The Loch Long Crime Writing Residency 2024
Call for Applications

The Loch Long Crime Writing Residency is a new fully funded residency for Scotland-based writers developing new work in crime fiction. This two-week residency will take place from Monday 18 March to Sunday 31 March 2024.

Scotland has a strong tradition of crime writing and many internationally acclaimed contemporary authors based in Scotland are known for their work in this genre. We hope this new residency will offer valuable support for established writers developing new work in crime fiction.

This residency is made possible with support from Cove Park's Argyll Patron programme.

Further information is available here and the deadline for applications is Monday 4 December 2023.

Image, the view of Loch Long from Cove Park (photography, Alan Dimmick).

RSA Residencies for Scotland 2024
Call for Applications

RSA Residencies for Scotland is an artist-led scheme which provides valuable research and residency opportunities for artists. It forges important networks with centres of artistic excellence across Scotland, ranging from traditional residency venues to specialised production facilities. Cove Park is delighted to be one of the partner venues again in 2024.

Open to visual artists at all stages of their careers, the emphasis is on enabling a period of research, development and production, as well as on the acquisition and exchange of new skills and experiences. Artists can apply for funds of up to £5,000 and are responsible for managing their own residency, in discussion with the partner venue.

The partner venues all have a long history of offering quality development to, and presentation opportunities for, contemporary artists. For many their expertise and longevity has formed the backbone of artist practice in Scotland for decades. 

More information is available here and the deadline for applications to this programme is 14 January 2024.

Images: above, Cove Park's Jacobs Building Studios; below, Pierrot, Performance, Grace Exhibition Space, NYC, by former RSA Residencies for Scotland Cove Park resident Madeleine V Brown, 2018 (photography, Miao Jiaxin).

Creative Residencies for Carers 2024
Programme Announcement

In October we shared news of an award from the Creative Breaks funding programme operated by Shared Care Scotland. We are pleased this month to confirm details of the new week-long group residency this funding supports.

Creative Residencies for Carers is a new Cove Park programme offering short creative residencies for unpaid adult carers and former carers who have, or who have had, a creative practice or career, but now find it difficult to dedicate time to this important aspect of their lives. Five residency places are available and the residencies will all take place at Cove Park from Monday 18 March to Saturday 23 March 2024.

Further information is available here. The deadline for applications to this programme is 4 December 2023. If you have any questions concerning Creative Residencies for Carers please contact Programmes & Communications Producer Alex Marrs directly.

Images: above, studios at Cove Park; below, Helensburgh & Lomond Carers Centre, Textile Workshop at Cove Park (photography, Emma Henderson).

Announcing Ecologies in the Making:
Sculpting Futures, 2024

We are very pleased to announce that artist Jere Vainio has been awarded the 2024 Ecologies in the Making: Sculpting Futures Residency. 

This four-month residency is the third in a four year programme developed by the Academy of Fine Arts Uniarts Helsinki, Cove Park and Scottish Sculpture Workshop (SSW). Each resident has the opportunity to work at Cove Park for 8 weeks before travelling to Aberdeenshire for a further 8-week residency at SSW.

These residencies are designed to focus upon making practices at a time of climate breakdown and are aimed at MFA alumni of the Academy of Fine Arts, particularly those working with sculptural methods or material processes. The programme supports research and the development of new work, and we are grateful to our partners and to the Saastamoinen Foundation for their support. More information on this year's jury and the 2024 award is available here.

Images: above, Jere Vainio; below, Jere Vainio, 'Utility Blanket', 2021, recycled cotton, polyester and aluminium.

Landscapes & Horizons
 Final Call for Applications

Landscapes & Horizons is a new Cove Park residency developed in partnership with Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing organisation, and Cross Borders at Scottish Refugee Council. 

This is a new fully funded group residency for five Scotland-based artists and cultural practitioners aged over 40 and from refugee and other migrant backgrounds.

This one-week group residency will begin on 26 February 2024 and is for artists and cultural practitioners who need space, time, care, and reflection for their creative development. We are particularly keen to support applicants who have not accessed this kind of opportunity before, and have faced barriers due to their age, care commitments and/or asylum or immigration status.

Landscapes & Horizons is designed for those who were already working as artists or community organisers with a focus upon arts and cultural projects. The residency is also open to those who weren’t able to pursue their practice in their home country for fear of harassment or persecution. It provides a week of creative activity, workshops, and events, offering time for each resident to pursue their own interests and to take part in group projects. 

The deadline for applications is Monday 27 November 2023. Further information and details of how to apply are available here. 

Image: Amber, an interactive performance documenting artists Paria Goodarzi and Francisco Llinas Casas walking 23 miles from Dungavel Immigration Removal centre in Strathaven to the Home Office in Glasgow to mark the 70th anniversary of the UN Convention on Refugees (photography, Paul Chappells).

Subsidised Winter Residencies 2024
Call for Applications Now Live

We are pleased to announce details of our popular annual programme of Subsidised Winter Residencies in 2024.

Cove Park offers residencies for individuals, groups, and organisations with their own funding to take part in our annual programme. We welcome artists, cultural practitioners, writers, and researchers - from every creative and academic discipline - able to fund a residency via the direct support of their own academic institutions or through awards from public funders or foundations.

Cove Park's Subsidised Winter Residencies will take place during January, February, and March 2024. During this time we are pleased to offer a reduction on the cost of individual and collaborative residencies. Applications for these residencies can be submitted on a rolling basis until 4 March 2024, in the hope that those interested will have the time required to request funding from their own organisations or external funding agencies. Further information and details of how to apply for a subsidised residency is available here.

