EIBF Residency: Sophie Gee

Our partnership with EIBF continues this year with a pre-Festival residency for Sophie Gee.

Sophie is Professor of English at Princeton University, and co-host of the Secret Life of Books, an internationally acclaimed podcast about classic literature. Sophie's most recent book is The Barbarous Feast: Eating and Writing in the Eighteenth-Century World, about how eating rituals across the eighteenth-century globe reveal an untold story about the rise of the novel.

Join Sophie, and collaborator Jonty Claypole, at EIBF for a live recording of their podcast on Saturday 29 August.

We are grateful to Tamara Zimet, EIBF Director of Programming, for working with us on this residency.

Image:Sophie Gee (photography, Stefanie Zingsheim).

Programme Announcement: Magnetic 5
Elijah Ndoumbe

We are excited to announce that the Magnetic 5 laureate is the Marseille-based artist Elijah Ndoumbe. Elijah will be the sixth artist from France to travel to Cove Park for this prestigious two-month residency and we look forward to welcoming them here in 2027.

Elijah is a multidisciplinary artist, award-winning moving image maker, dream weaver, and collaborator. In between mixing live, they can be found cooking in Marseille wine bars, deepening familial food research in Douala, and building transatlantic collaborations via their lens-based arts practice.

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. Cove Park is the Scottish partner in Magnetic and we work  in collaboration with Villa Arson, Nice, on the appointment of the participating artists. 

Image: Elijah Ndoumbe (photograpahy, Francisco Miala) 

New Dutch Writing Translation Residencies: Shimanto Reza and Quaid Cey

Through a new partnership with the Dutch Foundation for Literature, produced in collaboration with Modern Culture, we are delighted to welcome in August two translators appointed via open call for a fully funded residency centred on mentorship.

Shimanto Reza is a literary translator from Dutch and the Managing Editor at World Editions, where he started in 2017 as editorial assistant. His translation of Libris Prize winner Safae el Khannoussi’s debut novel Oroppa is forthcoming with Viking (UK) and Pantheon (US). Other upcoming translations due to be published are: nonfiction titles including Mastering ADHD for Women, Sholeh Rezazadeh’s, The Mountain I Know, a novel for Ambo Anthos, and Anne Lot Hoek's The Battle for Bali by for Bloomsbury. 

Quaid Cey is a literary translator from Dutch and Italian to English. Originally from the United States, he now lives in Brussels, where he is pursuing a master’s degree in literary studies. In 2025-2026, he was one of eight Emerging Translator Mentees selected by the National Centre for Writing. 

Image courtesy of Shimanto Reza. 

Call for Applications:
Visual Arts Scotland Residencies 2026

In partnership with Visual Arts Scotland, we are excited to offer two funded 2-week residencies taking place between 27 October – 8 November 2026. This opportunity is open to visual artists or makers based in Scotland. Each selected artist will have individual accommodation along with their own private studio space.

Visual Arts Scotland is a leading platform for national and international contemporary artists. More information and details of how to apply is available here. The deadline for applications is 28 August 2026.

Image: Cove Park Cubes (photography, Alan Dimmick). 

Bagri Music Awards 2026: Ayman Hlal
Last Chance to Book!

We welcome leading Syrian violinist, musician, and educator Ayman Hlal to Cove Park this month, the recipient of the second Bagri Music Awards.

Now based in Berlin, Ayman specialises in both Middle Eastern and Western classical music. Since leaving Syria as a result of war, he has participated in several national and international events and projects, and performed with multiple orchestras and bands, including the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra (SEPO), and Nai’ Oriental Orchestra in Austria.

We are delighted that the musician, artistic director, cultural practitioner, and founder of SEPO, Raed Jazbeh, will join Ayman at Cove Park.

Ayman will perform at Cove Park on Saturday 25 July and at The Mackintosh Church in Glasgow on Saturday 1 August 2026, and will be introduced by Raed. Although the Cove Park event is now fully booked, tickets are still available for the event in Glasgow are can be booked via Ticket Tailor.

Following his residency, Ayman will take part in an in-conversation event in London on 4 August 2026 with Cove Park's Chair Lauren Dyer-Amazeen. This event is part of the Bagri Foundation's Bagri Samaya Series, focussed upon residencies and artists support. Limited spaces are available and tickets can be reserved here.

Images: above, Ayman Hlal (courtesy of the artist); below, Raed Jazbeh (photography, Konstantin Tribus).

Edinburgh Art Festival Residency
Magnus Westwell: Caught Hold of Nothing 

We look forward to welcoming Scottish artist, performer, and director Magnus Westwell and French movement artist Océane Robin back to Cove Park for a second residency ahead of their work in progress performance at Edinburgh Art Festival on 14 August 2026. 

