordinator

Hours: 15 hours per week, days and times to be arranged

Salary: £22,000 per annum pro rata (£12.09 per hour)

Term: 6 months fixed-term contract initially (may be extended, depending on funding)

Role Purpose: 

The Creative Stranraer Hub provides a space for the local community to participate in a range of creative activity, run by, with and for the people of Stranraer and The Rhins. Our Hub is a space where people can also access signposting to other projects, initiatives, and volunteering opportunities that welcomes anyone and everyone.

Main Responsibilities:

  • To manage the day to day running of the Creative Stranraer Hub
  • Provide support to the Creative Stranraer volunteer programme
  • To promote and manage room bookings of our space
  • To meet visitors and members of the community with a polite and friendly manner, offering excellent customer service
  • To provide information and signposting to visitors and members of the community
  • Act as the point of contact for all enquiries
  • To support the Creative Stranraer Arts & Engagement Officer with planning and implementing events and activities taking place in the hub
  • Liaising with the Communications and Marketing team, ensuing relevant information is passed on to support the outreach aims of Creative Stranraer
  • To support with basic administration tasks
  • Promote the charity in a positive manner to other businesses and services, encouraging joined up working where possible
  • To undertake other appropriate tasks needed to support the running of the project

Person Specification:

Essential:

  • Excellent organisational and coordination skills
  • Outstanding communication skills both verbal and written
  • Proficiency in digital administration and event promotion tools such as Microsoft office, social media and email
  • Customer service skills
  • Excellent multitasking and task prioritisation skills

If you are interested in this role and want to find out more before applying, please email; [email protected]

How to Apply:

We encourage you to apply in a way that you feel most comfortable or you can fire over your CV and a short covering letter, or video, to [email protected],  explaining why you’re interested and what you could bring to the role.

Just make sure that your application is in by 5pm, Wednesday 10th January 2024

It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too. Wherever you’re from, and whatever your background, we want to hear from you.

We will accept applications from anyone and everyone who feels they have the skills required to fulfil this role.

Sound like the right job for you? Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.


About Creative Stranraer

Creative Stranraer is a project based in the Southwest of Scotland which focuses on supporting innovation and change in the historic town of Stranraer and the surrounding areas. Using creativity to connect people with their local environment, Creative Stranraer works in partnership with local and regional organisations to develop new opportunities and projects, encouraging communities to take part in the culture and enterprise to support a new vision for the town.

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News Opportunities

Commission: Waterfront Artist Stranraer

(This Opportunity is Now Closed)

The Stove Network is seeking a creative practitioner(s) to design and develop a programme of their own creative work which will be delivered with and for the community of Stranraer.

About the Commission:

Fee:

A fee of £10,000 is offered for this commission. This fee is inclusive of all expenses, materials, and VAT (if applicable)

Timescale:

The work is to be completed within a six-month window – mutually agreed milestones at beginning of commission (e.g., research period, schedule of events planned by Creative Stranraer and how work of Waterfront artist fits with this). 

Timeline: October – March 2024 

The purpose of the commission is to creatively engage the local people in the town’s waterfront area.

The creative practitioner is invited to utilise their own creative practice (and/or collaborate with others), to inspire a new conversation in the town about the waterfront and how it could once again form a vital part of the town’s future.

The commission will form part of a wider process of re-imagining the Waterfront and the Waterfront Artist will join a small team comprising:

  • Arts and Engagement Officer (AEO) – who has been working within the Stranraer community gathering the creative sector and working with them on creative community engagement with local people as part of the revitalisation of Stranraer. The AEO will support the Waterfront Artist in building relationships with local people/groups/partners, communications/marketing, and event production.
  • Research, Recording and Reporting (R, R+R) commission holder – this is a special commission to support the work of the Waterfront Artist by helping to gathering information research leads that surface through the work and write up all the information/ideas and opinions that are generated through the creative work with the Waterfront.
  • Support from The Stove Network – The Stove Network has been working in Stranraer supporting community-led regeneration projects for two years. The Stove is a leading Creative Placemaking organisation in Scotland and will actively support the creative engagement work on Stranraer Waterfront with the full range of services offered by the full Stove team (from production and communications to partnership building and operational systems)
  • Support from DG Council and local community groups – the Local Authority is working in partnership with a diverse range of local community groups as a broad-based community leadership group to deliver capital projects(including Waterfront projects such as Stranraer Marina, Stranraer Watersports Centre and a marine research facility) that will underpin a future Stranraer. This group will support the creative engagement work on the Waterfront with information, contacts, partnership events and assets.

