Stove Members Gathering 29th October 2013

Brilliant to see about 40 intrepid Stove folk braving the dark winter evening to come to the Stove Members Gathering/Catch up/Planning  Thing Meeting last Tuesday night.
Old friends and new friends came and it was particularly good to see people who had helped with Back2Back and taken part in the Nithraid. The Stove is all about reaching out and working beyond the arts….in fact there was chat about whether what we are doing is really ‘art’ anyway- and does that matter.
One of the ideas that seemed to catch peoples interest and agreement was that the Stove should be about inspiring people to take charge of their own immediate environment. Too often people think that they are ‘not allowed’ to do things – we hope that our events have an ethos of ‘just do it’ about them and that others will be inspired to follow suit. We believe that people working form the grassroots with independent and locally relevant initiatives is the way that Dumfries with prosper in the future. (Sermon over!)

The evening kicked off with a Welcome led by Will – who invited Katie to talk about Back2Back – The Stove’s project for Guid Nychburris in June. Katie showed John Wallace’s lovely wee film of the event – which you can view here

Back2Back - 15th June 2013

Linda followed on with a slide show of images for the Nithraid and it was great that other people brought their own pictures to share too – even if the one of Will and Matt hugging in pink T Shirts might not see the light of day again anytime soon! More pictures from Nithraid - here

Nithraid 22nd September 3013

Nithraid really seems to have caught people’s imagination  - there was a really strong contingent of folk who had taken part and in the race and a collective determination to do it again next year. Mark Zygadlo is leading on this for The Stove and currently working very hard to raise the necessary money for next years event.

The Awesome Nithraid Scratch Band

Lots of people ask ‘how do I get involved with The Stove?’ – the Nithraid is a great example: The Curatorial Team raised some money to do a Stove project as part of the Environmental Art Festival…..we had a first think about what might be possible and relevant to both our larger programme and that of the Festival. We then put out an invite to Stove Members which said ‘Stove is going to do something for EAFS – it will be connected to the River Nith in some way….if you are interested to be part of this then come along on this day and we’ll all brainstorm ideas together’ . About 10 people came to that original meeting…the idea of Nithraid was born and Mark Zygadlo and Stan Bonnar became part of the project team that made the Nithraid happen. 

The Nithraid was a proper challenge!

Along the way other folk were pulled in by word-of-mouth and adverts etc eg Roy Kerr from Nith Navigation and all the folk who took part in the race. Then closer to the date we put out another call for people to be part of the crew for the day and we were thrilled that about 12 people came and were part of making the whole thing happen on the day (from being part of the scratch band, to catering, to stewarding, to releasing the banners into the water, to helping get the boats out of the water).

The Archivist (by Stove Members: Jo Hodges, Robbie Coleman and Dave Giblin) at Environmental Art Festival Scotland

Matt then showed some slides from the Environmental Art Festival Scotland – The Stove was part of the team (with Spring Fling and Wide-Open) that thought up and produced the festival. One of the great things about EAFS was the way it provided opportunities for so  many people in D+G to take part and the way different people worked together – just about everyone in the room had been part of EAFS in some way – great feeling!!
Photo from EAFS

Colin talked introduced Dumfries Music Conference with a video from last years event and a run down of this years programme that was starting the day after this Gathering.

Hector Bizerk onstage at DMC at The Stove 1st Nov 3013

Matt then rounded off the presentations with a quick run through of The Stoves 3 year programming plan.  In synopsis this breaks down into:
2014 – intensive focus on Dumfries with TheStove@TheStove (including residency opportunities for Stove members)
2015 – First part of year finishing TheStove@TheStove before focussing on the second Environmental Art Festival Scotland for September/October that year
2016 – Year of Architecture in Scotland….The Stove hopes to be a main partner in the festival in SouthWest Scotland and pick up themes form work in Dumfries and across the region through EAFS……imagining a sustainable future for D+G.

Another big push for The Stove recently has been in the way we are using different media in our work. Katie Anderson is now building on the great foundation made by Mike Nicholson on Social Media for The Stove. Our Facebook page has never been busier and Katie has become surgically attached to her IPad it seems.

Check out The Stove on Facebook
And on Twitter.

And if you're not yet a member and fancy being part of The Stove mission to change the world then send an email to info@thestove.org and Sheila will send you a membership form. Membership is free and gives you no obligations whatsoever....you'll just get emails and updates from The Stove and the offer of being involved in projects, commission opportunities and members rates on room hires etc.

Nithraid - The Results are In!

The Whitesands came alive this weekend - as the Nithraid did indeed come up with the tide. From the starting point at Carsethorn, thirteen boats made the trip up the Caul - with first place being awarded to Piella, skippered by Adam Booth with a time of 2 hours and 6 minutes. But a challenging race it proved, as sand banks, strong currents and low winds proved the course to be a tricky one. 

Photo credits: Colin Tennant - see more here

The Salt Cow being lowered into the Nith by the winning team Photo credits: Oriel Marshal - see more here

Photo credits: Brian Kerr - see more here

The Salt Cow was paraded through the streets of Dumfries with all ceremonial care which gathered numbers as it passed the Midsteeple, rounded the Burns statue (twice), down the Vennels and across the Devorgilla bridge to continue a loop around the river bridges to the beating of drums (and diggeri-moos). 

Photo credits: Rosi - see more here

Banners were released over the old bridge as the boats arrived, proclaiming the words of Dumfries including

Seize the potential.

On the brink.

Decent.

Cut rates.

Photo credits: Katie - see more here

Photo credits: Martin Johnston of DGWGO see more here

Despite the slightly dreich conditions - spectators arrived and lined both sides of the river to behold the unusual sight. Many thanks go out to everyone who was involved and to all who turned out on Saturday.