| Dumfries and Galloway Council is to make 14 grant awards, totalling £55,000, to successful applicants to its Regional Arts Fund 2020/21.
The funded projects have been praised by councillors for the imagination and creativity of the work that can now be taken forward. All of the initiatives assisted by the Regional Arts Fund will be able to be delivered, originally as planned or in modified form, once the current lockdown restrictions are eased.
Many rural communities will benefit from this fund. Creetown Initiative has been awarded £5,000 to help programme their new Performing Arts Centre and Knockengorroch Community Interest Company, near Carsphairn, will receive funding to deliver a local social history project and concert.
One of many eye-catching projects to be supported is Bothy Blethers, a series of Scots language storytelling sessions that is being planned for the Catherine Street Inclusive Park in Dumfries. The project is being planned by the Include Us charity, who will receive £4,500 from the Fund.
The biggest award being made by is the £9,000 grant to Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival, to part-fund the delivery of its Arts Live! performing arts touring programme and promoters network.
Councillor Andy Ferguson, chair of the Communities committee, said: “The arts and cultural organisations of our region have creative talents to be valued and supported as much as possible. They are exceptional in interpreting our history and way of life and presenting this through many different art forms. The Council always seeks to fund projects the length and breadth of our region, and these fourteen exciting initiatives will be one focal point for communities and audiences to come together in the aftermath of the current Covid-19 pandemic.”
Councillor John Martin, vice chair, said: “I’m confident that the fourteen funded projects will enthuse many people to get involved in community arts projects, for their wellbeing and confidence. We are fortunate in Dumfries and Galloway that there are many inspirational arts organisations that continue to find imaginative ways to engage with residents and visitors.”
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| APPLICANT |
PROJECT |
AMOUNT AWARDED |
DETAILS |
| Absolute Classics |
Absolute My Music |
£4,000 |
Absolute My Music will enable young people across Dumfries and Galloway to participate for free in high quality music-making activities regardless of their previous musical education. Participation in the activities we have designed for our project have been demonstrated to improve young people’s intellectual, social and personal development, and achieve the following benefits so that our young people have opportunities to build their own potential from a young age: • developing new skills • acquiring cultural capital • improving social development by pursuing shared goals • reward for achieving excellence • enhancing self-belief and wellbeing. |
| Annan Harbour Action Group |
Lot 52 – beyond the Solway |
£6,500 |
Lot 52 – is a site-specific, promenade and studio space dramatic work, developed in Annan by professional theatre makers. It tells the story of desperate emigrants leaving Scotland on the Lovely Nelly in 1774 to seek a new and better life in Canada. |
| Bakehouse Community Arts, The |
BIG LIT: The Stewartry Book Festival 10th Anniversary |
£2,500 |
Support for the 10th annual four-day Stewartry Book Festival that will be based in the beautiful Fleet Valley in the heart of Galloway but with some activities taking place in other locations in the Stewartry Area. The Festival will comprise 25-30 word-based events across four streams of activity: (i) the main programme featuring established writers and performers from Scotland and further afield, and (ii) a youth programme based in the Primary Schools in the Area but also including participative weekend events, and (iii) showcase events for up and coming local writers and writers groups, and (iv) a visual component including an interactive installation and ‘poems in windows’ where local householders and businesses display a poem submitted from across the world. |
| Bunbury Banter CIC |
Fear of Music |
£5,000 |
This project is currently being redesigned and will not be delivered as outlined below.
We will tour this production across Scotland, beginning in Dumfries and Galloway. Tackling themes of youthful hope and disillusionment in the face of state cutbacks, this highly acclaimed play by Barney Norris addresses many issues of today, including young men’s roles in the army and as carers, and mental health. For this project, our three main aims are:
1) To bring accessible touring theatrical work to venues across Dumfries & Galloway and Scotland as a whole, which provide opportunities suitable for a professional emerging actor.
2) To further expand our audience development efforts in Dumfries & Galloway, particularly young people, by exploring the dialogic aspect of our practice through workshops and other more direct encounters with audiences across the tour. Also, it will allow us to begin to garner an audience and reputation across Scotland.
