February 2022

Our busy programme of Winter Subsidised Residencies continues this month with the arrival of composers, sound artists, curators, dancers, makers, researchers, writers, and visual artists travelling to us from across the UK and the USA. They include Lydia Beilby, Janet Bezzant, Dani Burlison, Pamela Carter, Georgia Germani, Manuela Gernedel, Beverley Hood, Jane Hunter, Deborah Jackson, Nikki Kane, Jana Kuhne, Duncan McLeod, Audrey Osler, Chay Osler, Ruth Paton, Amble Skuse (with collaborators including Torla Banks and Olga Uzikaeva), and Laura Spark.

Those taking part in the Winter Subsidised Residencies are joined by playwright Laurie Motherwell, on a residency developed with Playwrights' Studio Scotland, and photographer Ibrahima Thiam, continuing his six-week residency as part of our ongoing exchange with RAW Material Company in Dakar, Senegal. We are also very pleased to welcome dance artist Suzi Cunningham, working collaboratively with Bell Lungs, Jen Cunningham, and Dylan Read, via a programme supported by The Work Room.

Please scroll down for news of the Argyll Beacon, the announcement of the Dandelion programme of Unexpected Gardens, the award of our first residency for a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, the call for applications to the Architectural Association Visiting School at Cove Park this summer, and a new Saturday Studios workshop with MOCA: Mapping Ocean Change through Art, as part of our Engagement programme.

Finally, we would like to thank everyone who applied to our open call for applications for funded residencies taking place between April this year and March 2023. We received just under 1000 applications and we are in the process of contacting everyone this week. The announcement of our funded residency programme will be made in April 2022.

Image: Oak Pod, Cove Park (Tracey Bloxham, Inside Story Photography)

Argyll Beacon Update

We are looking forward to our first Argyll Beacon residencies in March, and welcoming the commissioned filmmakers and storyteller to Cove Park to develop new work in response to the focus of the Argyll Beacon, Scotland's rainforest.

The Argyll Beacon is a partnership between Cove Park and Argyll & the Isles Coast & Countryside Trust, and part of the nationwide Climate Beacons programme. We are excited to be taking part in the first online showcase of all the Climate Beacons on Monday 7 March, from 4.30pm, focussing upon innovative cross sector collaborations. Alexia Holt, Cove Park Senior Director of Programmes, will take part alongside colleagues from the Outer Hebrides and Tayside Climate Beacons. To join this free event, please visit Creative Carbon Scotland's Eventbrite page and reserve your place.

Image: The Argyll Beacon, a collaboration between Cove Park & ACT

Unexpected Gardens Announced

We are pleased to announce our plans for the development of three Unexpected Gardens on the Rosneath peninsula, developed as part of the nationwide Dandelion programme. Cove Park is one of 12 partners working on new gardens, on unused land and in unexpected places, bringing new life to community libraries, car parks and tidal sites from the Western Isles to the Borders. The Unexpected Gardens are set to be a highlight of Dandelion, taking place from April to September 2022.

Cove Park's Unexpected Gardens will be developed on three distinct sites on the Rosneath peninsula, overlooking Loch Long and the Gareloch. The project will be artist-led, with the chosen artist developing all three sites: a disused car park at Centre 81 Community Centre in Garelochhead, the Sailing Club in Cove, and the wooded glen of Clachan, in the village of Rosneath. These sites share a proximity with salt and fresh water and are managed by members of the local community.

Commissioned by EventScotland and funded via the Scottish Government, Dandelion is Scotland’s contribution to UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, a nationwide programme of creative events and engagement. Driven by the concept of ‘Sow, Grow, Share’ – not just food but ideas, music, scientific knowledge, and community - Dandelion takes a unique approach to growing. Bringing together artists, scientists, performers, and technologists to present events and programmes throughout Scotland, including the Unexpected Gardens, Dandelion will culminate in hundreds of harvest celebrations later this year.

Read more here, and more Dandelion news will be shared soon.

