November 2025
As autumn continues, our Awarded Residencies this month include interdisciplinary artist Debjani Banerjee, fashion and textile designer, researcher and maker Louise Bennetts, music theatre collaborators Sarah Chew and Collum Findlay, and cultural producer and independent curator Karon Sabrina Corrales. This programme continues next year and we look forward to welcoming more national and international artists to Cove Park.
November also sees the third edition of the Loch Long Crime Writing Residency, awarded to Claire Wilson, and the continuation of the Young Gaelic Writer Residency, awarded to poet, artist, and editor Cameron Wilson and developed in close partnership with Comhairle nan
Leabhraichean / The Gaelic Books Council.
The four-week British Council Residency continues with artist, curator, and editor Yasmine Rifaii. Organised by British Council in partnership with Arts Council England, Creative Scotland and Arts Council of Wales/Wales Arts International, this residency is part of a new programme designed to support artists affected by conflict from Lebanon, Yemen, Palestine, and Ukraine through residencies at leading cultural institutions across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. You can read more about this initiative here.
Yasmine was joined in the first week of her residency by the Palestinian composer and pianist Faraj Suleiman, recipient of the first Bagri Music Award. Faraj's residency involved solo performances at Cove Park on 1 November and at Glasgow's Mackintosh Church on 8 November. We are very grateful to Faraj, our programme partner MARSM, programme funder Bagri Foundation, and to everyone who attended these special events.
This month's Open Residencies bring outstanding creative practitioners travelling to us from across Scotland, the UK and the US: artist and filmmaker Kirsten Adkins, theatre manager and Programming Director of Producer Hub Dani Barlow, artist Penelope Brook, multidisciplinary artist and writer Dinda Fass, musician, sound artist and engineer Stevie Jones, multidisciplinary artist Lily Just, writer and theatre maker Dr. Alice Langley, musician and classical guitarist Vince McIntyre, filmmaker, educator, and writer Anne Milne, independent cultural practitioner Kara Neel, filmmaker Finlay Prestell, journalist, writer, and editor April Eva Shepherd, and artist duo Faye Yan and IChin Liao.
With December on its way, we're highlighting in this Newsletter our online Shop and its wonderful range of
limited edition prints and artworks, in addition to the following programme announcements, calls for applications, and details of our next Saturday Studio, 'Clay for Quietude', with Rhona Warwick Paterson.
Image: Cove Park (photography, Alan Dimmick).
Limited Edition Prints & Artworks for Christmas
As December draws near, we're highlighting the limited edition prints and artworks available from our Shop, including 77°, a new work by Matthew Arthur Williams, commissioned to mark Cove Park's 25th anniversary, alongside key works by Claire Barclay, Christine Borland, Nathan Coley, Graham Fagen, Louise Hopkins, Charlie Prodger, Ross Sinclair, and Simon Starling. We are pleased to offer a 10% discount on all editions purchased in November and December this year.
These editions are perfect gifts for the holiday season and a wonderful way to support our residencies, commissions, and creative learning programmes. If you would like to purchase an edition, please visit the Shop or contact information@covepark.org.
Images: above, We Love Real Life Scotland, Ross Sinclair; below, Autoxylopyrocycloboros, Simon Starling (2006).
LUX Scotland & Platform YouthLink Residency
We are delighted to be working with LUX Scotland and Platform on a three-day residential event funded by YouthLink Scotland and led by Ashanti Harris, supporting young artists.
In 2020 – 21 LUX Scotland and Platform partnered on a project as part of Now & Next to commission 13 young people to make short moving image works with BBC Arts and Screen Scotland. Building on the success of Now & Next, this residency invites young artists with an interest in moving image to come together for a weekend of creative exploration, relaxation and connection. Multi-disciplinary artist Ashanti Harris - a former resident of Cove Park - was a mentor on Now & Next and returns to lead this special residential event, conceived in dialogue with Lloyd Darko and Reese Leitch, who both took part in Now & Next.
Image: Still from BLACK GOLD, Ashanti Harris, 2023 (courtesy of the artist).
Magnetic 4: Artist Announced
Magnetic Residencies is a joint Franco-UK initiative bringing together ten institutions to create a programme of artist residencies: five in France and five in the UK. We are pleased to announce that the recipient of the Magnetic 4 Residency at Cove Park is Mathilde Dewavrin.
Mathilde is an artist-architect living in Marseille. After studying architecture in Paris and Rio de Janeiro, she moved to Berlin to work as an architect. Her desire to inscribe her work in a politicised approach to today's dynamics led her to leave conventional structures and move onto less well-trodden paths.
A founding member of Collectif Trouble, Mathilde explores those thematics through the prism of theatre (Balaton Residency + Culture Moves Europe Grant in 2023). She is also a founding member of B.U.I.L.D*lab, a queer-feminist building collective seeking to overturn the mechanisms of domination in the world of construction (Urban Praxis in 2024 + Kultur Formen Grant in 2025). Since 2024, she has been teaching how to write and perform theatre in public spaces at the ENSA Marseille. She just finished a residency with Iméra and Citadelle de Marseille.
