The view of Taransay and Oak Pods from the balcony of Arran, Bute, and Cumbrae Cubes.

February 2025

February sees the arrival of textile designers Moira Nilsson (Sweden) and Mariam Syed (Scotland) taking part in our first Bernat Klein Fellowships. Developed in collaboration with the Bernat Klein Foundation and Konstfack University of Arts, Craft, and Design, Stockholm, this programme includes four week Cove Park residencies for both designers, supported research visits, and a one-day public Symposium (see below) including presentations, studios visits, and discussions.

Also launching this month is our first Winter Writers Residency, a one-week group residency welcoming writers in any genre and at any career stage to develop new writing with guidance and support from poet, playwright, and former resident Hannah Lavery. The participating writers are Tracy Fahey, Kaljeven Singh Lally, Robert Rae, Leilani Taneus-Miller, Jackie Taylor, and Tina West.

Cove Park's annual programme of Subsidised Winter Residencies run throughout the month and include interdisciplinary artist Chloe Austin, visual artist Hannah Cornish, artist and Fine Art lecturer Jo McGonigal, and writer Rebecca Kathryn Sharp.

The ongoing series of residencies for Talbot Rice Residents draws to a close this season with residencies for visual artists Alaya Ang and Kirsty Russell. We are grateful to all of the participating artists and to Edinburgh's Talbot Rice Gallery for making this programme possible.

February also sees the welcome return of The Flames, a Tricky Hat performance company for creative people aged 50+. This year, this one-week residency brings 18 performers together to explore the Japanese concept of Ikigai, roughly translated as 'your purpose for living.'

Read on for programme announcements including our general call for applications for Awarded Residencies in 2025 and 2026, the calls for application's for this year's Bridge Awards Residencies and the Emerging Visual Artist Residency, the announcement of the Early Career Performing Arts Residency and the Argyll Heritage Craft Residency, news from NAARCA and details of Earth Month Residencies, and information on several forthcoming events.

Image: the view towards Loch Long from Cove Park's Cubes.

A dark green converted shipping container with a bio-turf roof nestled in between trees, ferns, and foliage. In the distance, you can see Loch Long and hills beyond that.

Call for Applications Announced
Awarded Residencies 2025 & 2026

Our general call for applications for fully funded Awarded Residencies in 2025 & 2026 is now live!

As one of Cove Park's key programmes, Awarded Residencies reflect our ongoing commitment to the support of local, national, and international artists, researchers, writers, and creative practitioners, working in all art forms and at every career stage. These residencies offer supported time for research, creative development, and the production of new work. The appointed residents will receive a fee, funding for travel and, when required, for materials, access support, and the visa application process.

The Awarded Residencies will take place between late June 2025 and December 2026 and can be for as short a time as two weeks or up to three months in duration.

Please note, for 2025 and 2026 these residencies are open to individuals, collectives, and collaborative groups based in Scotland and the UK and in Central and South America. Artists from the Central and South American diaspora based in Europe and North America are also welcome to apply. A list of eligible locations is included in the Application Form. Although the Awarded Residencies currently have this region and its diaspora as its focus, we will continue to support artists based in other international locations through a range of residencies and projects during 2025 and 2026.

More information on this programme and and details of hope to apply is available here. The deadline for applications is 11 April 2025.

Image: Cove Park's Cubes and the view of Loch Long (photography, Alan Dimmick).

A narrow wooden bridge nestled in dark green foliage, trees and ferns.

Bridge Awards Residencies 2025
Final Call for Applications

The deadline to apply for the third year of The Bridge Awards Residencies is 28 February 2025.

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 programme.

Image: The Bridge at Cove Park (photography, Ruth Clark).

A person with short strawberry blonde hair takes a photograph of the landscape view. A small pond with yellow gorse surrounding the perimeter. Beyond that, Loch Long with a large boat and hills in the distance. It is a sunny, blue skied day.

Emerging Visual Artist Residency 2025
Call for Applications

Cove Park’s Emerging Visual Artist Residency is for a visual artist based in Scotland and in the early stages of developing their practice. Developed by Cove Park in partnership with The Bridge Awards, this four-week fully funded residency offers time for self-directed studio work and the development of new ideas and projects.

