Support Us

Tag: Young Stove

Categories
News

Blueprint100 Looking Forward April – September 2020

Over the next few months, we’re taking some time to reflect on blueprint100. How can we grow and evolve the learning opportunities The Stove Network offers for young creative people, and by doing so, empower those and other young people to start professional careers within the arts?

It’s been 5 years since blueprint100 initiated itself as a coveted opportunity for young creative people through a self-led approach to professional development and active working experience within The Stove Network.

This is an approach to learning and professional development aimed at supporting young people across varied stages in their work and helping to build bridges both in and out of more formal structures and other types of work and experience.

As The Stove and blueprint100 have grown and changed rapidly over the past few years we feel it is a good time to take a deeper look at blueprint100 and the learning opportunities it provides as part of The Stove team.

Through a period of consultation and reflection we will evaluate and reshape our blueprint100 framework to ensure it meets the needs of our region’s young creatives giving them the right balance of support and freedom to develop.

For this reason we want to let you know that we will not be recruiting for another blueprint100 team this April 2020 but instead taking the space for this deeper consultation and evaluation. We will do this through a series of targeted workshops and one to one interviews with past blueprint100 curatorial team members, active participants and young creatives, creative groups and organisations and relative learning bodies and service providers.

The consultation will be lead by blueprint100 mentor Katharine Wheeler who will be supported by a young person within the blueprint age range (18-30).

Please stay tuned for more updates in the near future.

Categories
Musings

The Salty Coo Procession 2019

From Jordan Chisholm

“Wow! Nithraid 2019, you really were something else. I can’t quite believe I have to let go of you now; your procession has taken up many of my daily thoughts over the past few months.

This year you were unique, a little bit of a chancer, very salty and many of us learnt something new from you whilst asking important questions along the way.

I began to conceive the idea of the Nithraid 2019 procession when I was feeling inspired by what it means to “belong” alongside the want to work with different communities. I hoped for the procession to become a celebration of what Dumfries and Galloway has to offer, whilst creating a space for people to meet and connect with those they haven’t before. It is easy to believe that nothing ever happens here and question what there is to celebrate – but I believe that together we can do so much, so let’s try it.

Throughout June to the end of August, with support from the Blueprint100 team and The Stove Network, we contacted over 100 community groups from Dumfries and Galloway (yes, there really are that many!) encouraging them to make a banner in celebration of who they are, with a hope that they would then walk in our procession and become a part of the day. We had great fun throughout these workshops, and although challenged by the summer holidays, we met many new faces, conversed with people of all ages, heard many fascinating stories and connected with one another in a way that we wouldn’t have been able to before, whilst spreading the word about Nithraid and our Salty Coo.

“Pagan” means belonging or relating to a modern religion that includes beliefs and activities that are not from any of the main religions of the world (for example, the worship of nature). When I discovered this, I was keen to take this idea in to the procession. Imagine what the worship of community could look like. Imagine community as a religion. One which owns its own magic and is inclusive of all. I began to think more about where our beliefs come from, what Dumfries’ beliefs are, rituals and blessings; that is where much of the vision came from.With salt at the heart of this year’s overall Nithraid theme, it felt right to use this material as the source of action for the performers in the procession. Salt has many attributes, including being used for healing and sanctuary. Together, we spread salt throughout the high street in an offering of protection and safety for all our communities. Worshiping the place many of us call home. The 2019 Nithraid procession became a subtle disruption to a normal Saturday morning in Dumfries Town Centre. One which made people look twice as they walked on by. A moving image, a ritual, a blessing, a memory, an ephemeral moment, a discovery, many hearts and one community.

This experience was a huge collaboration from the very beginning to the very end and could not have been made possible without all those involved, including community groups, The Stove Network team, performers, musicians, costume designers, make-up artists, Salty Coo carriers and volunteers. I will never forget it.

Community is about doing something together, that makes belonging matter. We are community.

Here is the salt and here is the coo, let the river have its due,

Here is the salt and here is the coo, let the river have its due,

Here is the salt and here is the coo, let the river have its due.”

Jordan Chisholm is an artist and a current member of the blueprint100 curatorial team.

Categories
News

Behavin’ Festival Programme Announcement!