Image: Mathilde Dewavrin (courtesy of the artist).
The Ocean’s Edge / Litoral do Limite Residencies Announced
We are delighted to share that Cove Park is a residential partner on the international project The Ocean’s Edge / Litoral do Limite. We look forward to welcoming commissioned artists to Cove Park for two week residencies in Spring 2026.
Led by Pivô (Brazil) and Invisible Dust (UK) with TBA21–Academy (Spain), The Ocean’s Edge / Litoral do Limite explores the future of the Brazilian and UK Atlantics, with artists Letícia Ramos (Brazil), Licida Vidal (Brazil), and Alberta Whittle (UK).
Part of the official programme of the UK/Brazil Season of Culture 2025–26 by the British Council and Instituto Guimarães Rosa, the project involves three commissioned artists and a dynamic public programme designed to engage communities, scientists, and curators in a process of shared listening, learning, and creation in Brazil and the UK.
Image: Artists Licida Vidal (BR), Letícia Ramos (BR) and Alberta Whittle (UK) in the city of Belém as part of ‘The Ocean’s Edge / Litoral Do Limite’, October 2025. Photograph courtesy of Invisible Dust.
Call for Applications
NAARCA Residencies 2026
The Nordic Alliance of Artists’ Residencies on Climate Action (NAARCA) is pleased to announce a new call for applications.
Between March and November 2026, NAARCA will facilitate two funded residency exchanges. The residents will receive a fee, a materials/equipment allowance, and a travel stipend.
This programme builds upon the research, commissions, and institutional projects NAARCA has delivered since 2021 which focus upon the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis, climate justice and the four pillars of sustainability – ecological, social, psychological and cultural. This residency supports research, the development of existing and new projects, engagement with local communities, and the production of new work and ideas in relation to the NAARCA partners’ unique ecological contexts.
Hosting NAARCA residents in 2026 are Cove Park, Saari Residence (Finland), and Skaftfell Arts Center (Iceland). Information on each host institution - the available residency dates, what each organisation offers, and the deadline for submissions – is provided in the Application Guidelines.
We welcome applications from artists based in Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Scotland, and Sweden working in visual arts, craft, or design and whose practice intersects with themes surrounding sustainability and the climate emergency.
More information is available here and the deadline for applications is 8 December 2025.
These residencies are made possible with support from the Nordic Culture Fund.
Image: Courtesy of Saari Residence.
Call for Applications
Interweaving Threads Residency 2026
The year-long project Interweaving: Scotland and Norway through Dress launched in October this year with a special two-day event in Edinburgh addressing the similarities and differences between traditional Norwegian and Scottish dress and textiles. The project partners are The Norwegian Institute of Bunad and Folk Costume, Arts & Culture Norway, MUHO, National Museum of Scotland, Cove Park, art historian Dr.Kitty Corbet Milward, and curator and anthropologist Maja Musum.
We are delighted to announce the call for applications for the Interweaving Threads Residency, a new programme for textile artists, designers, and makers based in Scotland and in Norway. The programme will support one artist/designer/maker based in Scotland and one based in Norway. Both artists/designers/makers will be awarded residencies at MUHO in Norway in April 2026 and at Cove Park in May 2026, in addition to the opportunity for supported research including access to national and regional archive and dress collections in Norway and Scotland, plus support required for the development of new work.
More information is available here and the deadline for applications is 5 January 2026.
Image: Courtesy of NBF/Laila Durán.
Call for Applications
Bridge Awards Residency 2026
The call for applications for the fourth year of The Bridge Awards Residencies is live!
In collaboration with The Bridge Awards, Cove Park is pleased to offer a further five fully funded residencies in May 2026 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 Bridge Awards Residencies will run in parallel for ten days from 4 May - 14 May 2026. People based in Scotland, at any stage of their creative career, and working in any art form or creative discipline, are eligible to apply. This year, former applicants are also welcome to apply.
The aim of the residency is to provide the artist, writer, creative practitioner, or researcher with the time and space to reconnect with their creative practice within the peaceful, supportive, and inspiring context of Cove Park. Further information on this programme and details of how to apply is available here. The deadline for applications is 12 December 2026.
We are very grateful to The Bridge Awards and to Maggie's for their ongoing support and help, and to Scottish Ensemble for continuing to work with us on this programme.
Image: Cove Park's Bridge in Spring (photography, Alan Dimmick)
Call for Applications
RSA Residencies for Scotland, 2026
We are delighted to be one of 19 organisations taking part in RSA Residencies for Scotland 2026 and to share news of the open call for applications to this programme.
RSA Residencies for Scotland is an artist-led scheme providing valuable research and residency opportunities for artists. It forges important networks with centres of artistic excellence across Scotland, ranging from traditional residency venues to specialised production facilities.