Magnus and Océane were here earlier this year to develop this new production – Caught Hold of Nothing – creating an ongoing experimental dialogue between movement and sound, where choreography and violin composition evolve in response to one another.

We are grateful to Eleanor Taylor, EAF Curator, for making this residency possible.

Images: above, Caught Hold of Nothing promotional image (courtesy of EAF); below, Magnus Westwell and Océane Robin at Cove Park, January 2026. 

News from Interweaving Threads

Cove Park Associate Owen Edward Snaith spoke this month with Caroline Garland for an article in The Independent on the Interweaving Threads programme, and we are pleased to share this extract from Owen's comments on his residency: 

“Artists, writers, dancers, musicians, textile artists sharing a communal space (at Cove Park), where we would have dinners together, talking about our practices and reflect. The art of conversation and passing on knowledge, not just being inspired by textiles, but also being inspired by people that work in dance, or theatre... At a time when public discourse can feel increasingly divided, there is something powerful about this model of creative exchange. Interweaving Threads suggests that innovation doesn't flourish through isolation or by drawing lines between "us" and "them", but through curiosity, generosity and a willingness to learn from one another. As the fashion industry searches for climate solutions, it is a timely reminder that collaboration across disciplines, cultures and borders may be one of our greatest strengths.'

Read the full article here.

The year-long project Interweaving Threads: Scotland and Norway through Dress launched in October 2025 with a special two-day event in Edinburgh addressing the similarities and differences between traditional Norwegian and Scottish dress and textiles. The project partners are The Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume, Arts & Culture Norway, MUHO, Cove Park, art historian Dr. Kitty Corbet Milward, curator and anthropologist Maja Musum and The National Museum of Scotland for research and inspiration. 

Image: Owen Edward Snaith at Cove Park (courtesy of the artist).

Collective Home:
Filmmaker Campaigner 

Cove Park's Collective Home programme is underway and we are pleased to share details of Filmmaker Campaigner, one of the first projects, involving Embedded Artist Carina NicHaouchin.

Focussed upon a community campaign to preserve Helensburgh's waterfront, this project is being developed by local young people, working with Carina to share their concerns and ideas via film. We will share news of this project, and the wider Collective Home programme, in future Newsletters.

Image courtesy of Emma Henderson. 

Saturday Studios: Compostable Art
29 August 2026

Saturday Studios resume in August, offering opportunities for young people, their families, and carers to take part in creative workshops and Cove Park's wider programme.

Join Collective Home Embedded Artist Alicia Storie for a workshop focussed on making artworks from the landscape we call 'home'. Alicia is a climate artist and designer with a particular interest in circular design, sustainable materials, and climate conscious design within our homes and communities. 

This two-hour session will begin with a walk around Cove Park's 50-acre site, where participants will consider seasonal change, colour, texture, and form. Work in the studio will be inspired by the prompt ‘What does home mean to you’? Participants will make artworks using handmade paper, plant-based pigments, and responsibly gathered natural materials. Following the workshop these compostable artworks can be displayed at home or returned to the landscape. 

Everyone's ideas will inform Alicia’s research and work across Argyll, and participants will be invited to help shape and take part in future Collective Home events and projects. 

Two workshops will take place on  29 August. For further information and to reserve your free place, please visit our Ticket Tailor page.

Image courtesy of Emma Henderson. 

Open Fridays & Doors Open Day 2026

Cove Park's popular series of Open Fridays continues this year, welcoming visitors to the site on Friday afternoons. These events are an opportunity to see Cove Park's site, studios, and accommodation, learn about our current programmes and meet the team. Refreshments are available.

Everyone is welcome from 1-4pm on Friday 7 August 2026.

Cove Park will also take part in this year's Doors Open Day, opening our doors for workshops, tours, and special events on Saturday 19 September 2026. Details of the events will be confirmed in the next few weeks.

If you would like to visit and require further information please contact Rona Grierson.

Image: The Jacobs Building (photography, Tracy Bloxham) 

Cove Park Friends & Patrons 

Cove Park is proud to have a growing community of supporters who believe in the vital work we do to promote national and international cultural exchange and ensure our local rural community has access to innovative and creative learning opportunities as well as protecting the biodiversity of our site.

By becoming a Friend or Patron of Cove Park, you will help us to enrich arts, culture and creativity in Argyll and across Scotland, support the global exchange of ideas through our artist residences and save the natural heritage of Cove Park as a space for everyone to enjoy. Wherever you are, you will know your donation is making a vital contribution to the work of Cove Park and our support of artists. If Cove Park and our work means something to you, please consider becoming a Friend today. Learn more and join here.

If you are based in the United States, you can join our American Friends of Cove Park, our tax-effective annual giving programme. 

Image: 'Double Flower', Louise Hopkins, a Cove Park Commission, 2023.