January 2025
January got off to a flying start with Cove Park's first Creative Producers Residency. Devised by our Senior Producer, Alex Marrs, eight theatre producers based in the UK and Ireland had the opportunity to develop their practice with four award-winning producers from our programme partner Business of Broadway. This residency was also offered in association with Capital Theatres.
We were also delighted to welcome Eilidh Morton to Cove Park this month. Eilidh is a senior student at Hermitage Academy, Helensburgh, and this placement allowed her to work alongside Alex during the Creative Producers Residency.
Our Open Residencies and Subsidised Winter Residencies continue throughout January, welcoming new and former residents. Taking part are multidisciplinary artist and writer Lisette Auton, writer Elizabeth Gold, artist and photographer Demelza Kingston, researcher and multidisciplinary artist Elizabeth Kwant, visual artist and writer Rachel McBrinn with artist, writer, and art worker Alison Scott, multidisciplinary artist Lois Maher, Associate Professor of Architecture & Director of Graduate Programmes (Carelton University, Ottawa) Lisa Moffit, computational artist, creative coder, and AI engineer Tim Murray-Browne, writer Emma Musty, freelance curator Natalie Nicolaïdes, maker Luke Pell, interdisciplinary theatre maker Jennifer Porteous, pianist and composer James Ross, and artist, writer, and screenwriter Adam Vaughn.
Read on for programme announcements including the recipients of the Bernat Klein Fellowships, a new residency developed in partnership with The Common Guild, the call for applications for the
2025 Bridge Awards Residencies, and forthcoming events including our first Saturday Studio Workshop of 2025, and the launch in March of Carrion Crow, a new book by former resident Heather Parry. We are also excited to announce a new subsidised residency for writers, including a workshop led by writer and former resident Hannah Lavery and the opportunity for one-to-one mentoring.
We would like to wish all our residents, friends, and supporters a very happy and peaceful 2025.
Image: The Bridge at Cove Park.
Bernat Klein Fellowships Announced
We are delighted to announce that the 2025 Bernat Klein Fellowships have been awarded to the Sweden-based textile designer Moira Nilsson and the Scotland-based textile designer Mariam Syed.
Offered in partnership with the Bernat Klein Foundation and Konstfack University of the Arts, Craft, and Design, Stockholm, the Fellowships include a four-week residency at Cove Park and the opportunity for supported research including access to the national Bernat Klein archive collections in Scotland. Mariam will also take part in a two-week residency in Stockholm in association with Konstfack.
A special event focussed upon the Fellowships will take place at Cove Park in early March. Details will be announced at the beginning of February on our website and via social media.
The Bernat Klein Fellowships are made possible with generous support from The William Grant Foundation and The Embassy of Sweden in London.
Images: above, Mariam Syed (courtesy of the designer); below, Moira Nilsson, detail of`'I can not see the forest for all the trees', 2023 (courtesy of the designer).
The Common Guild & Cove Park Residency:
Ayo Akingbade
We are excited to be working in partnership with the Glasgow-based visual arts organisation The Common Guild on a new residency for the artist, writer, and director Ayo Akingbade.
Ayo works predominantly with film and installation to address themes of power, urbanism and stance. Much of Akingbade’s work has documented experiences of rapid social change brought about by gentrification in London, with a particular focus on Hackney, where she was born and raised. Moving between experimental essay films, documentary, and more traditional narrative shorts, her practice
is grounded in a commitment to radical storytelling. Her first major solo institutional exhibition, ‘Show Me The World Mister’, opened at Chisenhale Gallery in 2022 and toured until 2024, venues included Spike Island, Bristol and Whitworth, University of Manchester.
Ayo is currently working with The Common Guild and this residency will offer research time in Scotland to develop new work.
We are very grateful to Mārama Consulting for supporting this residency.
Image: Ayo Akingbade, Dreaming Blue (photographic print), John Hansard Gallery, 2023 © Ayo Akingbade. Courtesy of the artist. Installation view, photo by Reece Straw.
Bridge Awards Residencies 2025
Call for Applications
The call for applications for the third year of The Bridge Awards Residencies is live!
In collaboration with The Bridge Awards, Cove Park is pleased to offer a further four fully funded residencies in 2025 for artists based in Scotland whose careers have been impacted by a breast cancer diagnosis and who have undergone successful treatment and are up to five years in remission.
