This month will see the first D-Lux Festival bring warmth, light and curiosity into Dumfries town centre at the darkest time of the year, where artists explore new ways to illuminate the darkness. The festival will run alongside the Big Burns Supper, starting on 22nd January and running until 28th January.
One of D-Lux Directors, David Smith, commented, ‘Light festivals play an important part in regenerating town centres and making people think differently about the place in which they live. We want to encourage people back into the town centre in the evening, building on the important work that has already been done by places like The Stove Network.’
D-Lux is a unique partnership with Jardines Funeral Directors. D-Lux have matched their investment with an award from Arts and Business Scotland; an independent Scottish charity who help to nurture the creative, social and commercial relationships that will enrich creativity and cultural engagement across Scotland.
David Watt CEO, Arts & Business Scotland “We are delighted to support the partnership between D-Lux Arts and Jardine Funeral Directors through the provision of a New Arts Sponsorship Grant. We hope this inaugural event is a great success”
The New Arts Sponsorship Grant scheme encourages private sector sponsorship of cultural activity in Scotland. Funded by the Scottish Government via Creative Scotland and administered by Arts & Business Scotland it offers £1 for £1 match funding to cultural organisations that have secured sponsorship from an eligible business.
Director Mark Jardine commented, ‘In essence, this is an opportunity for everyone to get involved – a real People’s Project where everyone can make their own contribution by placing a string of white lights in their window which will brighten up the dullest of days! This has nothing to do with Christmas, but about creating a unique Winter Light Festival during the post festive gloom which will also help the feel good factor surrounding the Big Burns Supper.’
As well as focusing on re-lighting the town centre, D-Lux Festival has commissioned a number of artists to bring light installations to Dumfries throughout the week, delighting audiences with performances and engaging participations, and focusing efforts in the heart of the town in front of the Midsteeple.
Artists Kate Drummond and Hannah Fox, also known as Ida Glimmer and Ava Shimmer, are thrilled to be bringing ‘Delight’, their ‘constellation cart’ to Dumfries this month. This double act, with their beautiful illuminated ice cream van, love to portray magical shadow puppet stories that bring a little light and a warm glow to the streets. Look out for them on Sunday 22nd January at the Big
Burns Procession and on the evening of Saturday the 28th January.
Concursum is an association of three alternative photography practitioners and artists, Laura Rhiannon Peters, Andrew Billington and Patrick Ballanger. They mainly specialise in a demanding and often temperamental 19th century process called Wet Plate Collodion which requires the pictures to be developed there and then. The process will be used to make unique image objects called tintypes. They will be based at the Bakers oven from Monday the 22nd of January and the pictures they take will start to appear in the windows of the town centre soon after that.
On Tuesday 24th January, D-Lux celebrates the lives of artists lost in the last year with their event, ‘Dead Set’. Taking place at The Stove, in association with Blueprint100, the evening will feature performances from local musicians as well as a discussion from Dr Sandy Whitelaw from the world leading ‘End of Life Studies’ department of Glasgow University based in Dumfries.
A commission from the Stove Network will see the second artwork in a series entitled ‘Midnight Streetlight Smalltown Rain’. This interactive installation combines poetry, projection and film, from artists Colin Tennant and Martin Joseph O’Neill. The event will take place behind the Stove building at 100 High Street on Tuesday 24th, Thursday 26th and Saturday 28th January from 6pm until 10pm.
Artist, Jo Hodges, will be bringing her commission ‘Angels’, to Dumfries town centre as part of the festival of light – make sure to look out for Angels appearing in unlikely places throughout the town towards the end of the week.
For more information, including details about commissions, visit www.d-lux.org.uk, and remember when you are walking in the town centre, look up, not down!
