February 2021

In our January Newsletter we promised to share some exciting news about the planned refurbishment of Oak and Taransay Pods. We can now announce Cove Park has received a generous award from the Community Climate Asset Fund for this project. Read more about our plans for these wonderful buildings below.

Although Cove Park remains closed this month, we are making plans
for the year ahead and hope to reopen the site in the Spring, as soon as Scottish Government regulations allow.

With future projects in mind, we are delighted to share news of a major new collaboration between Cove Park and RAW Material Company, made possible with support from British Council Scotland's Connect & Collaborate fund. RAW Material Company is a centre for art, knowledge and society in Dakar, Senegal; its trans-disciplinary programme is organised around residencies, biannual symposia, public projects and exhibitions. Read on below for further information on this new artist residency and institutional exchange.

We hope this finds you and all your friends and family safe and well.

Image: The view of Loch Long from Cove Park's site (photography, Alan Dimmick)

Cove Park Receives Award from the
Community Climate Asset Fund

We are very pleased to share news of an award made to Cove Park from the Scottish Government's Community Climate Asset Fund. The award of £34,720 will support the extensive refurbishment of the Oak and Taransay Pods, our two largest accommodation units, and ensure this essential work will contribute to our commitment to reducing our carbon emissions.

The Oak and Taransay Pods were designed by the Glasgow-based architect Andy McAvoy in 1999 and first constructed on the island of Taransay to house participants in the BBC programme Castaway. The Pods were relocated to Cove Park in 2001 and upgraded as accommodation for resident artists. This spirit of recycling applied to all the accommodation units being sourced for Cove Park during the first years of the residency programme, notably our Cubes - shipping containers repurposed as individual accommodation units and studios.

The Pods are timber-framed units with expansive areas of glass, making the most of the wonderful views across Loch Long to the Cowal peninsula. Over the past twenty years the two Pods have accommodated hundreds of artists, and their generous communal spaces have proven ideal for both individual and collaborative work. Although they have been consistently maintained since 2001, they now require more extensive refurbishment. This award offers the perfect opportunity to improve their efficiency via a series of upgrades that will ensure these idiosyncratic and much-loved buildings are ready for the future.

For further information on this project and our Pods please write to Vanessa Paynton

Image: Oak and Taransay Pods (photography, Ruth Clark)

Connect & Collaborate:
Cove Park / RAW Material Company

This new artist residency and institutional exchange represents the first collaboration between Cove Park and an organisation based in West Africa. It is also the first time RAW Material Company has worked with a partner in Scotland. In the late summer and autumn of 2021 Cove Park will host a Senegalese artist connected to RAW Material Company's programme and, in parallel with this, an artist from Scotland will work in Dakar for six weeks. To ensure our collaboration can develop beyond 2021, this project also includes a staff exchange to enable both organisations to learn from each other and create new projects for the future.

Find out more about British Council Scotland's Connect & Collaborate Fund here. Cove Park's CEO Francesca Bertolotti-Bailey and RAW Material Company's Director of Programs Marie Helene Pereira made the following statements on this new initiative:

'We are deeply grateful to British Council Scotland and Creative Scotland to have jointly devised the Connect and Collaborate Fund and for giving us the opportunity to start collaborating with RAW Material Company - an organisation that we have long admired for their commitment to knowledge production and education. We trust that the exchange of both residents and staff members between our organisations will result in the acquisition and development of new ideas, practices and methodologies. This project is firmly rooted in Cove Park’s and RAW Material Company’s ethos in relation to radical cooperation and international dialogue, which now feel more urgent than ever.' Francesca Bertolotti-Bailey

'Knowing how important it is to build bridges now more than ever, we are grateful and delighted to have the opportunity to learn, exchange and get to build a solid relationship with Cove Park and the individual forces that carry it. Our tireless investment in knowledge production and sharing wouldn’t be possible  without the support of partners like the British Council who understood the importance of what we do and how it can constitute a solid ground for borderless collaborations. We very much appreciate this opportunity and are looking forward to learning from Scotland and its communities.' Marie Helene Pereira  

We look forward to sharing with you further information on this programme in the Spring.

Image: RAW Material Company, Dakar, Senegal (photography, Antoine Tempe)

Hands-On Cove Park at Home
'Real Other Worlds: Real Filter Video Exchange' with Lauren Gault

HOCP at Home continues this month with a new workshop devised and led by visual artist Lauren Gault. At a time when we are physically distanced from each other - keeping in touch by video calls - this workshop will explore how we can use digital platforms to create otherworldly landscapes and soundscapes.

Using a digital platform as a making space and gallery, together we will design objects and use materials to take viewers to an alternative space. Materials will create filters, visuals and sounds to float across laptops and tablets. The results will culminate in a group ‘visual disco’ using gallery view in Zoom - a live, video performance with visuals and sound we will all share. You can then use the filters you make on all future video calls, using the space as a new creative platform for you and your family.

This workshops will take place on Saturday 27 February (the first from 10am - 11am and the second from 11.30am to 12.30pm). Book your free place here. If you have any questions about HOCP at Home, please contact Emma Henderson directly.

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Support Cove Park and become a Supporter, Friend or Patron in 2021

Cove Park launched a new Supporter, Friend and Patron programme last year, coinciding with our 20th anniversary, and we are happy to welcome all those that have joined us so far. Clearly 2021 will prove to be an equally challenging year for artists, organisations and charities working in the cultural sector. We are grateful for the support we received last year from Creative Scotland and several trusts and foundations, making it possible to maintain our commitment to artists and to offer creative learning programmes in the immediate term for those in our local community and beyond. However, in this time of great uncertainty, the new lockdown means we continue to face a considerable loss in income from independently-funded residencies and partnership projects, which is vital for the delivery and development of our entire programme. 

Please join us by becoming a Supporter, Friend or Patron in 2021 and help to secure Cove Park's future at this critical time. We offer a number of ways for individuals and groups to support our work, take part in our programme and spend time at one of Scotland's most beautiful locations. To find our more and to join Cove Park please visit our Support Us page.

As a registered charity Cove Park welcomes all donations, small or large. Gifts of any amount will make an enormous difference to our work. Please donate today if you can. Thank you!

Image: Cove Park's Artists Centre, June 2019 (photography, Alan Dimmick)