Bridge Awards Residencies 2026
Resident Announcement

Following a call for applications, we are delighted to confirm the six recipients of the 2026 Bridge Awards Residencies are: musician Shona Brown; curator, researcher and writer Jo Clements; theatre maker, performance artist, and researcher Lori Delaney; textile artist Susanne Nørregård Nielsen, writer Gillian Shirreffs, multidisciplinary artist and researcher Deniz Uster.

Launched in 2023, The Bridge Awards Residency is a ten-day funded group residency for creative practitioners based in Scotland whose careers have been impacted by a breast cancer diagnosis. The aim is to provide the artists 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. 

We are grateful to Maggie's for their ongoing support and advice, to Scottish Ensemble for delivering a music and wellbeing workshop as part of this programme, and to The Bridge Awards for making this residency possible.

Images: above, The Bridge at Cove Park; below, Deniz Uster 2: Arbor Vitae, 2025, tree, aluminium, glass, wood, porridge oats, resin, modelling materials, velvet powder, Variable dimensions. Ignition and Confluence: The River of Us at .artSümer Gallery. Photo Credit: Nazli Erdemirel.

Creative Compass Georgia
Residencies Announcement

We are pleased to announce a programme for artists and creative practitioners from Georgia in 2026 and 2027 as part of a new partnership with Creative Compass Georgia. 

In March this year we welcome author, social worker, and activist Lela Kurtanidze. Her debut poetry collection, 'Melatonin', was shortlisted for the Saba, Georgia’s most prestigious literary award, in 2022. Lela's poems have been featured in the German-language Anthology 'Säe den Weizen, Ukraine' which includes poems by Georgian and Ukrainian authors, and in 'The Anthology of Georgian Queer Poetry'. 

These residencies are implemented within the framework of the 'International Study Visit Programme', one of the components of the Creative Compass Georgia project. This initiative offers creatives a unique opportunity to gain new knowledge and skills in the cultural and creative industries through international exchange and collaboration.

Creative Compass Georgia project is funded by the European Union and co-funded and implemented by the Goethe-Institut Georgia.

Images: Lela Kurtanidze (photography, Natia Kapanadze)

Varuna – Cove Park International Fellow Announcement

We are delighted to announce that the recipient of the 2026 Varuna - Cove Park International Fellowship is Anne-Marie Te Whiu.

 Anne-Marie Te Whiu (Te Rarawa) is a poet, editor, cultural producer, and weaver based on unceded Gadigal lands in Australia. As an Australian-born-Māori, she is dedicated to platforming the creative output of Indigenous peoples around the world and has edited works such as 'Solid Air: Australia and New Zealand Spoken Word' (UQP) and 'Woven' (Magabala). She was previously the co-director of the Queensland Poetry Festival and a recipient of a Next Chapter Fellowship through The Wheeler Centre. Anne-Marie’s debut poetry collection, 'Mettle', (UQP) was published in 2025.

Anne-Marie will undertake a four-week residency at Cove Park this October which includes presenting at Wigtown Book Festival. During her residency, she plans to work on her verse novel 'Paper Thin'.

Launched in 2019 with support from The Bridge Awards, this programme is a partnership between Cove Park and Varuna, the National Writers’ House of Australia. Offering residencies in Scotland and Australia for alumni writers connected to both organisations, the programme has been adapted to take place over two years, with recipients travelling in alternating years. In 2024 we launched a new partnership with Wigtown Book Festival, connecting the participating writers to this acclaimed Scottish book festival.

Images: Anne-Marie Te Whiu (photography, Joy Lai for Openbook, State Library NSW)

Call for Applications
Emerging Visual Artist Residency 2026

Cove Park’s Emerging Visual Artist Residency is for a visual artist based in Scotland and in the early stages of developing their practice. Devised by Cove Park in partnership with The Bridge Awards, this is a two-week fully funded residency: the artist will receive a fee, a travel allowance, and a research/materials allowance.

We wish to support an early-career artist who is in urgent need of the support this residency provides and would benefit from time at Cove Park in the summer of 2026. With this in mind, this residency will be offered via a ‘fast track’ application process, to ensure the appointed resident has the support required to go forward with current projects and adequate time to plan.

Further information on this residency and hope to apply is available here. The deadline for applications is 24 April 2026.

Images: work by former residents - above, Priya, black sheep' (2025) Hebridean wool painting stretchers, audio: 17 min loop image by Julie Howden; below, Saturn Akin, Partisan X, Dual-channel video, Intermedia Gallery CCA, Glasgow, 2024.