This commission builds upon the Dandelion community garden project, which occupied a section of greenspace located by the waterfront as a community garden. The ‘Unexpected Garden’ was utilised as a community events space, hosting workshops, gigs and other events. 

Who we’re looking for:

We are in search of an experienced creative practitioner(s) with a strong background in community-embedded and social arts practices. 

An ability to effectively engage and acknowledge the diverse voices of Stranraer’s populace is vital. 

We seek an audacious individual(s) who can facilitate and envision exciting possibilities, instilling fresh connections with one of the town’s most valuable assets.

The commissioned practitioner(s) will have access to the Creative Stranraer ‘Hub’ located in the town’s High Street as well as significant support in community engagement as well as strategic interaction with the town’s established community events and festivals.

It is hoped the creative practitioner(s) will interact with Creative Stranraer’s programme of activities, weaving thematic considerations and activities, offering a diversity of experiences to ensure as wide a range of the community’s voices are heard.

What you’ll be doing:

The Creative Practitioner(s) will be expected to engage the community through creative activities, installations, interactive elements, and inspire conversation towards re-thinking the future use of the waterfront as a connected, culturally significant feature in the future of Stranraer.

The creative practitioner(s) are expected to:

  • Embrace the Waterfront’s inherent value and its potential for rejuvenation, using your creative lens to inspire new ideas, spark conversations, and incite actions that will lead to its revival. (Background: up until 10 years ago the waterfront was predominantly an ‘industrial’ environment as the embarkation point for the Stena Line vehicle and passenger ferry to Belfast)
  • Reflect the value of the Waterfront and the potential therein through a creative lens to inspire new ideas, conversations, and actions towards its regeneration.

Required outputs:

  • A series of interventions situated at the Waterfront to encourage a new relationship to the site. 
  • Contribution to one large-scale public event situated at or near the Waterfront at the commission’s conclusion (NB additional budget is held to produce this event)

How to apply:

Deadline for applications: Thursday 24th August 2023 at 5pm

We would like to hear from creative practitioners/artists with an initial response to the project in the form of a short proposal.

We are looking for proposals from creative practitioners/artists working in any discipline.

We are interested in processes that are responsive and adaptive, demonstrate a commitment to collaborative working and give a clear idea of the creative skills and tools you bring to developing this. We are open to joint proposals or those from performance collectives but would want to hear how this might impact on the financial support for the individual freelancers involved.

We are open to video/recorded sound applications that address the brief and would encourage those who may have additional access requirements or support needs, both in application and anticipated through delivery of the project, to please let us know what we can do to make this opportunity as accessible as possible.

TO APPLY:

Please send by email to [email protected] with a maximum file size of 10MB, before Thursday 24th August 2023 at 5pm and include the following:

  • Subject line: Waterfront Artist Stranraer
  • A statement of no more than 600 words stating what interests you about the Waterfront Artist commission including a brief description of your practice and an initial idea of how you might approach the project.
  • Current CV (max 2 pages)
  • Up to 4 examples of past work that you feel best supports your application – this can be in any form (images, films, texts, testimonials, links to online video or other online resources). 
  • If you are willing, please also complete our Equalities Monitoring form as part of your application:

It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too. Wherever you’re from, and whatever your background, we want to hear from you. We will accept applications from anyone and everyone who feels they have the skills required to fulfil this role.

We will always send an email acknowledging receipt of any applications. If you do not receive an email, please contact us again. If you require specific support when making an application, please let us know. 

If you have any questions you’d like answered before submitting your application, please contact us by email at: [email protected]


Background

Stranraer is at a pivotal point in its history. Ten years ago, the Stena Line ferry moved its operations from Stranraer to run their route to Northern Ireland from Cairnryan. A period of decline has followed for the town, but now Stranraer stands on the brink of a new chapter in its story with investment secured for a series of significant capital projects. These include projects for the Waterfront: a marina, a watersports centre, and a marine research facility. In the town centre the centrepiece project is the re-development of the former George Hotel into a culture and community centre including a bouldering centre and bunkhouse. These projects are all stitched into the community-led Place Plan for the town. The local community have worked in partnership with Dumfries and Galloway Council and South of Scotland Enterprise, and this commission is part of an ongoing commitment to keep the community right at the heart of the future vision for Stranraer.

