May 2021

We are thrilled to be open again and welcoming artists back to Cove Park for the first time this year! The writers, translators, visual artists, makers and designers here this month, taking part in our funded Craft & Design, Experimental Film & Moving Image, Literature & Translation and Visual Arts programmes, are: Sarah Urwin Jones, Laia Jufresa, Alexis Kyle Mitchell, Aniara Omann, Mathew Wayne Parkin, Ellen Renton and Katie Schwab. Cove Park's Independently Funded programme also resumed in May, bringing writers, artists, researchers, producers and curators from across the UK. On site this month are: Julie Barnes, Bobbi Cameron, Ariane Jackson, Matt Johnson, Peter Roberts and Cherry Smyth.

We are delighted to share some very good news. Earlier this month Cove Park was awarded funding from Foyle Foundation to develop The Play Park, a new performing arts programme for the spring of 2022, devised in collaboration with dramaturg (and former Trustee of Cove Park) Ruth Little. We can also announce a new residency for fine art graduates of the Academy of the Arts at the University of the Arts of Helsinki, allowing us to partner with Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Aberdeenshire, on a four year programme. Scroll down to read more about both projects.

Next month sees the launch of Cove Park Associates: a new membership programme open to all our former residents. The programme will offer Associates a range of benefits, and is our way of keeping in contact with Cove Park's alumni and continuing to support their work. We are inviting all our former residents to a Zoom meeting next month to discuss our plans and to hear everyone's ideas. Read on for more.

We are also pleased to share details of a virtual tour of Cove Park organised with Creative Entrepreneurs Club (details below). This will include a Q&A with Francesca Bertolotti-Bailey (CEO) and Catrin Kemp (Partnerships Manager).

The deadline for applications to join Cove Park as a Trustee has been extended to Monday 7 June 2021. If you are interested in working with us at an exciting moment in Cove Park's development, please read more here.

Finally, this month sees the return of our Hands-On programme of workshops to Cove Park. More information is given below and we look forward to welcoming young people to the site on Saturday 22 May for an outdoor project led by artist and former resident Florence Dwyer. We are also delighted that artist jeweller Caitlin Hegney has joined Cove Park's team as an Engagement Assistant and will be working on this and future workshops.

We hope all our supporters, friends and artists are well and look forward to seeing and speaking to everyone on site or online soon.

Image: Cove Park's Cubes (photography, Ruth Clark)

The Play Park

Cove Park is delighted to have secured funding from Foyle Foundation to support a week-long residency for eight mid-career, UK-based theatre-makers in spring 2022. The Play Park consists of structured workshops exploring movement and object articulation/manipulation, creative writing, interdisciplinary and ecological practice, 1-2-1 surgeries and unstructured research time. The Play Park will be led by dramaturg and former Cove Park Trustee Ruth Little.

The open call for applications to take part in The Play Park will be announced later in 2021. Watch this space for more information.

Image: Ruth Little with Akram Khan and Mavin Khoo (photography, Jean-Louis Fernandez)

A New Residency for Alumni of the
Academy of Fine Arts of Helsinki

We are thrilled to announce a new residency for alumni of the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts of Helsinki, Finland. This residency will take place both at Cove Park and at Scottish Sculpture Workshop and will run for four years from 2022, offering the participating artists two months in Argyll and Bute, and two months in Aberdeenshire. In its first year, the residency will focus on the 'Future of Sculpture' and will be open to graduates from the Academy's Department of Sculpture.

This project is made possible by a donation to the University of the Arts of Helsinki by the Saastamoinen Foundation and details of the full award are available here. The alumni residency is part of a wider 'International Incubators' programme, which aims to foster the dialogue between teaching in fine arts and the international art community. The residencies support the studies of visual artists in high-quality residencies after graduating with a master’s degree. The academy’s residency partners, in addition to Cove Park and the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, are: Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, ISCP – International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York, Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto and SPACE in London.

Image: SSW (2018). Photo: Erika Stevenson.

Cove Park Associates

We would like to invite all our former residents to join us via Zoom on Tuesday 8 June 2021, at 5.00pm, for the first Cove Park Associates meeting. Cove Park's reputation is built upon the work, care and commitment of our former residents, and we want to ensure we can continue to support them beyond their first residencies here.

The Associates programme will offer a range of benefits, including: alumni-only residency opportunities and events; peer-to-peer support; networking; incremental discounts for residencies within the independently-funded programme; training, curatorial and grant writing support; paid opportunities through advisory roles and within our engagement programmes; invitation to dinners at Cove Park; and discounts on all limited editions.

We would love to hear your ideas and to understand how best Cove Park can continue to support all our former residents. If you can join this first Associates meeting, please email Alexia Holt to receive the Zoom link and password.

We look forward to seeing you very soon!

Image: Abraham Cruzvillegas, Henry Moore Fellowship Residency, 2008 (photography, Ruth Clark

Creative Entrepreneurs Club:
Virtual Site Visit to Cove Park & Discussion

On 25 May, from 12noon - 1.00pm, Cove Park will take part in a virtual studio tour and interview with Creative Entrepreneur’s Club Director Medeia Cohen. The tour will take in Cove Park’s 50-acre site, its buildings and facilities and will be followed by a conversation and Q&A between CEC’s membership, Cove Park’s CEO Francesca Bertolotti-Bailey and Partnerships Manager Catrin Kemp. Learn more and sign up here.

CEC is a home for like-spirited creative people looking to access powerful support, network with peers and develop new skills. Further information and details of how to join (membership is free for a limited time) is available here.

Image: Creative Entrepreneurs Club.

Hands-On Cove Park: Miniature Gardens

Our next HOCP workshops will take place at Cove Park. This will be the first time in over a year that we welcome young people, their families and carers to the site and we can't wait!

The Miniature Gardens workshop invites everyone to become landscape architects and have a go at garden design. The workshops will take place outdoors at Cove Park on Saturday 22 May; trays, compost and seeds will be provided, so each garden can be taken home and continue to grow throughout the summer.

These new workshops are free and will be led by artist and former resident Florence Dwyer. Three workshops are available for different primary school year groups. To find out more and reserve your place, please visit our Eventbrite page.

Image: Miniature Gardens