Our 'Foundation Gathering

The 'Foundation Gathering' always sounded more like a cheesy Sci-Fi convention than an art event…..The Stove’s ‘Foundation Gathering’ has now  landed on earth complete with dry ice (or was that just folk breathing in the ‘bracing’ conditions) and wobbly flying saucers.

Its Art Jim but not as...etc

More than 60 folk turned out on Wednesday – drawn by an invitation to come and be part of the future of the arts in the region by shaping the idea of a membership that will be at the heart of the organisations operation and decision -making.

Phil Jones (Business Development Manager) gave a welcome and defined the Stove as a project with potential to be at the vanguard of a new genre of arts provision in Scotland – a social enterprise that aims to means for residents of Dumfries to play an active part in the future of their town.

Phil describes the Stove as ‘Two things: 1) A Building - fully accessible arts resource for general public and creative practitioners….and 2) An Organisation – delivering participative public arts projects and undertaking commissions in the region and nationally”

The Stove - 'Punkin' the Jubilee'

One of the Stove’s founder members Colin Tennant then gave a brief illustrated presentation of work completed by the group to date and their plans for the future. To date, The Stove has delivered a highly successful programme of public arts events including ‘First Foot’ (part of Big Burns Supper 2012), ‘Punkin’ the Jubilee’ (Guid Nychburris 2012) and the Dumfries Music Conference – which brought industry professionals to the town to explain the contemporary digital music scene to the regions young music entrepreneurs.

In 2013/14 The Stove will refurbish and open premises at 100 High St as a public arts centre, complete a sculpture commission in Creetown and work as one of three local partners delivering the inaugural Environmental Art Festival Scotland.

Andrew Lyon explains a sculpture made by, amongst others, Zoe Blamire (McGill Duncan Gallery) and Cathy Agnew (Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust)

For the main part of the evening Andrew Lyon of the International Futures Forum led a workshop that started people working in small groups to make sculptures from a pile of recycled materials. Andrew’s organisation works to find creative ways of thinking about the future and he asked groups to build a  sculpture that illustrated ideas and hope they had for what The Stove could do for themselves and the wider community.

Local organic farmer Ross Paten demonstrates how regular drain clearing will be a valuable part of The Stove’s remit…

An amazing outpouring of creativity ensued and groups then explained to others what their sculpture represented. Andrew Lyon then skilfully gathered all these ideas together into a creative discussion about how The Stove could operate as a democratic organisation with a membership, a board and an ‘curatorial committee’. A general discussion followed and 43 people signed up as the initial membership of The Stove.

Membership is open to everyone and is free – if you would like to be a part of the innovative experiment in building a collaborative creative organisation for Dumfries and Galloway then please send an email to TheStove1@gmail.com and you’ll be sent a membership form.

The first Stove AGM is set for mid May 2013 where the membership will be invited to elect a board to run the organisation on their behalf.

Foundation Meeting at the Stove

The Stove's foundation meeting was deemed a success, thanks to Andrew Lyon from International Futures Forum and a large group keen to demonstrate their found-art sculpture. More pictures on flickr here

Your Invite to Our Foundation Gathering

The Stove needs your Help

The Stove is getting itself properly organised for the future and needs your help to do this – we’re asking folk who are interested in the arts in D+G to join us for an informal evening to let us know how we are doing so far and what we could be doing better in the future. After we have all agreed a way forward everyone will be offered membership of The Stove (free)

So what has this got to do with you?.......

We believe The Stove can make a genuine contribution to the future of our region – for both the creative sector and the wider population

Still wondering what it has to do with you?.......

The Stove is two things:

1. A Building……..you need to come to this gathering if:

-      You’d like to see a place in the centre of Dumfries where you can meet other creative folk, get info about what is going on locally and further afield.

-      You’d like to be able to hire affordable space to hold workshops/events

-      You’d like to show/present/gig in a space dedicated to multi-disciplinary contemporary arts

-      You’d like to rent a small serviced space in the centre of Dumfries

-      You’re interested in being part of the artist team to work on a series of commissions integrated into the building

-      You want to know about progress with the building (we aim to have completed the necessary building work by the end of 2013 btw)

2. An Organisation……you should come along if you are interested in:

-      Collaborating with other artists as part of teams to take on large commissions

-      Bringing forward new ideas for projects/initiatives that need an ‘organisation’ to carry them forward (NB – one of The Stove rules is ‘if you have an idea you need to be prepared to do it yourself’)

-       If you are an organisation yourself and are looking to collaborate and share resources/expertise

-       Learning new skills by taking part in Stove projects

-       Building a creative career in Dumfries and Galloway

-       Encouraging early career folk to get started locally

-       Growing the ‘arts scene’ in D+G

-       If you are not part of the ‘creative sector’ but you are interested in working with our sector in your work (we can be pretty handy like)

We are holding an informal and relaxed gathering that will be run by Andrew Lyon of the International Futures Forum – the aim is find a creative solution that works for all of us to set up The Stove as the best thing it can be. By attending you will be offered the chance to build yourself into the Stove network from the beginning of this exciting new phase of the venture.

You do not need any expertise of any kind to take part – just enthusiasm and an open mind and heart.

When: 6pm Wednesday 13^th March 2013
 

Where: The Stove, 100 High Street Dumfries DG1 2BJ  

What: Informal workshop led by Andrew Lyon till 7.30, refreshments and chat after

More: TheStove1@gmail.com ………please also RSVP to this address so we have an idea of numbers

The Rural Office

One of the many advantages of a rural arts practice the diverse locations on offer - today The Stove curatorial group went for walk on the shore at Carsethorn to think big thoughts

posted by MB