Categories
News Opportunities

Commission: Researcher, Recorder & Reporter

Stranraer Waterfront Creative Community Engagement Project

(This Opportunity is Now Closed)

The Stove Network is looking for someone to join a project team tasked with creatively engaging the community of Stranraer in the development of the town’s waterfront area. 

The Researcher, Recorder and Reporter (R, R+R) will work alongside a creative team who will deliver a programme of interactive and fun activities in the town designed to engage local people in thinking differently about their harbour area and contributing their own ideas about what they would like to see included in the environment in future. 

About the role:

Fee: The maximum fee offered for this work is £3000 (inclusive of all expenses/VAT etc)

Location: The work will be based in Stranraer 

Timeline: October 2023 – March 2024

The commission will form part of a wider process of re-imagining the Waterfront and the R, R & R will join a small team comprising:

  • Arts and Engagement Officer (AEO) – who has been working within the Stranraer community gathering the creative sector and working with them on creative community engagement with local people as part of the revitalisation of Stranraer. The AEO will support the Waterfront Artist in building relationships with local people/groups/partners, communications/marketing, and event production.
  • Waterfront Artist – the R, R+R will work closely with the Waterfront Artist who will begin work on the project at the same time and have a brief to engage the community through creative activities, installations, interactive elements, and facilitative conversation towards re-thinking the future use of the waterfront as a connected, culturally significant asset positioning its future as a significant component towards the regeneration of Stranraer. Most of the work of the R, R+R will be in association with and in reaction to the work of the Waterfront Artist.
  • Support from The Stove Network – The Stove Network have been working in Stranraer supporting community-led regeneration projects for 2 years. They are a leading Creative Placemaking organisation in Scotland and will actively support the creative engagement work on Stranraer Waterfront with the full range of services offered by the full Stove team (from production to communications, from partnership building to operational systems)
  • Support from DG Council and local community groups – the Local Authority and is working in a diverse partnership with local community groups as a broad-based community leadership group to deliver capital projects (including Waterfront projects such as Stranraer Marina, Stranraer Watersports Centre, and a marine research facility) that will underpin a future Stranraer. This group will support the creative engagement work on the Waterfront with information, contacts, partnership events and assets.

The job of the R, R+R will include:

  • Shadowing the activities of the creative team
  • Taking notes of conversations with people engaging in the project
  • Following upon leads suggested through interactions with members of the community
  • Recording basic demographic information on those participating in project activities
  • Looking at the history of the town for clues to the future and building on initiatives already underway in the town
  • Contributing to the development of activities and events by researching the background to themes/places/ideas etc

The final element of the R+R commission will be to compile a report on the community engagement project which can contribute to the development of designs for Stranraer’s Waterfront.

Who we’re looking for:

This commission would suit someone with experience in: 

  • information gathering/organising
  • writing reports
  • working as part of a team
  • It would be an advantage, but not essential, to have experience of working on creative/community projects.

How to apply:

To apply please contact [email protected] in the first instance to arrange an informal chat about the project. 

Deadline for applications: Thursday 24th August 2023 at 5pm

Thereafter you will be asked for a formal application via email to: [email protected]

We are open to video/recorded sound applications that address the brief and would encourage those who may have additional access requirements or support needs, both in application and anticipated through delivery of the project, to please let us know what we can do to make this opportunity as accessible as possible.

When applying, please include the following:

  • Subject line Researcher, Recorder and Reporter Commission
  • A statement about how you would approach the project
  • A day rate/estimate of time required.
  • A description of past/ relevant experience
  • The names and contact details of two referees
  • If you are willing, please also complete our Equalities Monitoring form as part of your application:

It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too. Wherever you’re from, and whatever your background, we want to hear from you. We will accept applications from anyone and everyone who feels they have the skills required to fulfil this role.

We will always send an email acknowledging receipt of any applications. If you do not receive an email, please contact us again. If you require specific support when making an application, please let us know. 