A DIY micro-festival of performance, live art and music in an upside-down world is coming to Dumfries over the weekend of Friday 26th – Saturday 27th July, held on the High Street, The Stove, The Plaza and the Oven. Behavin’ is about new spaces, new worlds, radical gatherings and new work from the weirdest corners of the mind. In it’s inaugural year, Behavin’ explores play, permission and public space alongside a whole host of weird and wonderful projects and people.

All events and performances are free and open to the public. However, discretionary donations are welcome but by no means mandatory.Full programme below:

FRIDAY

Phone Box Poetry
12 – 5pm / Dumfries High Street

The 21stCentury has played witnessed to a revolution in digital communication, yet in its wake has left the humble public telephone in ruin, a phantom of its former self. From the 26th– 27th, keep your ears open for what may well be the voice of the telephone speaking from its ghostly realm. Ring, ring…ring, ring…

To submit your work please contact [email protected]

Press Play by Zoe Pearson
12 – 5pm / The Stove Elevator

An art-gremlin has set up home in the lift of 100 High Street. Each time you press play, the doors will open to a new improvised performance. Featuring spoken word, sounds, drawings, writing, miming, movement, costumes, and… well, who knows what!

Brave New Words: Behavin Spectacular
7pm / The Stove Network
Theme: Behaviour 

For words spoken, sung, signed, shot or silenced. The Stove’s monthly open mic night returns for the inaugural Behavin’ festival opening extravaganza. Expect an evening of scintillatingly scandalous performances from local poets, musicians, filmmakers and performers from ages 8-80. Guest hosted by the spectacular Miss Behavin’. To sign up, arrive prompt for 7PM. Be Brave.

Free / BYOB

Saturday

Phone Box Poetry
12 – 5pm / Dumfries High Street

The 21stCentury has played witnessed to a revolution in digital communication, yet in its wake has left the humble public telephone in ruin, a phantom of its former self. From the 26th– 27th, keep your ears open for what may well be the voice of the telephone speaking from its ghostly realm. Ring, ring…ring, ring…

To submit your work please contact [email protected]

Press Play by Zoe Pearson
12 – 5pm / The Stove Elevator

An art-gremlin has set up home in the lift of 100 High Street. Each time you press play, the doors will open to a new improvised performance. Featuring spoken word, sounds, drawings, writing, miming, movement, costumes, and… well, who knows what!

Broken Brolly’s by Charnah Watson
12 – 5pm / Dumfries High Street

These broken brolly’s have been among the many unfortunate who have been subject to our dreich Scottish weather. Because of their misfortune they are quite frankly miserable and could do with some cheering up…can you help?

Dumfries Music Conference and The Plaza Presents: The World’s Smallest Music Venue
12 – 5pm / Dumfries High Street

Sit knee-to-knee with some of the finest local and national singer/songwriters in the world’s most intimate acoustic venue – The Plaza.
2 Chairs, 1 performer, 1 audience member, 1 unique experience.

Featuring: Ra, Prussia Snailham, Frozen Shores, Alix Apples and Flew the Arrow

Xing Yi: A Masterclass
12pm / The Stove Network, Room 2
Book your place by clicking HERE.

Xing Yi Quan is classified as one of the Wudang styles of Chinese martial arts. The name of the art translates approximately to “Form-Intention Fist”, or “Shape-Will Fist”

In this introductory masterclass, tutor Felix Waterhouse will take you through all the essentials in this most fascinating and relatively unknown martial art.

Comfortable clothing recommended.

The Accidental Death of An Anarchist by Dario Fo with Mackenzie Claperton
2pm / The Stove Network, Room 2
Book your place by clicking HERE.

‘I ought to warn you that the author of this sick little play, Dario Fo, has the traditional, irrational hatred of the police common to all narrow-minded left-wingers and so I shall, no doubt, be the unwilling butt of endless anti-authoritarian jibes.’ (Inspector Bertozzo, Central Italian Police HQ)

A sharp and hilarious satire on police corruption, The Death of an Anarchist concerns the case of an anarchist railway worker who, in 1969, ‘fell’ to his death from a police headquarters window.

A re-imagining of the classic play by young performance artist and theatre-maker Mackenzie Claperton. Anarchists assemble…

Harm (Less) by Hannah Wright (16+)
4pm /The Stove Network, Room 2
Book your place by clicking HERE.

What do memories weigh?
They can lift you up
They can break you down
They can scatter you
And shatter you into pieces
What is a memory?
Is it truth?

