May 2025
Announcing Cove Park's 25th Anniversary
Cove Park celebrates its 25th year this year and May marks the beginning of our 25th Anniversary Programme and a year of special events, commissions, and projects to mark this significant milestone. This Newsletter shares details of the first events unfolding over the summer. and please look out for future announcements in our Newsletter and on social for details of other projects.
We would like to welcome as many former residents, friends, and supporters to Cove Park as we can over the next 12 months and hope you will join us in looking forward to our next 25 years.
May sees the third year of The Bridge Awards Residencies, welcoming five Scotland-based artists to Cove Park: artist and creative facilitator Jo Arksey, artist Jackie Bell, digital artist Alison Clifford, filmmaker Diane Devlin, and writer Catherine Simpson. These residencies are designed for artists recovering from breast cancer and include a music and well-being workshop led by Scottish Ensemble and a group workshop led by Lesley Howells, Maggie's Lead Psychologist.
We are also delighted to host writer Yi-An Hseih to Cove Park for our established Taiwanese Writers Residency, and to welcome the acclaimed Lahore-based hereditary vocalist Muslim Shaggan for a four week Awarded Residency.
Cove Park's Open Residencies welcome historian Peder Clark, writer Sharanya Deepak, writer and editor Elisabeth Reidy Denison, Studio & Operations Coordinator at Forgan Arts Centre Anna Ferris, writer Emily Frisella, filmmaker and writer Mica Georgis, artist Demelza Kingston, poet and playwright Hannah Lavery with poet Billy Letford, curator, writer, educator, and producer Emma Nicolson, artist Deirdre Pearce, artist, writer, and filmmaker Rebecca Stenfors, writer Jim Tough with teacher and artist Alison Macleod, visual artist Hannah Bartos, interdisciplinary artist Sherry Wang, and fiction writer and education academic Sarah Ward.
Finally, we are pleased to welcome in May the string quartet Glisk - including former resident Jessica Kerr - for a sold out performance of 'Stories of People and Trees' here at Cove Park.
Read on for more about our 25th anniversary and our first Friday Event with Sayan Chanda, a new Partnership Residency with Romany Dear, the Disrupting Leadership Residency, the call for applications for the fourth edition of Magnetic Residencies, a new translation residency, Open Fridays, and our forthcoming Saturday Studios Workshop with artist, designer, and former resident Emer Tumilty.
Image: Cove Park 25th Anniversary Logo (designed by graphic designer and former resident Maeve Redmond).
Cove Park's 25th Anniversary Year Programme
Cove Park is 25 in 2025! Our first residencies began in May 2000 and to mark this milestone we are delighted to announce a year-long programme of special events, residencies, and commissions beginning this month.
This programme includes a new season of Open Fridays, welcoming visitors to our site every Friday afternoon for tours of Cove Park’s site and award-winning facilities, and a programme of Friday Events highlighting the work of national and international artists taking part in and connected to our programme.
New Cove Park commissions will include a limited edition print and accompanying text launching in August this year.
Cove Park’s anniversary programme not only celebrates our work to date, but looks forward to the next 25 years, developing further our commitment to supporting artists and their work, and advocating for the transformational power of the arts in our communities.
You can read about the history of Cove Park on the About pages of our website and visit our digital Archive for information on the local, national, and international artists involved in our programme since 2000. Look out too for 25 new archive stories, launching this autumn across our website and social platforms, highlighting the work of former residents and key Cove Park events compiled by friends and colleagues connected to our programme over its 25-year history.
A Media Release on Cove Park's 25th Anniversary, published on 26 May 2025, is available here.
Image: Cove Park 25th Anniversary Logo (designed by graphic designer and former resident Maeve Redmond).
Friday Events 2025
20 June 2025 - Sayan Chanda
Our first Friday Event of our 25th Anniversary Programme takes place on 20 June at Cove Park from 6pm. This Open Studio event is an opportunity to meet and see work in progress by the London-based artist Sayan Chanda.
Sayan's breathtaking work reimagines votive objects, folk divinities, and mythic narratives as hybrid, ambiguous forms through the lens of identity, gender perception, and postcolonial theory. Working intuitively with fibre and clay through weaving, stitching, quilting, dyeing, and hand-building, he makes work that occupies a speculative landscape untethered from place, culture, and period.
Tickets for this event will be released on Monday 2 June 2025. This is a free event but capacity is limited. If you would like more information on this Open Studio or getting to Cove Park, please contact Alex Marrs.
Image: Sayan Chanda, Nirrti 1, 2023, 197 cm x 150 cm, Cotton cord, vintage quilt, Gamchha (traditional towel), dyed cotton (photography, Jhaveri Contemporary)
Partnership Residency
Romany Dear
Romany Dear is an interdisciplinary body-based artist. Romany defines her practice as a spilling, an overflow-ing/s of words, gestures and actions that encompass speculative and critical performance practice/s, somatic-erotic touching/s, movement research, facilitation, access-led organising and experimental writing/s.
We are delighted to welcome Romany here for a four-week residency, produced in partnership with the artist. During this time she will welcome and work alonsgide several collaborators including artist, researcher, facilitator, and former resident Ashanti Harris; artist, designer, and former resident Zephyr Liddell; dance and performance artist Juana Del Mar; dancer and choreographer Susanne Grau; artist and writer Jen Martin; and artist Liz Rosenfeld.