Image: Cove Park's Cubes (photography, Alan Dimmick)

NAARCA Pedagogy Toolkit Commission
Seeking Graphic Designer

NAARCA is a 3-year project bringing Cove Park together with Saari Residence (Finland), Artica Svalbard (Norway), Art Hub Copenhagen (Denmark), Baltic Art Center (Sweden), Skaftfell Art Center (Iceland) and Narsaq International Research Station (Greenland) to collaborate on research, institutional change and public education around climate action.  

The education and engagement strand of this project involves the development of a pedagogical toolkit for schools, community groups, and parents wishing to run creative workshops to inform, inspire and engage children and young people in topics surrounding climate change while addressing important issues such as climate anxiety, adaptation and empowerment. 

NAARCA are pleased to announce a new opportunity for a freelance Graphic Designer to develop and design the digital toolkit. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until the post is filled. The commission fee is £5,000 with an anticipated delivery deadline of  March 2024. The project brief and details of how to apply are available here. 

Image: Future Community Gardens Workshop, Artica Svalbard, October 2022 (photography, Floortje Zonneveld). 

Testing Grounds Podcast Series
Episode 7: Art and Decolonisation

What could it mean to decolonise art, and to use art as a tool for decolonisation? This question is the focus of the most recent episode of NAARCA's podcast series Testing Grounds.

The episode is introduced by Leena Kela, a performance artist and Residency Director of Saari Residence, NAARCA’s Finnish partner.  Located in Mynämäki, Saari is maintained by Kone Foundation as a residency for artists of all disciplines and nationalities.

Leena introduces us to Saari and to the episode's other contributors: Taru Elfving and Pauliina Feodoroff. Taru is a curator and writer focused on nurturing 'undisciplinary' and site-sensitive enquiries at the intersections of ecological, feminist and decolonial practices. Pauliina is a Skolt Sámi theatre director, artist and land-guardian whose performance piece Matriarchy appeared in the Sámi Pavillion at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Taru and Pauliina explore ideas of decolonisation in art and 'the art world', both in the Nordic region specifically, and more broadly. 

You can find Testing Grounds on your favourite podcast app or listen to this episode here.  A captioned version of this episode is available on YouTube.

Image: ‘The Sámi Pavilion’ artist Pauliina Feodoroff (photography, Laura Malmivaara).

'On Clogger Lane', Andrew Black
Cove Burgh Hall, Saturday 18 November

We are excited to support LUX Scotland's presentation of former resident Andrew Black’s Margaret Tait Award commission ​‘On Clogger Lane’ (2023) at Cove Burgh Hall at 3.00pm on Saturday 18 November.

‘On Clogger Lane’ tells the story of a depopulated valley on ancient land. The film follows routes through a dammed, drowned and depopulated valley in Northern England, exploring the infrastructures of capital on land overshadowed by a monstrous satellite surveillance station, submerged beneath reservoirs, haunted by accusations of witchcraft, and populated by indecipherable prehistoric carvings and the graves of child labourers. Incorporating conversations with farmers, antiquarians, dowsers, grandmothers, Quakers, landowners and communists alongside an improvisational score,​‘On Clogger Lane’ is an experimental documentary which navigates the chaotic mix of passivity and protest, public and private, past and present, all coincident in the same patch of ancient countryside.

For more information and to reserve your free ticket, please visit the LUX Scotland website.

Image: Andrew Black, 'On Clogger Lane', 2022, courtesy of the artist.

Saturday Studio
Winter Collage Workshop with Sarah Calmus
Saturday 2 December, 10am-12pm

Our December Saturday Studio workshop is a special satellite event at the Park Pavilion in Hermitage Park, Helensburgh, to celebrate winter and the upcoming festive season.

Former Cove Park resident and Associate artist Sarah Calmus will lead an inspiring mixed media workshop using collage, drawing, paper decorations, and pop-up bookmaking techniques to make fabulous winter scenes.

This workshop is open to children aged 5 and over – parents or carers are encouraged to stay and join, if they wish.

For more information and to book your free place, please visit Cove Park's Eventbrite page. These events are supported by Argyll & Bute Council.

Image: Saturday Studio workshop with Associate artist Heiba Lamara, 2022 (photography, Emma Henderson). 

Project Studio 
Edible Art with Sean Wai Keung
Tuesday 12 December, 4-6pm

Our next Project Studio at the Park Pavilion in Hermitage Park, Helensburgh, takes place on Tuesday 12 December from 4-6pm. Led by Glasgow-based interdisciplinary artist and community chef Sean Wai Keung, this workshop will focus on food and its importance as a form of self expression, a way to express our culture and identity, a celebration, and a way to deepen relationships. Food can also spark issues around equality, justice and the environment, and is in all of the things that makes us human. Join Sean to make food and edible art together while exploring these ideas. 

Project Studio is a Cove Park programme for teenagers in our local area made possible with a generous award from the National Lottery Community Fund. Launched in June, Project Studio offers free monthly creative activity - including workshops, trips, and events - centred around self-expression and creating community for teenagers interested in the arts, activism, environmentalism, and wellbeing.

This programme is supportive of young people experiencing ADHD, dyslexia, and autism. Please let us know how we can support you best.

We are pleased to share some good news: an award from The Stafford Trust will allow us to extend Project Studio and offer more events, building on the work enjoyed so far.

Find out more and book your free place here. For further information please contact Cove Park's Curator of Engagement, Emma Henderson.

Image,  Sean Wai Keung, courtesy of the artist.