Background

Background

Stranraer is at a pivotal point in its history. Ten years ago, the Stena Line ferry moved its operations from Stranraer to run their route to Northern Ireland from Cairnryan. A period of decline has followed for the town, but now Stranraer stands on the brink of a new chapter in its story with investment secured for a series of significant capital projects. These include projects for the Waterfront: a marina, a watersports centre, and a marine research facility. In the town centre the centrepiece project is the re-development of the former George Hotel into a culture and community centre including a bouldering centre and bunkhouse. These projects are all stitched into the community-led Place Plan for the town. The local community have worked in partnership with Dumfries and Galloway Council and South of Scotland Enterprise, and this commission is part of an ongoing commitment to keep the community right at the heart of the future vision for Stranraer.

.

Categories
News Project Updates

Creative Stranraer

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.

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.

The Arts and Engagement project began in June 2022 and has been shaped around three strands of activity:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Categories
Musings News Project Updates

Oh, What a Harvest!

Looking back at the Unexpected Garden’s community event

Image – Matt Baker

On Saturday 10th September, Harvest Festival was held in the Unexpected Garden, Stranraer’s newest outdoor community space.

A day full of music, performances, workshops and creativity, Harvest was an opportunity to bring the community together, celebrate and take a moment to reflect on the journey the Unexpected Garden Team, its supporters and volunteers had taken to transform a previously unused area of land on the waterfront of Stranraer’s ionic harbour into a community garden filled with flowers, edible pants and spaces to relax.

Six months ago the Unexpected Garden team stepped foot on what was an inconspicuous patch of green space, used regularly by dog walkers. With a lot of planning, digging, laughter and fun, they managed to turn the space into a little oasis in Stranraer. 

Image – Matt Baker

After many weeks of hard work, this oasis, the Unexpected Garden, was in full glorious bloom and ready to welcome the town for an afternoon of family-friendly fun. Harvest was a sea of colour and life – attracting not only the locals but also an influx of bees and other pollinators enjoying the flowers in the garden. An array of fabulous performers animated the garden with their lively, off beat shows and musicians provided the soundtrack to a fantastic day.

Harvest Festival and The Unexpected Garden are part of a national project called Dandelion; Scotland’s contribution to Unboxed, a year long UK wide festival of creativity which aims to develop our understanding of where food comes from, down to the basic principles of ‘growing your own’. The team in Stranraer are part of a cohort of 13 garden teams who have all been using art and creativity to share the message of ‘sow, grow, share’.

Harvest was a culmination of the event series that ran over the summer and was a really important opportunity to bring more people than ever into the garden. The festival day was really special, with an abundance of smiling faces enjoying the space, food and entertainment which included; a dedicated kids corner with creative workshops and activities like, scarecrow making competitions, magic shows and musical instrument making, plus musical performances throughout the day with sets from: Paragon, Drum for Fun, Dandelion Musician in residence, Bell Lungs and Kissing the Flint, and interactive performances from the Bippity characters and gardener, Hugh Bushey Babcock and his psychic leek, Leia.

Image – Gregor Anderson

Of the Harvest Festival, Beth Piggott, Creative Producer of the Garden said:

“One of the highlights of the day was our delivery of the community meal. Over the past few months we have worked with Simon Preston and the Fed-Up Cafe to create a menu for the town that could be served at the festival. After collecting stories from people across the town, we devised a menu that reflected the people and the traditions: sweet potato and chilli soup to represent the warmth in the community; beef stew with nice leafy greens in tribute to the beef farming and livestock which is ever present on the local green landscape, a vegan boxty represented links to Ireland and our victoria plum cake commemorated the lives of those lost when the MV Princess Victoria Ferry sank in 1953.”

On the day the garden also hosted a produce swap which was a big success and the team were delighted to be able to give away a selection of vegetables grown in the garden and invited others to bring their own to the table. 

Image – Gregor Anderson

The garden is a shining example of the possibilities that regeneration has to offer at a time when lots of exciting conversations are taking place about what could be next for Stranraer. It’s wonderful to think that the unexpected garden is one of the many new building blocks of change in the town, supporting innovation and creativity locally. 

