In some of the D&G arts sector gatherings of late there
appears to have been some confusion for some people between The Commonty and
The Stove……so in the hope of not muddying the waters further:
The Commonty is
not a ‘group’ as such – it is an open-access forum for everyone interested in
the arts in D&G…..a place to exchange opinions, information, opportunities
and our work. The Commonty cannot ‘speak’ for anyone – it is the sum total of the material published on the blog.
The Stove is an
artist’s collective that has come together to create a project that is
initially based in Dumfries. The Stove group have used The Commonty as one of
their means of building the project with partners. (Similarly the Independent Arts
Sector group have used The Commonty to publicise their meetings and share
minutes etc with the wider sector)
 |
| The Stove building in the centre of Dumfries |
The aim of The Stove is to make a creative arts space in the
centre of Dumfries that provides a social and meeting place for the general
public and the creative community. In addition The Stove will carry out a
programme of arts projects for public spaces and people in the town – the
building will be an HQ for these projects – at different times a production
facility, an exhibition space, a performance/discussion venue. Finally, there
will rentable spaces for creative businesses and temporary workshop/studio
spaces.
Organisationally The Stove consists of a small committee and
a wider ‘creative group’…..the committee is driving the project on all fronts
and the wider group meets occasionally to keep a multitude of voices involved
in this important effort for the region.
Recently, we have been assisted by D&G Council, in
formally constituting The Stove in a manner advised as being most beneficial to
running the project long-term. We have also been offered good terms on a long
lease on premises in the town Centre by the Chamber of Commerce.
The building requires some work completed to make it
suitable for The Stove – in particular significant improvement to access
provision for people with disabilities. This work will take at least a year to
complete. We have decided that rather than wait for the building works to be
completed The Stove will operate in 2012 through three live projects that do
not require full occupation of the building:
First Foot (presented as part of the Big Burns Supper
festival – end Jan 2012)
This project
will introduce local people to the building before building work commences. The
spaces of the building will house temporary installations inspired by the town
and created by local artists (some in collaboration with young people). A
series of ‘artists burns suppers’ will be held to coincide with the Big Burns
Supper.
Square Dance (June 2012)
We
anticipate that the building work will be in full swing at this time and Square
Dance will use only the windows, façade and space immediately surrounding the
Stove. The main theme we are looking at is Movement and different ways that the
façade of the building could be used as a backdrop for performance and/or a
projection screen. This is a project we would like to open out to young people
in D+G working in all forms of dance.
Inbetween Dumfries (November 2012)
Members of
the Stove have been working with the Intersections group at Newcastle
University for 12 months on the development and funding bids for the project.
Money has been raised to present a 2-day conference in each participating town
to explore the way cultural projects can influence the regeneration of market
towns. It has always been part of the vision that the conferences should be
accompanied by temporary public artworks made by artists. The Stove plans to
present a week long programme of live public art events to compliment the
Inbetween event.
Funding applications have been made to deliver The Stove
programme and the committee will take the role of ‘Creative Team’ to curate and
manage the three events. This Creative Team comprises: Matt Baker, Mark
MacLachlan, Linda Mallett, Will Levi Marshall and Colin Tennant.
This Creative Team will serve for 2012 and then a new team
will be sought for the following year. Working in a curatorial/managerial
capacity means that someone cannot also work as an individual artist on that
project.
When funding is secured ‘Calls for Artists*’ will be issued
that will be open to anyone for anyone to put themselves forward (some calls will be restricted to D&G
artists) NB because of short timeframe
projects are already in development for the First Foot event – these have been
begun by people who have been involved in the larger Stove group and are on an
entirely voluntary basis at present (cos we haven’t got a bean …yet)
We are in the process of getting a proper project
infrastructure in place (website/email etc) – in the meantime please continue
to get in touch with The Stove through commenting on posts on The Commonty or
by email thestove1@gmail.com. We are committed to this being
something that anyone can have a stake in, if they are prepared to put in time
and energy.
Hoping this is going to be a good one…
The Stove Creative Team 2012
* the term ‘artists’ is used to denote
creative people of every discipline – from musicians to writers to filmmakers
to sculptors to painters to designers to ceramicists and glassmakers)
No comments:
Post a Comment