Annandale and Eskdale - EAFS weekend 7th, 8th, 9th September

From Fresh Start for the Arts
 
Moorland, woodland and coast – Annandale and Eskdale will be celebrating them all in the Environmental Art Festival Scotland.

The activities taking place in the east of D&G from 7-9 September are part of the series of Fresh Start backed Satellite Weekends which stretch out beyond the core festival – which you doubtless already know starts on 30 August.

The Annandale and Eskdale weekend has been carefully thought through to cover diverse landscapes and communities, from Powfoot to Moffat, and to be highly participatory.

TapRoots sounds fun – with lots of magical tales of trees and woods being told at Meikleholmside Cottage Farm. Then there’s an exhibition of work by various artists at Langholm Town Hall called Making the Most of the Moorlands.

Making the Most of the Moorlands

Ephemeral and Everlasting, at Moffat’s Well Road gallery garden studio, is an exhibition that includes studies by Richard Demarco of rural roads. Environmental Sound artist James Wyness will be showcasing highlights of his globetrotting sound work in a specially adapted room upstairs at 21 Well Road on Sat 7th September and Sunday 8th September. Moffat based landscape photographer Simon Tweedie will be showcasing his spectacular photographs of local scenes in the vestibule of the Gallery during the weekend. Plus  Distinguished Carcanet Author Anthony Rudolf  author of books and literary criticism and poetry will give a talk on Sat 7th and Sun 8th September on the redeeming power of memorised poetry
And we’ve previously talked about the Tidemark creative writing project at Powfoot, which culminates in a public reading of new work inspired by the shoreline which has been created in recent weeks.

James Wyness - Reefing the Sail

You’ll need to check the EAFS website and brochure for times and booking details. While you are there you can also see what the Stewartry has got set up for its satellite events, which take place during the rapidly-approaching core festival – or just call up last week’s blog.

Taproots

Turning to a different subject we’d like to ask all those who have taken part in Fresh Start activities, events, projects and consultations of any kind to give up a couple of minutes to fill in a very short questionnaire.

It’s on our website and just needs to be downloaded, filled in and emailed back to us, so we can create a good record of who has been involved and how. We have endeavoured to involve a proper cross-section of the creative community and this will help to show whether that’s happened.

● You can now visit the Fresh Start website at www.freshstartforthearts.com/