The Stove's Herald!

A while back we put out an opportunity for something called a 'Public Communicator and Herald' - We had a strong sense of the spirit of the role...but found it very hard to describe exactly...so the selection process was a very 2-way process....after much conversation and inspiration from all involved in the process...Ladies and Gentlemen we are very proud to announce that our Herald is Moxie DePaulitte: 

Hello there, I’m Moxie and I’m delighted to be able to introduce myself as The Stove’s newly appointed Public Communicator and Herald which, at the risk of sounding like a Valley Girl, is just like, totally, you know, the coolest job title ev-ah.
I’ve been asked to write a short post introducing myself but, although I’m really good at talking about other things, I’m really don’t excel at saying things about myself so I enlisted the help of my four year old. This is what she said:
“She is nice and cuddly and warm. And she has a really nice job. She do some importment stuff and she always loves me and she always does nice stuff for us. And she uses all her money up for food for us. Her name is Moxie she does some pretty good stuff. Can I go back in the paddling pool now, please?”
So there you have it; a definitive guide to me, my work and my new role. 

Moxie DePaulitte - Stove Herald

I think she’s pretty much covered everything but, just in case any of you aren’t fluent in Preschooleeze, I’ll translate...I’ve been involved in the arts for as long as I can remember and love the passion, power and opportunities the creative process stirs up. Sadly, however, art works are frequently just presented to us and the glory and excitement of this process is missed because we don’t know the why, the what, and the wow.
A lot goes on behind the scenes and, when a group is so absorbed in a project, it’s easy to forget that not everyone knows the back story; the reasons and the nuances behind a piece. It’s not transparent. So, this is where I come in: Part of my role is to help more people become aware of and involved in that very process; to make sure everyone understands what’s going on and that the cogs are visible as they’re turning.
The lovely people at The Stove know it can often feel like events go on around us and happen to us rather than with us and for us and they would very much like that to change.

On funding bids they probably call it ‘Building Stronger Community Relationships’ but, luckily for me, that translates as ‘meeting up with people for a cup of tea, chin wag and a biscuit’, so get in touch! Share with me your ideas and questions; I’ll be delighted to talk them through with you. Let’s see how we can get you involved.

email me info@thestove.org and I’ll get back to you.

Be part of something brilliant. You really can help shape Dumfries into the town you know it can be.

Diaries Oot

Our year-long programme of events got off to a fine start with Dumfries Charter14 at the end of June…..but there is plenty more to come. Here are the dates we have at the moment – get ‘em in the diary!
(Many more details to be announced – but we thought we should give you the basic dates asap)

Last year's Nithraid poster

1.Nithraid
Nithraid 2015 will take place on Saturday 13th September on and around the River Nith in Dumfries

Following on from last years triumphant inaugural Nithraid – it is back for 2015….more boats in the race…an arty market by the Nith…musical procession…and artworks of every stripe.

Nithraid will be one of our biggest events this year – there are lots of ways that you can get involved:

• Help sewing flags and pennants for the event
• Join the Nithraid Street Band (led by musicians Ruth Morris and Gavin Marwick)
• Run a stall at the Nithraid Street Market
• Take part in the Sailing Race itself

2.Trading Journeys
Trading Journeys will take place on Saturday 27th October at multiple locations in Wigtown – culminating outside the County Buildings from 4pm
 
The Stove Network has been commissioned to create a live artwork for the Wigtown Book Festival. Trading Journeys is an ambitious event with ways for festival-goers to get hands-on. The project is based around Wigtown’s role as a market town and the different routes that people and goods took to get there. Trading Journeys will involve crossings of the Cree Estuary, horse drawn transport and a procession with everything coming together around a portable foundry making spoons (sounds fairly Stoveish – right)


 
3.Parking Space
Parking Space will take place on 17th and 18th October
 
A two-day event that creatively inhabits unexpected urban spaces. Parking Space will ask searching questions about the urban environment in Dumfries …and be a lot of fun. One of the elements of Parking Space will be The Stove Network AGM…unlike any boring old meeting you have ever experienced our AGM will be an artwork in itself and chance for the everyone to get together.

Last years DMC poster

4.Dumfries Music Conference
Provisional Dates for DMC are 27-29th November
 
Now in its third year DMC is going from strength to strength as learning space and showcase event for the independent music scene. 

Opportunity: Public Art Residency

PUBLIC ART OPPORTUNITY IN DUMFRIES

An opportunity for an artist (or artist team) to be supported for a of period of socially-engaged research within the context of the changing identity of the ‘Regional Capital of the South West’ – Dumfries. The selected artist will work alongside The Stove Network and take advantage of their resources locally, nationally and internationally. The outcomes of this commission will be presented as part of a major public art programme for Dumfries supported by Creative Scotland, Dumfries and Galloway Council and the Holywood Trust.

The Stove Network is an emerging artist-led organisation based in Dumfries. The organisation is led by a Curatorial Team who in turn lead a diverse membership in excess of 100 people in projects that work creatively with local people in Dumfries and surrounding area to collectively build a new vision for the town.

A fee is offered of £8,000 (+ additional production budget for realising an outcome of the research period)

Deadline for submissions – 28^th July 2014

Full brief from ailsa@thestove.org

The Grand Unveiling of a Charter in Process....your invitation

Revealed in the streets as only The Stove Network can

.......@ Guid Nychburris

'just add water'
12.30pm on Saturday 21^st June

The artists of The Stove Network have challenged the town to create a ‘peoples charter’ for the future of Dumfries.  The 1395 Royal Charter for the Burgh of Dumfries, is read out each year as part of Guid Nychburris (Good Neighbours) Festival – this year there will be an alternative version as well….