3) To meaningfully contribute to the range of creative learning opportunities for young people in D&G, empowering them to harness (or unleash) their creativity with a tangible objective. |
| APPLICANT |
PROJECT |
AMOUNT AWARDED |
DETAILS |
| Cample Line |
A series of programme workshops |
£2,684 |
As part of our public programme 2020, we wish to undertake a series of workshops in parallel with our exhibition and film programmes, which will enable us to embed a participatory element and engage our existing audience and new visitors through skills such as weaving, embroidery, and macramé. |
| Creetown Initiative Ltd |
Creetown Performing Arts Venue Programme |
£5,000 |
We are applying for funding to commission a guest programmer for the first six months of programming to ensure that the programme is built on a strong foundation. Creetown has a new performing arts venue after refurbishing St Joseph’s Church. A guest programmer will help us showcase local talent and amateur groups, as well as inviting professional companies to perform. We’ll run workshops for young people and offer two practice rooms to bring this building back to life. |
| Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival |
Arts Live |
£9,000 |
Arts Live is a performing arts touring programme and a promoters network for Dumfries & Galloway. It is made up of a network of large and small venues and community groups who work together to host events across the region to create a diverse, year-round, region-wide performance programme. We are now seeking funding for the fourth year of Arts Live. The first three years have seen us move from a pilot phase to a nationally recognised and highly valued programme. |
| Include Us |
Bothy Blethers |
£4,500 |
Bothy Blethers is a series of free, inclusive and accessible storytelling, poetry and singing sessions for children and adults of all ages and abilities using the magic of the Scots language within the beautiful woodland setting of the newly refurbished Catherine Street Inclusive Park. |
| Institute of Local Television Ltd |
Creative Exhibition, Event Organisation and Invigilation |
£3,000 |
We propose an innovative scheme to involve young people to create, curate, invigilate and film contemporary exhibitions/events and film screenings (local, national/international). MERZ Gallery, Museum of Model Art and KNHO provides exhibition, museum and a pop-up film space and we want young people to consolidate Sanquhar Cultural Quarter as theirs. |
| Knockengorroch CIC |
The Green Well of Scotland |
£1,940 |
Two complementary activities: A community project / visual exhibition and a live music launch event (postponed until it is safe to hold). Artist Alice Myers will photograph and video people at Carsphairn’s Green Well for a exhibition in the Heritage Centre and Lagwyne Hall. A live event at Lagwyne Hall featuring Kirkpatrick Durham choir and performers from Oran Bagraidh will launch the exhibition. |
| Oceanallover |
Ecdysis (In Vivo) |
£2,500 |
Ecdysis (In Vivo) is a performance and costume work presented as a pilgrimage through the landscape in lines and nodes. Travelling and changing…. it is a growing and a shedding. A Lounge of dancers move through multiple points of transformation, discarding and dressing out of and in to sculptural clothing. |
| APPLICANT |
PROJECT |
AMOUNT AWARDED |
DETAILS |
| Sanctuary Lab |
Sanctuary 2020 : Handheld |
£3,000 |
Rescheduled for summer 2021
Sanctuary is a unique 24 hour arts event in the Galloway Forest Dark Skies Park. In 2020, ‘Sanctuary: Handheld’ will invite artists from across the region and beyond to explore darkness, technology and place with experimental participatory artworks that must be small enough to be carried to the remote site. We expect artists to experiment with wearable technology, miniaturisation, human/technology networks and more. The audience are invited to camp at the site with the artists to form a unique temporary community where new ideas can be discussed and collaborations formed. Support for Sanctuary 2020 will enable this unique event to explore new concepts and ways of working, to continue to build connections and collaborations and be at the forefront of creative experimentation in the region. www.sanctuarylab.org |
| Stove Network Ltd, The |
Elsewhere: using culture to activate public space in Dumfries |
£2,500 |
High quality art commissions added into public art programme for public space in Dumfries. Bringing together different partners and artforms with a training and skills programme for young people to create a free series of cultural events for the general public and attract footfall into the town centre. |
| Wanlockhead Community Centre SCIO |
A Window on Wanlockhead People, Place & Story. |
£2,876 |
This project is currently being redesigned
Highlighting Wanlockhead’s rich heritage, local artist Fiona Foley will engage our community in an exciting project. A period of research and community glass workshops will feed into the creation of a new site specific stained glass installation in our community hub, Wanlockhead Community Centre. |
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£55,000 |
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ENDS
For more info, contact:
[email protected]
t: 07734 073 401 |