Image: The Site of 1 of 3 Unexpected Gardens, Cove Sailing Club, Rosneath Peninsula

Ecologies in the Making: Sculpting Futures Residency Announced

We are thrilled to announce the Helsinki-based artist Iisa Lepistö has been awarded the first Ecologies in the Making residency for 2022. This residency is the first in a four year programme developed by the Academy of Fine Arts Uniarts Helsinki, Cove Park and Scottish Sculpture Workshop.

The 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 with sculptural methods or material processes. The programme supports research and the development of new work, and we are delighted Iisa will be based at Cove Park for eight weeks in the late summer this year, with the opportunity to develop new projects and connect with students and tutors at Glasgow School of Art, before moving to SSW for a further eight weeks and the opportunity to produce new work in the residency's workshop.

We look forward to welcoming Iisa and would like to thank our colleagues at SSW and in Helsinki for this collaboration. The project is made possible by a donation to Uniarts Helsinki from the Saastamoinen Foundation. Further information is available here.

Images: Above Iisa Lepistö; below, courtesy of the artist.

Architectural Association Visiting School 2022

Cove Park and the Architectural Association are calling upon architects, designers, and artists to generate spatial propositions for Cove Park's site in collaboration with the Architectural Association's Visiting School (AAVS).

The Visiting School is a global network of courses and workshops pursued and shaped by students working intensively in small groups led by AA tutors. Central to the programme is the idea that experimental, new, and provocative forms of architecture are best learned by doing. The school promotes, tests and challenges global interests in architectural learning and exchange by embedding a diverse group of creative students and tutors in an array of unique rural, urban, and international contexts.

Cove Park is very excited to be the location for the 2022 Visiting School from 4 - 24 July. The School will engage with Cove Park's ambitions for the development and extension of our accommodation and facilities on site, integrating principles of low embodied carbon, co-living and responsibility towards the land. The School will invite participants to consider what these terms mean today as we plan for an uncertain future defined by climate breakdown. How can we integrate a radical ethos of environmental sustainability with flexible land management planning and ever-changing user’s needs and desires? How can we best relate to the scale of the site, the challenging presence of the natural elements, and the existing buildings?

AAVS Cove Park will be a three-week experimental programme in which to explore these questions by interrogating, researching, and testing spatial propositions within the context of Cove Park and our 50-acre site. Participants will be free to undertake an individual or collaborative approach to their projects amongst a multi-disciplinary cohort. As a group AAVS 2022 will transform Cove Park into a dynamic forum, generating and exchanging ideas which will contribute towards the design brief of the centre’s future development.

Participants will be supported by a teaching team at the intersection of architecture and art through lectures, guided walks, workshops, and tutorials. This call is open to current architecture, design and art students, PhD candidates and young professionals, and creative practitioners globally. For more information about the programme, please contact visitingschool@aaschool.ac.uk and register your interest now by visiting the Architectural Association's website.

Image: AAVS

Cove Park Engagement
MOCA: Mapping Ocean Change through Art

Our monthly programme of Saturday Studios continued in February with 'Experiments in Weaving', led by the Dundee-based artist Rhona Jack. Rhona took part in the Crisis Residencies Programme supported by Freelands Foundation in 2020 and we are so pleased she had this opportunity to share her work with everyone.

We are now looking ahead to our next workshop on Saturday 26 March. MOCA: Mapping Ocean Change through Art is for participants of all ages and will be led by artist Jennifer Argo and marine biologist Dr. Neil Banas. Read more about the wider MOCA project here.

Argo will lead a guided walk and discussion along the shore by Cove Park, to reflect on our shared knowledge of local coastal marine species. We will collect inspiration, sketch, and reflect on the balance of the local ecosystems that bridge the sea and shore, followed by a plankton origami workshop at Cove Park. In the afternoon we will draw connections between marine species that inhabit the ocean and coastal regions between Cove Park and the Arctic on a map, including details of existing and potential impacts and knock-on effects on habitats and different species due to climate change.

For more information, and to reserve your free place, please visit our Eventbrite page.

If you have any questions concerning this event, please contact Cove Park Curator of Engagement Emma Henderson.