Images: above, Romany Dear (courtesy of the artist); below, Juana del Mar Jiménez Infante (photography, Alicja Hoppel)
Disrupting Leadership
This month, we were pleased to host artists and arts practitioners taking part in the Disrupting Leadership Residency. The Work Room (Glasgow), Independent Dance (London) and the Inter-University Centre for Dance/HZT (Berlin) are collaborating on this embodied research project aiming to centre inclusivity, ecological thinking and sustainability. This project is in the context of former resident Claire Cunningham’s Einstein Professorship of ‘Choreography, Dance and Disability Arts’ at HZT.
Participating in this project are Laura Fisher, Sarah Hopfinger and Kimberley Harvey, along with Luke Pell, Anita Clark, and Nicky Napier. They will collectively explore ways in which disability-led and anti-ableist dance, artists and choreography can continue to generatively disrupt dominant ideas, understandings and practices in dance leadership.
This project is supported through the Four Nations International Fund.
Image: Claire Cunningham (courtesy of the artist).
Magnetic Residencies 2025
We are delighted to continue our involvement in the Magnetic Residencies programme, in partnership with Villa Arson, Nice. The Magnetic 4 call for applications is open until Monday 14 July 2025. Cove Park welcomes applications from artists based in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. Scotland-based artists are welcome to apply to Villa Arson.
Magnetic, managed by Fluxus Arts Projects, is a Franco-UK network bringing together five organisations from France and five from the UK to create a programme of funded residencies for visual artists based in both countries.
The Magnetic Residencies programme offers a 2-month bespoke residency, £2,100 monthly fee, accommodation, and access to a workspace, curatorial mentoring and international networking opportunities. The selection committees will be held in September and the residencies will start in Winter 2025. The deadline for applications is 14 July 2025 and more information is available here.
Image: Laure Vigna, Magnetic Residency, 2024 (photography, Alan Dimmick)
New Translation Residency
We are pleased to announce a new literary translation residency in partnership with Flanders Literature and Modern Culture as part of the Flip through Flanders programme.
In June, we will welcome established translator Jonathan Reeder and early career translator Eva Corijn for a one-to-one mentorship residency translating the work of three Flemish living female authors from Dutch to English.
Flip through Flanders is an initiative that promotes Dutch-language literature from Flanders across the UK and Ireland and shines a spotlight on the literary landscape of northern Belgium. It is managed by Flanders Literature and Modern Culture.
Image: Jonathan Reeder (photography, Michele Hutchison)
Open Fridays 2025
Cove Park's Open Fridays are coming back! Beginning on Friday 4 April, our beautiful 50-acre site will be open to visitors every Friday afternoon, between 1.00pm and 4.00pm, until Friday 29 August 2025.
We welcome visitors from our local community and beyond for tours of the site, to meet the team, and learn more about Cove Park’s programme of residencies and events. In our April Newsletter we will share details of a new forthcoming series of monthly Friday Events, offering talks, screenings, readings, studio visits and more.
Open Fridays are free and everyone is welcome. Refreshments will be available.
Please email Rona Grierson or call 01436 850500 to let us know if you would like to visit and if you have any questions about travelling to Cove Park or site accessibility.
Image: Visitors on site at Cove Park (photography, Alan Dimmick).
Saturday Studio Workshop
Creative Campaigners 2
31 May 2025
Our upcoming Saturday Studio Workshop continues to explore how creativity can be a powerful tool for imagining and shaping a more sustainable and just world.
Join artist, designer and former resident Emer Tumilty for a creative workshop celebrating everything we love – big and small – about our local area. Together, we’ll imagine a greener, fairer future and bring it to life through bold, colourful campaign posters, journey maps, and love letters to our place.
This free two-hour workshop is for children aged 5-16 and their families or carers. Children over 8 years old may attend without an accompanying adult. If you have questions about workshop accessibility, please get in touch with Emma Henderson (Curator of Engagement). Book via our Ticket Tailor page.
Image: Saturday Studios, April 2025 (photography, Emma Henderson)
Space Hire 2025
Space Hire welcomes arts organisations, companies, and community groups to Cove Park for meetings and away days. Recent Space Hire participants include: The Common Guild, Comhairle nan Leabhraichean / The Gaelic Books Council, Glasgow International, Missing in Architecture (Glasgow School of Art), The Mount Stuart Trust, Rhubaba, Scottish Opera, and the University of Glasgow (Contemporary Art & Curation).
In 2025 we will continue to offer beautiful spaces and facilities with outstanding views at very competitive rates throughout the year. We are also happy to put groups in touch with local
caterers if lunch is required.
Please submit an enquiry form or contact Nicola Jamieson directly for more information and to discuss your specific requirements.
Missing in Architecture hosted a lunch at Cove Park to bring an interdisciplinary group of researchers, policymakers, community activists, industry professionals and artists, creating an opportunity for cross-pollination of ideas and experiences, fostering long-term collaboration through the meal, titled FOOD FOR THOUGHT. We were delighted to be at Cove Park, the perfect setting for a collaborative lunch! Nestled around the heart of the building – between hearth and kitchen, the building held us and allowed convivial conversation. An opportunity to step out of the city and busy lives, Cove Park and the surroundings allowed us all to slow down and enjoy some time and space to enjoy the tasting and testing of ideas.
Miranda Webster, Missing in Architecture, February 2025
Image: Missing in Architecture event, February 2025.