This is a fully funded residency and the artist will receive a fee, a travel allowance, and a research/materials allowance.

Alumni of this residency programme include Saturn Akin, Matthew Arthur Williams, Sekai Machache, Aman Sandhu, Ashanti Harris, and Rhona Mühlebach.

This residency is scheduled to take place from Monday 30 June - Sunday 27 July 2025.

To read more about the residency and how to apply, please see the Emerging Visual Artist Residency Guidelines. The deadline for applications is Friday 7 March 2025.

Image: Former resident Toby Paterson at Cove Park (photography, Helen Voce).

Performance still featuring a Black woman wearing a beige linen dress. She is seated with her knees folded under her and her hands resting on the tops of her legs. The scenery features a chrome, mirror-like quality.

Early Career Performing Artist Residency 2025

We are delighted to announce that the 2025 Early Career Performing Artist Residency has been awarded to Ebun Sodipo.

Ebun Sodipo is an artist and writer who makes work for Black Trans people of the future. Guided by Black feminist study and a methodology of collage and fabulation, her work locates and produces real and imaginable narratives of Black Trans women’s presence, embodiment, and interiority across the past, present, and future. In doing this, Ebun Sodipo fills in historical gaps to create moments of archival pleasure for Black Trans people. This work takes place across multiple spaces: galleries, festivals, theatere, digital, and print; and in varied forms such as sound, performance, text, installation, video, and sculpture.

During her residency, Ebun will develop a new performance entitled, 'The Way Her Teeth Settled', exploring ways to tell the story through lighting, movement, and vocals.

Image: Ebun Sodipo, my body reminds us of water, (photography, Christopher Wormald)

A man wearing a workshop apron and glasses holds a book together using a small wooden bookbinder.

Argyll Heritage Craft Residency 2025

Now in its second year, we are pleased to announce that the 2025 Argyll Heritage Craft Residency has been awarded to the Iona-based bookbinder Toben Lewis.

Initially trained as a graphic designer, specialising in books, Toben discovered a passion for bookbinding and honed his skills through self-education and advanced studies with master bookbinders. Inspired by Iona's natural beauty and historical significance, he produces books that blend traditional conservation techniques with contemporary innovations. Through Baile Mòr Books, his small bookbindery, Toben offers custom design bindings, book repair and restoration, and workshops, sharing the timeless art of bookbinding with a wider audience.

We are grateful to The Crerar Trust for their ongoing support of this residency.

Image: Toben Lewis (courtesy of the artist).

A frosty view of Adventalen in Svalbard – a large valley with a body of water and mountains surrounding it. The sky is bright blue with low-lying clouds across the mountain peaks.

News from NAARCA

We are excited to confirm that Nordic Culture Fund has awarded NAARCA (Nordic Alliance of Artists' Residencies on Climate Action) a two-year grant for the continuation of the international network.

Co-devised by Cove Park and Saari Residence (Finland) in 2021, the Alliance aims to build a long-term bridge between Scotland and the Nordic countries around the most pressing global issue of our time. The collaboration was founded on the geological, cultural and linguistic similarities that united both regions, and was a starting point for an expansive and holistic network of international working around climate action.

During its first iteration (2022-2024), NAARCA facilitated eight residency exchanges, two art commissions, seven writing commissions, launched a podcast series and online exhibition, and created two toolkits: Creative Climate Champions for young people and a Sustainability Toolkit for Artists’ Residencies.

In 2025 and 2026, NAARCA will focus on supporting artists through residency exchanges, capacity-building for staff to develop ways of working with a long-term perspective, translation of toolkits, and sharing knowledge from the commissioned essays, podcast, and toolkits. Additionally, NAARCA is interested in exploring potential projects that expand our geographic focus from solely the Nordic and Scottish region to working with partners in other parts of the world.

Learn more about NAARCA at naarca.art and to keep updated on all NAARCA-related news, we will launch a NAARCA newsletter next month.

Image: Adventalen, Svalbard (courtesy of Artica).

A large stone house bathed in sunshine. There is a large grassy lawn and a body of water in the distance.