The four Bridge Awards Residencies will run in parallel for ten days from Monday 19 May - Thursday 29 May. They are open to people based in Scotland, at any stage of their creative career, and working in any art form or creative discipline. The aim is to provide the artist, writer, creative practitioner, or researcher with time and space to reconnect with their practice, and to do this within the peaceful, supportive, and inspiring context of Cove Park and its national and international residency programme.
Further information on this programme and details of how to apply is available here. Applications should be submitted by Friday 28 February 2025.
We are very grateful to The Bridge Awards and to Maggie's for their ongoing support and help with this series of residencies.
Image: The Bridge at Cove Park (photography, Ruth Clark).
Winter Writers Residency with Hannah Lavery
We are pleased to announce a new residency for writers taking place from Monday 17 to Sunday 23 February 2025. Over the course of this week, six participants will benefit from an immersive and creative space to connect and develop new writing with guidance and support from poet, playwright and former resident Hannah Lavery.
This residency is open to writers of any genre, and will include a writers talk and practical writing workshop facilitated by Hannah Lavery, plus the opportunity for one-to-one mentoring.
Developed as part of our annual Subsidised Winter Residencies programme, this new residency reflects our aim to provide more unique opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, mentorship, and cross-disciplinary exchange.
Further information on this programme and details of how to apply is available here. The deadline for applications is rolling until filled or by Monday 3 February 2025.
Image: Hannah Lavery (courtesy of the artist).
Subsidised Winter Residencies 2025
Call for Applications
We are pleased to announce details of our popular annual programme of Subsidised Winter Residencies for 2025.
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 in the winter (photography, Alex Marrs).
Launch Event: Carrion Crow by Heather Parry
We are delighted to host a launch event for Carrion Crow, a new novel by Glasgow-based writer and former resident Heather Parry. Heather will discuss her new book with writer Cailean Steed followed by an audience Q&A and book signing.
The event is free, but places are limited. Please book your ticket in advance via Cove Park's Ticket Tailor page. Refreshments will be served.
Heather Parry is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her debut novel, Orpheus Builds a Girl, was shortlisted for the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year award and longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. She is also the author of a short story collection, This Is My Body, Given For You, and a short nonfiction book, Electric Dreams: On Sex Robots and the Failed Promises of Capitalism, and writes the Substack general observations on eggs. She was raised in Rotherham and lives in Glasgow with her partner and their cats, Fidel and Ernesto.
Cailean Steed is a writer, teacher and aspiring dog owner, and lives near Glasgow with their husband and son. They have also resided in Aberdeen and Dublin, and hope one day to live somewhere with less rain. Their debut novel Home was published by Raven Bloomsbury in 2023. Cailean’s short stores have been published in anthologies such as New Writing Scotland 36: With Their Best Clothes On, and Boudicca Press’s Disturbing the Beast: an Anthology of Weird Fiction by Women. Their audiodrama RealBoy was the winner of the 2020 Pen to Print Audioplay Award.
Image: Heather Parry.
Saturday Studio Workshop
Wintering Ritual with Andrea Ling
25 January 2025
This Saturday Studio workshop invites participants to explore with the rhythms of the winter season through movement, theatre, and writing. Led by interdisciplinary artist, former resident and Associate Andrea Ling, whose practice explores rekindling rituals and bringing communities together, we’ll explore how seasonal traditions can offer care, connection, and meaning in modern life.
For further information and to reserve your free place, please visit Cove Park's Ticket Tailor page.
Image: Path down to the Cove Park Bridge, Winter 2019
Space Hire 2025
Space Hire was launched in 2023 to welcome other arts organisations, companies, and community groups to Cove Park for meetings and away days. In the programme's first year we were pleased to host The Common Guild, Comhairle nan Leabhraichean / The Gaelic Books Council, Glasgow International, 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. Please submit an enquiry form or contact Nicola Jamieson directly for more information and to discuss your specific requirements.
Rhubaba's POC Emerging Writers Group had a brilliant visit to Cove Park. We're thankful for the hospitality of the team in welcoming us into their unique creative space. The group enjoyed walking the grounds and exploring Cove Park... having space to breathe and explore as artists is invaluable to connection.
Rhubaba Committee, September 2024
Image: The Jacobs Building, Cove Park (photography, Alan Dimmick).