Supported by so many local and national businesses and organisations including; Ulsterbus, Burns Real Ale, Dumfries & Galloway Council, Incredible Edibles, Stranraer Academy, and Soleburn Garden Centre, the Unexpected Garden Stranraer also captured the imagination of both Caledonian MacBrayne and The Northern Lighthouse Board who both donated large scale props in the form of a decommissioned lifeboat and two sea buoys respectively.

Of the donations, Mike Bullock, Chief Executive of the Northern Lighthouse Board said:

“It’s an honour for our decommissioned buoys to be part of the Stranraer Unexpected Garden Project. The buoys served at sea for many years helping keep mariners safe and had reached the end of their operational life.  We are therefore delighted that they have found another role being reused as part of this innovative project where they can be enjoyed by the local community and act as a symbol of Scotland’s rich maritime heritage.”

Still glowing in the aftermath of the festival, which put smiles on so many faces, the UNexpected garden team are still working to realise a vision for the future of the garden. Right now, they’re focus is to keep the garden alive, and who knows there may be many more Harvests to come! 

If you’re interested in getting involved with the garden feel free to drop me an email on [email protected] 

Categories
Opportunities

Artist Commission

(This Opportunity is Now Closed)

An Opportunity to Transform a Prominent Town Centre Location in Stranraer

About The Commission:

As a precursor to a Stranraer Street Art Festival (planned for summer 2023), our friends at Stranraer Development Trust are on the hunt for Contemporary Street Artist to undertake a commission to paint the first major wall painting in the town.

The commission forms part of ‘The Creating Stranraer Project’. The work will be positioned in a prominent town centre location, on the same building that will be home to a creative hub for the arts in the town.

This commission forms a part of the early stages of significant investment in culture as a catalyst for change in the town, and creative people will play major role in this change.

Currently a community engagement exercise is underway in Stranraer for local people to choose a contemporary / historical / fictional / real character who the community hopes will be someone who will inspire a new future of the town.

The commissioned artist will be asked to create a design for the wall that interprets the chosen inspirational character.

Elements of the commission:

  • Develop a design for the wall piece
  • Devise and lead two hands-on street art workshops (one with Secondary School pupils and one with FE College students)
  • Give an artists talk for local artists
  • Paint your design on the gable wall

(Workshops and talks will be coordinated by Stranraer’s Arts and Engagement Officer. Budget for access requirements for wall painting will be provided by the commissioner in addition to artist fee.)

Artist Fee: £3000

The fee is inclusive of VAT (where applicable), travel / accommodation and materials for the wall painting.

(NB preparation of the wall surface will be covered by the commissioner and spec agreed with the selected artist).

Time Frame: work to be complete by end 2022

Background:

Stranraer is at a very interesting point in its history – it is somewhere that has re-invented itself several times in the past as industries (eg herring fishing) have changed.

10 years ago the ferry service to Northern Ireland moved from Stranraer and a question mark has hung over the place since – what would the next version of the town be? Stranraer is the regional centre for one of the most beautiful and remote areas of Scotland, a place with a rich history through its connections to Ireland, NW England and Wales.

This commission is part of the series of significant arts projects in Stranraer (eg Dandelion ‘Unexpected Garden’‘What We Do Now’ and ‘Creating Stranraer’) – these projects are supporting a larger regeneration initiative for the town that places arts and creativity at the heart of a future Stranraer and includes the wholesale redevelopment of the former George Hotel as a Community/Cultural Centre.

How to Apply

Please send the following by email to Janet Jones at

[email protected]

  • Letter of interest – stating why you are interested in this project and think you are the right person for the commission. We are interested in hearing about what you are interested in and what motivates you. Tell us about how you might go about getting to know Stranraer and develop your ideas for the project, any relevant work you have done in the past and what you learned from that.
  • Up to five examples of relevant recent work – in any format (weblinks etc), if you are sending files by email, please keep these under 10MB.
  • The names of two referees who can vouch for you and your work (we will not contact anyone until we have offered you the commission)

We are open to submissions in any format  (eg. video, audio file etc for letter) – please contact us via the email address above to arrange an informal chat about the project and/or discuss any access need you have in order to apply.

Deadline for applications is midnight Sunday 18th September 22

It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value differences, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too. Wherever you’re from, and whatever your background, we want to hear from you.

We will accept applications from anyone and everyone who feels they have the skills required to fulfil this role.

This project is supported by:

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