A call out from The Stove Network has gone out this week asking for expressions of interest from creative practitioners in Dumfries & Galloway to take part in a COVID-transition project called ‘Atlas Pandemica: Maps to a Kinder World’.
The outcome from the project will be a blueprint proposing possible ways forward for the Dumfries & Galloway community following the global pandemic. A team of eight practitioners will work together on a series of action research projects looking at themes which include decision making, food, travel, communities, the public sphere, diversity, hospitality and the natural world.
The project is being supported by The Scottish Government, funding from the ‘Supporting Communities Fund’ will allow The Stove to commission people from the creative sector in Dumfries & Galloway to research local responses to COVID-19 and work with the community to see how these could be applicable in a post-COVID future. Freelancers in the Creative Industries sector have been one of groups worst hit by the COVID lockdown and the project will provide much needed work through these commissions.
Matt Baker, co-curator of the project commented: “We have all seen amazing community responses to the Covid pandemic locally, through individual acts of kindness by neighbours to highly organised initiatives in villages and towns. We’re looking to capture the essence of those projects, through the work of the artists, and work with the people involved to see how these ideas could be developed further for the future.
The crisis has shone a light on the distinction between centralized government initiatives and the way that communities are working to help themselves. It’s important that the future for Dumfries and Galloway contains the right balance between those different approaches.”
The Atlas Pandemica project is a recognition of the role that the arts and creativity have played in the region over recent years. Projects such as the Midsteeple Quarter show how creative activity can lead to full scale community-led regeneration project that benefit the local population. The Stove Network recently published the Embers report which explores creative placemaking in Dumfries & Galloway and profiles successful examples of community-led regeneration projects which span the region. Atlas Pandemica will build on the foundations of this work and aim to point the way to a locally driven future built upon the unique qualities of Dumfries & Galloway.
Applications for Atlas Pandemica are open now and expressions of interest are sought from people of all walks of life who use creativity in their work, including visual artists, filmmakers, writers, performers, chefs, producers, designers, researchers, carers, therapists or teachers. More information and how to apply is available by visiting www.thestove.org