Harm(less) is an immersive and interactive performance, using film and spoken word to explore the topic of sexual assault and memory. Revisiting some of the milestone moments of her life, from that magical first kiss to the ones that are better forgotten,

Hannah explores how trauma affects memories by reflecting on fragments that are scattered throughout her conscious and unconscious mind.

The Behavin Manifesto: A Culinary Calamity
6pm / The Stove Cafe

Join us for dinner and drinks in the Behavin Lounge(Stove Café) and contribute to the Behavin Manifesto: a charter, a symbol and the starting gun of a radical movement in music, live art and theatre for Dumfries. Expect a culinary feast from the frivolous fancies of the resident anarchist chef.

Devine Tension: Intervention
8pm / Venue TBC
Book your place by clicking HERE.

Welcome…to the Haus of Tension.
You’ve been given an exclusive invitation to experience drag in the upside down, with Devine Tension.
‘INTERVENTION!!!’ Is a drag show turned love story, packed with camp visuals, spoken word, lip sync performance & some (sketchy) vocals. Buckle up. It’s going to be a wild ride.

Contains adult themes and strobe lighting.

Dae Somethin’: The Variety Showcase
9pm / The Oven

Dae Somethin’ – The Variety Showcase
Warhol’s Factory? Cabaret Voltaire? They were nothing on Dae Somethin’. A variety night featuring Extinction Rebellion, Steven Seagull & The Reguritators and you…yes, you…dae somethin’.

Sleeping in Space

10pm – 10am

Live out of town? Think you might miss the bus? No worries. We’ve a place for you to lay your weary head. Blueprint100 invite you to come stay in a safe space in the town centre. Get in touch for location details.
Sleeping Space is the first in an on-going calendar of sleepovers igniting conversations around regional transport, town centre living and access to the big events of Dumfries town centre. Lights out!

For more information and to book your space contact: [email protected]
(please note booking is mandatory)

Categories
Musings News

Welcome Jordan!

Hello! I’m Jordan – the new member of the Blueprint100 Curatorial Team and I am over the moon to have been offered this position.

I am originally from Edinburgh, but I moved to Dumfries in 2012 and have called it home since then. I am love with this town. I am in love with the river. I am in love with the possibilities this place holds. I am in love with the way it makes me feel. Like many, I want to make Dumfries a better place – because not everyone loves the place we call home and this feels unsettling. I am eager to create arts opportunities for young people across the region but most of all, I want to create a place in which we are not ashamed of.

For the last four years, I have been studying Contemporary Performance Practice (CPP) at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), in Glasgow. I graduated in July with a First-Class Honours Degree and I still cannot quite believe that happened!

Glasgow, is my favourite Scottish city (at the moment anyway – I change my mind like the weather!!) I think it’s true what they say – people truly do make Glasgow and many of the things that happen there are so diverse and beautiful that I can see why people never leave.

For me, Glasgow was not all roses and rainbows. The course was tough (but also awesome and life-changing and thought-provoking and full of magic. I will be forever grateful to have had that experience, you can find out more about my course here: https://www.rcs.ac.uk/courses/ba-contemporary-performance-practice/).

I recognised in my third year that the fire that burns within me was dimming in the city. I didn’t feel like I was suited to living full-time in the bright lights and the busy streets. I guess, as cliché as this sounds, I was feeling lost and uncertain. I felt a yearning for something more, something that I wouldn’t feel like I was drowning in. I wanted to be a part of something, something I could change. Something where my voice was heard. Something where my arts practice would not go to waste, although I wasn’t entirely sure what that was yet. I didn’t realise that all I ever wanted was right in front of me – at home, in Dumfries.

Looking back, I wish I had known that these feelings were completely fine to be feeling. I put more pressure on myself at the time because everyone around me seemed to be on a different thought process and figuring out their arts practice and really “getting it” and I wasn’t. I began to experience some mental health issues and my course soon fell to the bottom of my priorities.

I love to party – that is still true today. But a couple of years ago, this became an escape mechanism for me and I never wanted the party to stop. I decided that I was going to leave the course at the end of third of year and not complete my honours. I did not care at all and although (spoiler alert!) that point of view came to bite me in the bum in fourth year (stressss!) I am not angry at myself for feeling like that because I know it was genuinely how I was feeling – and we should not beat ourselves up for our emotions, or else we are all doomed. It was a part of me figuring things out.