Earth Month Residencies 2025

Earth Month 2025 is a collaborative initiative between Goethe-Institut Glasgow, Institut Français d'Écosse, and ClimateCulture, aimed at fostering cultural exchange and climate action through the lens of artistic and cultural practice. Uniting France, Germany, and Scotland in a dynamic, multidisciplinary dialogue around sustainability, this programme is currently seeking two artists – one based in Germany and one based in France – working in visual arts, moving image, or sound, whose portfolios reflect an engagement with climate, environmental, or ecological themes.

Taking place from 28 March - 23 April 2025, this programme offers two artists the opportunity to explore Scotland's diverse landscapes, sustainability challenges, and emerging climate solutions. The residency will provide a slow travel experience, with the artists journeying by train and/or boat from their home countries to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cove Park, and Linkshouse in Orkney.

At each location, the artists will engage with one of the following themes: rewilding, oceans, sustainable cities, and circular design. The residency will culminate in an Artists' Talk on Earth Day (22 April), where the artists will share insights gathered during their residency and present their pre-existing work on environmental themes in a small exhibition at the Institut Français d'Écosse’s venue in Edinburgh. The travel residency is realised in cooperation with the School of Fine Art, and the School of Design, the Glasgow School of Art.

For more details about the programme and to apply, visit Goethe-Institut Glasgow. Applications should be submitted by Sunday 23 February at 23:59 GMT.

Image: Linkshouse at Pier Arts Centre in Orkney.

A person with shoulder-length brown curly hair kneels to adjust a large textile canvas with a black-coloured pattern.

Saturday Studio Workshop
Pattern Disrupters with Kate Owens
22 February 2025

Offered in relation to Cove Park's current Bernat Klein Fellowships, Pattern Disrupters is a new textile printing workshop led by artist Kate Owens and inspired by the work of textile designer Bernat Klein.

Participants will explore the idea of non-patterning using small-scale wooden print blocks. The starting point for this session is thinking about Klein’s resistance to repeating pattern. He used space-dyeing and irregular yarn to create variety in his woven fabrics.

This workshop covers the basics of block carving and textile printing using simple materials. It's a fun and engaging table-based activity appropriate for all ages. We will be using Soil Association approved inks and a mixture of reclaimed and sustainably sourced fabrics.

This free two-hour workshop is for children aged seven and over and their families or carers. If you have questions about workshop accessibility, please get in touch with Emma Henderson (Curator of Engagement).

Image: Courtesy of Kate Owens.

A black and white portrait of a person with short hair. She is wearing dark clothing and a large wrap-around scarf.

Launch Event: Carrion Crow by Heather Parry
Friday 7 March, 2025

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 takes place at Cove Park and begins at 6pm.

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.

Text reads: Design matters where designs matter. The text is in white and orange on a bright red background.

Bernat Klein Fellowships Symposium
Saturday 8 March 2025

The Bernat Klein Fellowships Symposium is a one-day event for textile designers, artists, curators, researchers, and those interested in contemporary textile design and the work of the designer, writer, and artist Bernat Klein (1922-2014).

This special event coincides with Cove Park residencies for the textile designers Moira Nilsson (Sweden) and Mariam Syed (Scotland). Moira and Mariam were awarded the 2025 Bernat Klein Fellowships, a new programme to support research and the development of new work in both Scotland and Sweden. During the residencies at Cove Park, the designers will also benefit from supported access through the Bernat Klein Foundation to Klein's archives and collections in Scotland.

The day will include studio visits with Moira Nilsson and Mariam Syed and talks by Professor Alison Harley (Chair & Founding Trustee, Bernat Klein Foundation) and Professor Maja Gunn (Research Leader, Department of Craft, Konstfack, University of Arts, Craft & Design, Stockholm, Sweden). Morning coffee and lunch will be provided.

STOP PRESS - the Symposium is now fully booked. However, it is possible to join a waiting list for cancellations via our Ticket Tailor page.

Image: Cover artwork of 'Design Matters' by Bernat Klein, [published 1976).

The image features an indoor room with a couch and bookshelves. The room seems to be designed as a comfortable reading or relaxation space, with ample shelving for books and a cozy couch.

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).