Open to visual artists at all stages of their careers, the emphasis is on enabling a period of research, development and production, as well as on the acquisition and exchange of new skills and experiences. Artists can apply for funds of up to £5,000 and are responsible for managing their own residency, in discussion with the partner venue.
The deadline for applications (via the RSA's website) is 18 January 2026.
Image: Arran, Bute, & Cumbrae Cubes (photography, Ruth Clark)
Open Programme
Subsidised Winter Residencies
As part of our ongoing commitment to provide subsidised rates for our Open programme, we are delighted to continue our popular Subsidised Winter Residencies in December 2025 and through to March 2026.
We welcome artists, cultural practitioners, writers, and researchers – from every creative and academic discipline – able to meet the costs of a residency through, for example, the direct support of their own academic institutions or via awards from public funders or foundations.
Residencies are self-directed and designed to ensure those taking part have the time and facilities required to develop their own work. Cove Park’s small and dedicated professional team are happy to support the research and work of all our residents, and are available for informal conversations and meetings, in preparation for and during the residency period.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Learn more and apply here.
Image: The Jacobs Building in Winter.
NAARCA Staff Exchange
This month Artica Svalbard welcomed Emma Henderson, Cove Park's Curator of Engagement, through the Nordic Alliance of Artists' Residencies on Climate Action (NAARCA) staff exchange programme.
In addition to her work with Cove Park, Emma’s practice spans printmaking, textiles, and environmental learning, with a focus on natural inks made through slow, experimental processes. Her work explores feminist craft legacies whilst developing low-impact, circular systems for image-making.
During her two-week residency at Artica Svalbard, Emma developed a natural printmaking toolkit and began establishing a pigment library, a collaborative resource for current and future Artica residents. Starting with pigments gathered in both Scotland and Svalbard, the pigment library will grow into an evolving archive of colour rooted in place. The toolkit will be published via NAARCA’s online resources, offering open access guidance for sustainable, low-waste printmaking.
Emma also hosted a community workshop in Longyearbyen, inviting participants to explore natural printmaking techniques and ecological approaches to working with materials.
This exchange programme is supported by Nordic Culture Fund as part of NAARCA’s commitment to fostering climate-conscious practices across its international residency network.
Image: Emma Henderson in Svalbard (courtesy of Artica Svalbard).
Saturday Studio - Clay for Quietude with
Rhona Warwick Paterson
29 November 2025
Take a quiet moment to slow down and enjoy the simple and grounding act of working with clay. In this relaxing workshop, artist and former resident Rhona Warwick Paterson invites participants to explore the sensory qualities of clay - its texture, temperature and weight through playful, mindful making. Participants will learn simple hand-building techniques like pinch pots, coiling, and imprinting with natural textures.
The heart of the workshop is a quiet, focused making time where hands lead and the mind rests. This workshop offers an antidote to making objects and instead the focus will be on process as a mindful, tactile reset for nervous system regulation, creativity, and connection—perfect for individuals, families, and anyone seeking a moment of calm.
This workshop takes place on Saturday 29 November, the day after Black Friday and a perfect time to pause, reflect, and take part in the Fair Saturday Festival, a global movement that celebrates culture, community, and creativity over consumerism.
For more information and to reserve your free place, please visit our Ticket Tailor page.
Image: Courtesy of Rhona Warwick Paterson.
Highland Boundary Fault Stile Launch
6 December 2025
The Cove and Kilcreggan Arts and Heritage Groups are pleased to announce the completion and launch of ‘Highland Boundary Fault Stile’, a new public sculpture by Maya Rose Edwards.
The sculpture, created to mark the passage of the Highland Boundary Fault through the Rosneath peninsula, will be celebrated at an educational community launch event on Saturday 6 December, 12 noon–1 pm, at King George V Playing Fields, Kilcreggan. Members of the public are warmly invited to attend. The event will include a Q&A with the artist and geologist Bill Henderson.
The artwork forms the culmination of a project commissioned by the Arts and Heritage Groups of Our Community Cove and Kilcreggan in partnership with Cove Park, and funded through a share of the National Lottery’s Awards for All £10,000 allocation. The project aims to artistically interpret the Highland Boundary Fault as both a geological and cultural feature, supported by community engagement and place-based activities.
Following the launch, the completed sculpture will be open to the public at King George V Playing Fields.
Image: Renderings of the Highland Boundary Fault Stile (courtesy of Maya Rose Edwards).
Friends of Cove Park
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 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: The launch of the Scotland/Japan residency exchange programme at Cove Park, October 2018.
Space Hire 2025 & 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.
‘Mount Stuart Trust had a brilliant Away Day at Cove Park. We had a dedicated meeting room, fabulous views, and everything we needed: screen, refreshments, and lunch. I can honestly say that it was one of our most productive strategy meetings. So important to get away, and I can’t think of a better space.’
Sophie Crichton Stuart, Chair, The Mount Stuart Trust
Image: Jacobs Building wood burning stove (photography, Studio Gently)