On my course, we do our dissertations in third year (instead of fourth, because our final year is full of other fantastic modules) so before leaving, I had to complete my dissertation. I am extremely interested in conversation and the way it is used to make and create art. I entitled my dissertation; Conversation as an art form – when is conversation art?

Cutting a very long story short, during this time, my mum became very unwell and my life really changed. I had to commit to being in Dumfries whilst juggling a dissertation and end of year show and a million other uncertainties and things were happening at once. It felt like the world was caving in and I have never felt so alone… but, as some person once said, when the going gets tough, the tough get going… and that’s what happened. I did a lot of growing up. I completed my dissertation, I completed third year, I became a carer, I overcame some heady stuff and cried loads and loads and loads. I’m actually crying right now as I type this! It’s good to cry though.

My mum made a miraculous recovery that has made me believe in angels and all things other. I knew I had to complete fourth year and entered my final year at RCS determined and ready. My mum and I even made a show together named Kin; a memory that I will cherish deeply for the rest of my life.

Right now, I am committed to community arts practice and particularly interested in the therapeutic role of creativity; my ongoing work resides in community development. I am determined that if we all take a little more time to care for each other and the place in which we live, we will begin to feel much more connected to each other, contributing to better mental health.  I hope that my Blueprint100 journey allows me to implement this and I look forward to (hopefully) being a part of your journey too.

So, that’s a little bit about me! If you want to get in touch, I would love to hear from you! My email is [email protected]

Categories
Musings

Goodbye Jenna!

Jenna Macrory

This month we say goodbye to Blueprint100 Curatorial Team Member Jenna Macrory as she ventures off to Newcastle to begin her degree in Traditional Music. She has written a few words discussing her experience of working at Blueprint100 and her journey through different projects. We wanted to say a huge thank you to Jenna for all her amazing work over the last 2 years – we will miss you!

Jenna Macrory

Starting this role in November 2016 following on from my Nithraid internship, Blueprint provided a natural progression. After Nithraid, I knew that I wanted to work in the arts but was lost as to what my next step should be. Blueprint100 provided a paid role to work and develop projects but also to work and develop myself as an artist. Through Blueprint, I was able to host events, workshops and experiences for young people and give back to my town.

As a musician I was able to explore other job prospects in the music industry like event management and sound engineering. Being able to explore these other routes of working within the creative industry is essential for young people today as in schools the focus is pushed so heavily on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematic) based careers. This leaves a stigma that there are not viable career options within this sector, which is not true. It is absolutely essential that young people are made aware of this and also people that live in rural regions are able to access the arts.

Prior to working for blueprint I didn’t see much in Dumfries. I saw an anchor to my creativity but now as someone that is about to go to university in a city I don’t want to leave. Part of the magic of Dumfries is that is an unfinished project and getting to play a part in the development of Dumfries has been incredible and I’m very grateful that I was able to play a part in that. 

Looking forward I’m really excited to come back to Dumfries and Galloway and see where this town is. Projects like Midsteeple Quarter and Rosefield Mills are set to revitalise parts of the town which I believe will change the dynamics of the town and set us on track for the future.

Categories
Musings News

Brave New Words: Blueprint100 Takeover

Brave New Words Celebrates with a Blueprint Takeover, Millions Dead
by Chauncey Milquetoast

The night of the 27th was one of debauchery, excess and – at the hands of the host – violence. There was also some rather lovely poetry and music and…misc.
The night marked a change from what was usually expected, thanks to a bunch of youths running the show this time instead of that guy what usually does it.

Hosted by the absurdly abrasive Brandan Braslin and his Phantom House Band (one dude), the night began innocuously enough before descending into surreal, Lynchian chaos.There was more variety than ever with acts performing a cacophony of poetry, prose, musical numbers and stand up comedy. It’s impossible to pick a highlight, as each act was as wonderful as the one that preceded it, except for one profoundly unpleasant man in a hideous floral shirt.

The only downside was that, for the fourth time, my request for Dead Kennedys fell on deaf ears. Perhaps I should ask a musical act next time instead of literally every poet. Live and learn.This was also a particularly inclusive night where everyone was made to feel welcome – with only one heckler this time, which I believe is a new record, plus it was a member of staff so it doesn’t even really count.

The finale consisted of our host providing a final monologue before disassembling himself into minute, complex geometrical shapes and dissolving into the ether, while the house band grew to a gargantuan size before rampaging through the town centre.Overall it was a good night. I’d say…twelve out of a possible thirteen stars.