The Dumfries Charter 14 is made up of contributions from individuals and community groups and begins with the premise that people are responsible for making their place – and they do not need to ask anyone’s permission other than their fellow citizens.

Dumfries Charter 14 near the town fountain on the High Street immediately after the crowning of the Queen of the South at 12.30pm on Saturday 21^st June

You're invited to come and be part of it - see you there!

It is all too common for people to think that ‘someone else is in charge’ of what happens here – we hope this new people's Charter will inspire more people to believe that we all have a part to play in making Dumfries the best place for everyone to live, work and play

From enterprise and opportunity to diversity and bus srevices, ‘Dumfries is something that we all make together’ has sparked conversation and debate as suggestions towards a new charter have flown in. 
 

'We were delighted to be approached to contribute to the new charter. We exist to give a voice to people who do not always feel included and we feel very proud to be part of a charter which reflects local people’s commitment to increase understanding and promote equality'  Dumfries and Galloway Multicultural Association

 

Dumfries Charter 14 will be launched on the High Street on a series of giant canvas banners – the text on the banners requires the application of water to make it visible – Stove members will be inviting members of the public to assist them in ‘applying’ the water and revealing the Charter to the world.

Also people will be invited to edit, stamp, sign and seal their own personal version of the Charter to take away with them and members of The Stove team will be there to help and talk. Proceedings will also be helped along by the visit of a mystery guest from history who has already played a part in social movements in Scotland.

 Background - here

and on Stove Facebook - here 

This is The Stove Network's third year at Guid Nychburris:
2012 - Punkin' the Jubilee
2013 - Back2Back Dumfries 

Opportunity: A Temporary Installation in a River

A temporary public art commission forming a central feature for Nithraid 2014, a temporary public participation event developed by The Stove Network as part of TheStove@TheStove public art programme.

Nithraid

Nithraid is a challenging sailing race from Carsethorn on the estuary, up the River Nith to the very heart of Dumfries – a distance of about 10 miles.

The Nithraid, and all its constituent parts are about re-connecting people with the River and the spaces around it. Whilst waiting for the sailors to arrive at the finishing line, the audience lining the banks of the river (2,000 last year, hoping for over 5,000 this year) will be engaged in activities created by artists as part of the overall event which are likely to include:

* A marching band in procession

* A street market along the river

* Skateboarders and rollerbladers performing

The temporary river installation commission

We want to mark the race finishing point in the river with a dramatic feature, in place just for the day of the event, Saturday 13 September.

We have few preconceptions regarding the final form of the installation, so are hoping to be surprised and inspired! The installation could definitely (but by no means exclusively) use water as its main material.

Key Dates

* Submission date for spplications 4 July 2014

* Nithraid Event date 13 September 2014

£3,000, including fees, all materials and costs, VAT.

Application procedure

A detailed brief is available from info@thestove.org

Digital applications only, to be received by 4 July 2014

for images from the inaugural Nithraid staged by The Stove - see here

Opportunity: Public Art Research Residency

A Public Art Research Residency based in Dumfries with The Stove Network, with outcomes that are presented as part of the TheStove@TheStove public art programme (18 month duration)

The successful applicant will be expected to spend a significant amount of time in Dumfries. During this research period the artist will conduct both archival and broadly engaged research. The Stove can assist with meaningful connections to enable this process, however the artist is expected to show initiative and have an outward facing approach to their practice. 
We are open about the direction the research may take, an example of a stepping off point might include:- Dumfries Common Good 
The Stove Network is an emerging artist-led organisation based in Dumfries. The organisation is led by a Curatorial Team who in turn lead a diverse membership in excess of 100 people in projects that work creatively with local people in Dumfries and surrounding area to collectively build a new vision for the town.We do this through developing participative artwork projects in public spaces, delivering workshops and training opportunities, providing a hub for creative practice in our region and working in partnership with other local organisations.

Timescale: July 2014 – February 2015

Budget: £8,000 + additional production budget for Required Outcome 2 to be agreed

Full brief and info on application/selection – ailsa@thestove.org 
Deadline for Application: 14^th June


project supported by  

Opportunity: Public Communicator and Herald

PUBLIC COMMUNICATOR AND HERALD

for The Stove’s 2014/2015 art programme in Dumfries

The Stove Network is looking for an interpreter, a recorder, a herald, a bridger. Above all…. a communicator. 
This residency commission is to research and understand the dozen or so projects in public spaces that constitute The Stove’s creative programme from June 2014 to June 2015, then to interpret them for the people of Dumfries in ways that are engaging, informative and  creative. We are looking for tangible physical outcomes instead of or as well as digital ones.

You should have significant experience in at least one of the following: event production, socially engaged art in public, the written word… or something we have not thought of... surprise and inspire us (and Dumfries). You will also need to convince us of your experience and ability to interpret and communicate. 

The nature of the commission requires considerable time on location in Dumfries, and the successful artist will be required to attend specific project dates. Please be aware of this if intending to travel from a significant distance.

Timescale – July 2014 – September 2015
Fee - £6,500 (to include all expenses and VAT if applicable)
For full brief and details of application/selection process  - ailsa@thestove.org 
Deadline for application submission: 14^th June

project supported by 

'Making Dumfries' - a new Charter

Members of The Stove Network are gearing up for Guid Nychburris again. We have been involved in the festivities for the last 2 years and are finding it a brilliant opportunity to work with and talk to people in Dumfries about the future of the town.

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 (21^st 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’

beginning of the US 'Bill of Rights'

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:

“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.

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