Call for Applications
Body Remedy's Grounding Residency

We are excited to continue our partnership with the Glasgow-based artist and creative development organisation Body Remedy. Our collaboration began in 2023 when Body Remedy’s Founder and Artistic Director Mele Broomes was the recipient of an Awarded Residency to continue her research and development of ‘a [forming] ecology that centres physical practice for self recovery.'

Body Remedy are now accepting applications for the Grounding Residency taking place at Cove Park from 21 September – 3 October 2026.

These residencies are for Black people and people of colour based in Scotland who identify as women, trans and/or non-binary. They are designed for artists and creatives to have time, space, and resources to centre their own artistic vision. This includes work you wish to develop, projects you are trying to finalise, or practices you are ready to focus on independently but have not yet had the opportunity to do so. The residencies support creatives across any discipline, including craft, visual art, music, writing, music production, costume design, lighting design, performance and videography.

Learn more and apply via Body Remedy.

Image: Mele Broomes, 2022/23 Awarded Resident, Founder of Body Remedy (photography by Alan Dimmick). 

Call for Applications 
Earth Month - Slow Travel Residency

Earth Month 2026 is a collaboration between Goethe-Institut Glasgow, Institut Français d'Écosse, and Alliance Française Glasgow, aimed at fostering cultural exchange and climate action through the lens of artistic and cultural practice. This programme unites France, Germany, and Scotland in a dynamic, multidisciplinary dialogue around sustainability, with a particular focus on the role of oceans and rewilding.

Cove Park will host two artists - one from France and one from Germany - in April this year. The artists will also participate in a residency at Linkshouse, Orkney.

Further information and details of how to apply is available here.

Image courtesy of  Goethe-Institut Glasgow. 

New Partnership
The Sound Lab & Cove Park

We are pleased to announce a new partnership with the Glasgow-based organisation The Sound Lab. Helping young people to fulfil their creative potential through free music, media, digital, and arts tuition, The Sound Lab serves care experienced children and young people, those with lived experience of displacement, and those with a disability or additional support needs.

In 2026, Cove Park and Sound Lab will work together on its New Sounds Academy, a one-year career development programme for care experienced young musicians. The programme will include a writing residency at Cove Park, in addition to mentoring and a bursary to support professional development. 

Further information on this programme is available here.

Image: Courtesy of The Sound Lab. 

Spotlight on 25: Simon Starling

In celebration of Cove Park's 25th Anniversary, we are highlighting special residencies, commissions, and projects central to our growing archive. 

In 2004 visual artist Simon Starling accepted the first Cove Park Commission and developed Autoxylopyrocycloboros, a major project launched at Cove Park in the summer of 2006 that focused on the history and geography of the Clyde Estuary. Starling sailed a small, customised steamboat on Loch Long, feeding the wooden boat piece by piece into the onboard woodburner, until it finally sank. The project formed the basis of his solo exhibition at Kunstverein Heidelberg in November 2006 and this major work has since featured in numerous national and international exhibitions.

In 2006 Simon produced a limited-edition artwork for Cove Park related to this commission. Using images documenting the sailing on Loch Long, the artist converted each archivally guaranteed giclée print into a unique work through a hand a burning process. Produced at Dundee Contemporary Arts Print Studio, this limited edition is available to purchase via Cove Park's online Shop. 

The exhibition Simon Starling: Boat Works, at Abbot Hall Art Gallery and Windermere Jetty Museum in Cumbria, features  Autoxylopyrocycloboros and continues until 14 March 2026. You can learn more about this exhibition in a review written by former resident and Cove Park Associate Caroline Bagenal.

Image: Autoxylopyrocycloboros, Simon Starling (2006).

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.

Space Hire 2026

Space Hire welcomes arts organisations, companies, and community groups to Cove Park for meetings and away days. Recent Space Hire participants include: The Common Guild, Comhairle nan Leabhraichean / The Gaelic Books Council, Glasgow International, Missing in Architecture (Glasgow School of Art), The Mount Stuart Trust, Rhubaba, Scottish Opera, and the University of Glasgow (Contemporary Art & Curation).

Our new Space Hire pack contains more information with images of our beautiful spaces and what we offer. 

Please submit an enquiry form or contact Nicola Jamieson directly for more information and to discuss your specific requirements. 

Scottish Ensemble hired The Monument Trust Room at Cove Park for our Staff Away Day in September 2025. The opportunity to go somewhere beautiful, inspiring, and different from our day-to-day setting was just what our team needed to get our thinking caps on. We were given a very warm welcome from Alexia and her team, and made to feel at home right away. We’ll be back again next year!

James Hardie, Chief Executive, Scottish Ensemble

Image: Monument Trust Room (photography, Paul Tyagi)