December 2022
We are delighted to welcome the Denmark-based literary translator Martin Aitken to Cove Park this month. Organised in collaboration with the independent publisher Lolli Editions, this residency is part of Cove Park's European Programme, supported by British Council Scotland and Creative Scotland.
The final residency of Cove Park's Youth Arts Bursary programme takes place in December, and we look forward to hosting the Dundee-based screenwriter Bonnie MacRae. Martin and Bonnie are here alongside our Food Ecologies resident, the Stockholm-based chef and designer Una Hallgrímsdóttir. During the final week of Una's two month residency she will be joined by Studio Hotmess, a London-based collaboration between designers Charlotte Moore and Maria Saeki, the UK recipients of the Food Ecologies residency held earlier this year at Linnæus University, Sweden.
Cove Park's independently funded residencies continue this month, hosting national and international individual artists and collaborators. Residents include artist and weaver Justine Ashbee, and the Prague-based cultural organisers Barbora Comer and Lucia Simaskova.
We are also pleased to welcome back a number of our former residents and Associates: Ashanti Harris and Project X, and visual artist Emmie McLuskey with choreographer and dancer Janice Parker, and musician and sound artist Martyn Riley.
Thank you to all those who have submitted applications for our funded residencies in 2023/24. We look forward to reading the submissions and will be in touch with everyone again by 10 February 2023. The programme will be announced in April next year.
Please scroll down for news of NAARCA, the Nordic Alliance of Artists' Residencies on Climate Action, including the launch of its new website this month and the podcast series 'Testing Grounds' in January.
Although the team are preparing for next year's programme, this Newsletter also reflects on a particularly busy and exciting 2022, and we would like to thank all those who have taken part and made our work possible this year. We wish everyone an enjoyable holiday season and a very happy new year.
Image: The view towards Loch Long in winter, from Cove Park's Cubes.
Announcing NAARCA's
New Website & Podcast Series
NAARCA, the Nordic Alliance of Artists' Residencies on Climate Action, is a three-year project bringing together residencies from six countries to collaborate on research, residencies, commissions, institutional change and education around climate action. Please visit NAARCA's new website for more information on the partner residencies and NAARCA's innovative programme.
In addition to residency exchanges, art and writing commissions, and engagement workshops, NAARCA is delighted to announce its new podcast series, Testing Grounds. As the climate crisis accelerates, how can residencies be testing grounds for new – and better – ways of living and working? This eight-episode series brings together artists, researchers and activists from across the Nordic region and Scotland to explore this question. The first episode will be released on Friday 27 January 2023, and monthly thereafter.
NAARCA, co-devised by Cove Park and Saari Residence (Finland), was launched in November 2021 and aims to build a long-term bridge between Scotland and the Nordic countries around the most pressing global issue of our time. The collaboration is founded upon the geological, climatological, historical, and linguistic similarities that unite both regions, and is the starting point for a permanent, expansive and holistic network of cooperation.
Images: above, NAARCA website, design by Alex Marrs, Cove Park; below, Testing Grounds illustration by Jagoda Sadowska.
The Year in Review
We would like to thank all the artists, writers, researchers and creative practitioners who have made 2022 such an enjoyable and busy year at Cove Park. We are especially grateful to all those who have joined our Associates programme in its first year, and all the community participants involved in new projects such as the Argyll Beacon and our Unexpected Gardens.
Cove Park has hosted over 240 individuals this year, due in part to the growing number of collaborative and group residencies held during 2022. Participants have come to us from every corner of Scotland, the UK, and from Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Senegal, Sweden and Taiwan. Read more on all the artists involved here.
This year saw the return to Cove Park of many wonderful groups and companies, and the launch of several new partnerships, allowing us to work with leading organisations and artist-run initiatives:
Argyll & the Isles Coast & Countryside Trust, Artlink Central, Birkbeck University of London, CCA Glasgow, Creative Carbon Scotland, Cryptic, Dandelion, Feminist Art Maintenance, Fluxus Art Projects, Gaelic Books Council, Imperial College London, Jan van Eyck Academie, Lolli Editions, Magnetic North, Making Tracks, Nocturn Dance, Playwrights' Studio Scotland, RAW Material Company, Royal Conservatoire Scotland, Royal Scottish Academy, Scottish Artists Union, Talbot Rice Gallery, Tricky Hat/The Flames, Unfix Festival, Uniarts/Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki, Varuna - the National Writers' House of Australia, The Work Room, The World Reimagined, and Zero Waste Design Collective.
Cove Park's residencies provide essential time and support at what are often critical moments in a creative career. Time here can be transformational and work undertaken at Cove Park often enriches creative practices for years to come. Our engagement programme makes possible unique opportunities for individuals, families, and groups locally to take part and enjoy all that Cove Park offers.
None of this work would be possible without the support of numerous individuals, trusts, foundations and funding agencies. We would like to thank them all.
If you feel you can support Cove Park in 2023 please visit our Support Us page. All donations are very welcome.
Images: above, the view of Loch Long from Cove Park; below, the Jacobs Building (photography, Martin Gibb and Alan Dimmick).
