Norway House moves to The Stove – Cultural Wayfinding –
5th, 6th, 7th of November at 100 High St
For three days this November The Stove building in the High Street will transform itself into ‘Norway House’ and invite local people to come and share their stories and ideas about Dumfries’ very special relationship with Norway. The project aims to creatively showcase Dumfries’s relationship with Norway, in particular buildings that lie hidden within our town and once hosted the Norwegian army in exile, providing them space to hold meetings, events and live throughout World War II.
“First stop is the small town of Dumfries far south in Scotland. Still old people are living there who were eyewitnesses when the first 200 Norwegians fell out of the railway coaches at the station, where a band was playing and the Lord Provost welcomed them to the town. Curiosity was great.”
Extract from Bjorn Hoelseth’s recent article, When The Whalers Arrived in Dumfries. Bjorn was one of 19 Norwegians who recently visited Dumfries for a Commemoration Service at St. Michael’s and South Church.
The Norway House event will focus on our own Norges Hus, formerly at The Old Woollen Mill on 8 Church Street, relocating and bringing it alive within The Stove’s premises at 100 High St. Morning and afternoon workshops are available to the public on Thursday and Friday surrounding the development of creative proposals highlighting our Norwegian connections with evening discussions offering the opportunity to share ideas and stories surrounding our rich cultural history. Discussions will be led by Robin McAlpine, Director of ‘think and do tank’ Common Weal, on Thursday focusing on Scotland’s Nordic links and architect Peter Wilson, director of Wood Studio based in Napier University, Edinburgh, on Friday from a Norwegian architectural perspective. Saturday will see the presentation of works from the previous two days and look at how these designs can inform future developments of the project.
Katharine Wheeler of The Stove Network said “It will be an exciting three days of discussion, stories, and creative workshops giving participants the opportunity to explore the rich depth of our cultural history with Norway and ways in which we can develop these links further for the benefit of our town. Cultural Wayfinding looks to find innovative ways of highlighting places of significance within Dumfries and explore relevant working partnerships that increase connections with other creative places for the benefit of our community.”
Graham Hogg of Lateral North who was brought up in Dumfries said “I’ve watched Dumfries town centre slowly lose more and more of its local shops with vacant spaces popping up. It’s had a detrimental effect on the town as a whole and I believe it is fantastic that Stove is leading this exciting project. To be part of it is a real honour and hopefully through the Norway House project we can create an exciting and innovative model which can be applied throughout Dumfries town centre in the future but also be adopted throughout the rest of Scotland.”
Anyone wishes to find out more about the project should contact Katharine Wheeler at [email protected] or call 01387 252435
