Back2Back - The Stove @ Guid Nychburris 2013 |
Recently we have been inspired
by some of our researches into local movements of people working together to
make the places that they live in better by thinking creatively and taking
practical measures like pooling skills.
The 100 citizens who re-wrote the Irish Consitution (66 ordinary people, 33 politicians and 1 independent Chairperson) |
Guid Nychburris celebrates
the granting of a Royal Charter to the Burgh of Dumfries in 1395. We thought it
would be interesting to speculate about the sort of Charter the people of
Dumfries might grant themselves for the future prosperity
of the town.
The earliest surviving copy of the Dumfries Burgh Charter was written down in 1580 - the original Charter being given in 1395 |
For absolute clarity…this
idea of a popular Charter is NO way ‘official’ – it will have no formal status
at all…it has not been ‘commissioned’ in any way. A group of local artists just
thought this could be an interesting contribution to the conversation about the
future of the town.
We plan to launch the Charter
on Guid Nychburris Day (21st June) – getting people to help us
‘unveil’ it in a typically Stoveish manner and offering people special memorial
copies that they can also add to and edit as they choose.
Publishing 'stove style' at Nithraid 2013 |
We are getting in touch now
to invite you to contribute to the new Charter – our idea is that the Charter
should focus on people and what is important to quality of life… to paraphrase
the US constitution ‘ Each Citizen covenants with the whole people and the
whole people covenants with each Citizen that all shall respect certain
principles for the common good’
The Stove already has long
standing partnerships with groups and individuals working in these areas – over
the next couple of weeks we will be asking people to help us come up with a phrase
(20 words max) for their particular area of interest that we can add to the new Charter.
We propose that the Charter begins with the statement that:
beginning of the US 'Bill of Rights' |
We propose that the Charter begins with the statement that:
“Dumfries is what we make
together.We promise each
other that our making together will be shaped by these values, for the common
good:”
Our idea is that this opening is followed by a series of statements about how
the town regards the following:
· Young People
· Diversity
· People with disabilities
· Enterprise and opportunity
· Culture and Creativity
· Heritage
· Environment
· Belief
· Education
Civic Society and Local Democracy
Health and Wellbeing
This is also a completely open invitation to anyone with an interest in this project to take part….please either leave a comment at the bottom of this post, drop us an email at info@thestove.org or contact us through Facebook or Twitter.
Civic Society and Local Democracy
Health and Wellbeing
This is also a completely open invitation to anyone with an interest in this project to take part….please either leave a comment at the bottom of this post, drop us an email at info@thestove.org or contact us through Facebook or Twitter.
Also let us know if you are
interested to be involved in being part of the project team to bring all this
to fruition for Guid Nuychburris Day and beyond
We are not intending crediting individual contributions on the Charter itself – but we would hope to list everyone involved as part of the project documentation. Please include with your contribution the way you would like to be credited or a confirmation that your contribution should be anonymous
We are not intending crediting individual contributions on the Charter itself – but we would hope to list everyone involved as part of the project documentation. Please include with your contribution the way you would like to be credited or a confirmation that your contribution should be anonymous