November / December 2021
As the year draws to a close, we are delighted to continue to welcome many more artists, cultural practitioners, and researchers to Cove Park. Currently taking part in our funded programme are the visual artists Katherine Ka Yi Liu, Ben Rivers, Aman Sandhu, and Corin Sworn. We are grateful to The Bridge Awards for their support of Aman's residency.
Rabiya Choudhry is also on site this month. This residency is the final one in a series of 11 designed to support early career visual artists based in Scotland during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Crisis Residency Programme is supported by Freelands Foundation.
We continue to host national and international artists, curators, and researchers through our Independently Funded programme. Working here during November and December are: artist and designer David Addison, interdisciplinary artist Laura Baran, multidisciplinary artist Carrie Rhys-Davies, artist duo, working across installation, sculpture, photography and language, Vanessa Hollyoak and Antoine Chesnais, curator Martine Van Kampen, arts administrator Alex Marrs, acting Director and Chief Architect for the Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC), University of Stirling, Lesley Palmer, performance artist and experimental writer Roy Claire Potter, composer and sound artist Ross Whyte, and writer Shaun Wilson.
The experimental intensive/symposium 'Turbulence / Emergence / Enchantment: A Compendium of Climate Literacies' took place at Cove Park from 4-7 November, running in parallel with the first week of the COP26 conference in Glasgow. We were delighted to host over 50 people each day to participate in this event, and we are pleased to confirm that the Compendium - a series of podcasts and video documentation of the individual talks and performances - will be available online later this month. Please scroll down for more.
Read on too for news of a major award made to Cove Park from the Youth Arts Fund Bursary Programme, the announcement of the artists awarded commissions and residencies as part of the Argyll Beacon, an introduction to our plans for 'Unexpected Gardens' on the Rosneath peninsula, a reminder of our current call for applications to the funded residency programme in 2022/23, the opportunity to book Cove Park's accommodation over the winter holidays, and an update on our engagement programme.
With the festive season in mind, we would also like to highlight Cove Park's range of prints, artworks and postcards, with prices ranging from £15 to £500. The limited edition prints were donated to Cove Park by internationally acclaimed artists in support of our residency programme and all income from sales directly benefits future residents. The editions make perfect gifts and if ordered by Monday 13 December can be delivered to those based in the UK in time for the holidays. Please scroll down for more.
Finally, we say farewell to Catrin Kemp this month. Catrin has worked at Cove Park since 2015, working initially as Assistant Director, and latterly as Director of Partnerships & Business Development. Her background in theatre and as a cross-discipline producer meant she has also overseen the development of Cove Park's performing arts programme, and recently devised The Play Park, a residency intensive for theatre makers in March 2022. Happily, Catrin will return to produce The Play Park in a freelance capacity, but in the meantime we would like to thank her for her wonderful contribution to Cove Park.
We wish all our artists, supporters and friends the very best for 2022, and we look forward to being in touch again next year.
Image: Cove Park's Cubes, Autumn 2021 (Tracey Bloxham, Inside Story Photography)
'Turbulence / Emergence / Enchantment:
A Compendium of Climate Literacies'
Cove Park hosted over 36 national and international artists, cultural practitioners, researchers, writers, collectives, and activists in November for this landmark event and the launch of Cove Park's first enquiry connected to the environmental crisis. The Compendium - podcasts and video documentation of the talks and performances - will be released online later this month, and the link will be included in our January 2022 Newsletter. If you would like to receive the link directly please contact Alexia Holt. Further information on the symposium and all the participants is available here.
'Turbulence / Emergence / Enchantment: A Compendium of Climate Literacies' was organised in partnership with the Centre for Ancient Environmental Studies and Professor Jason König at the University of St Andrews, London-based curator Lucia Pietroiusti, TBA21-Academy and Markus Reymann, and the School of Classics and the College of Arts and Humanities (Environmental Humanities Research Strand) of University College Dublin and Dr. Giacomo Savani. The symposium was made possible by funding from Arts & Business Scotland: Culture & Business Fund. We are grateful to all our partners and funders for their support. Special thanks also go to Green Art Lab Alliance, the network of arts organisations contributing to environmental sustainability through their creative practice.
Image: Maureen Penjueli, Coordinator of Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG, and participant in Turbulence / Emergence / Enchantment: A Compendium of Climate Literacies, Cove Park (photography, Sarah Frood).
Youth Arts Bursary Fund
We are excited to share some very good news! Cove Park was one of 12 Scottish organisations recently awarded funding from Creative Scotland's Youth Arts Fund to offer early career creatives the space, support, and platform to research, instigate, develop and share their creative projects.
Cove Park's Youth Arts Bursaries will be awarded following an open call for applications to be announced later this month. Early career writers, performing artists, designers, and digital artists based in Scotland will be welcome to apply. The bursaries will include a one-month residency at Cove Park in 2022, plus networking opportunities, peer-to-peer support, and mentoring throughout the year. If you would like more information, please contact Alexia Holt.
Image: Tessa MacKenzie, Emerging Craft & Design Resident, 2021
News from the Argyll Beacon
Cove Park and ACT (Argyll & the Isles Coast & Countryside Trust) are one of seven Climate Beacons launched across Scotland during the run-up to the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November. The Argyll Beacon focuses upon Scotland's rainforest, and offers a series of free public events, workshops, and commissions that continue until the summer of 2022. This programme has been devised collaboratively with ACT, making full use of both the resources and expertise of both organisations, and will bring together artists and cultural practitioners with environmentalists and climate change activists.
We are delighted to announce that the Edinburgh-based artists Rachel McBrinn and Alison Scott have been awarded the Argyll Beacon Film Commission, and 2021 resident Juliana Capes has been appointed to the Artists in Schools programme. Following research and production residencies at Cove Park, Rachel and Alison will create a new short moving image work, to be premiered in the early summer of 2022. The Artists in Schools programme, led by Juliana, will involve students at both Hermitage Academy Helensburgh and Lochgilphead High School.
We look forward to working with Rachel, Alison and Juliana next year, and would like to thank Kitty Anderson and LUX Scotland for their advisory support. More information on the Climate Beacon programme is available here.
Images: Above, Rachel McBrinn & Alison Scott, documentation from a research mini-residency at RSPB Fosinard, 2019); Below, Juliana Capes.
'Unexpected Gardens'
On 21 October 2021 Cove Park was announced as one of 13 Scottish organisations invited to develop and produce 'Unexpected Gardens' as part of Dandelion's ambitious creative programme. The aim of Dandelion's nationwide series of projects and events is to demonstrate the power of collective action and to rediscover our connection with the food we eat and the joy of sharing what we grow and cook with good music, led by the next creative generation.
From April 2022, the 'Unexpected Gardens' will take over patches of unused or previously considered unusable land across Scotland. Cove Park will work with an emerging creative producer on the development of a number of gardens in public sites around the Rosneath Peninsula. More details of this exciting new project, and our plans for a music residency related to this programme, will appear in future Newsletters.
Image: Dandelion.
Book Cove Park for the Winter Holidays
Cove Park will be available as a whole-site hire, or for individual bookings of our various Pods and Cubes, over the forthcoming winter holidays (from Monday 20 December to Tuesday 4 January 2022). This is a perfect opportunity for families and groups of friends to reconnect over the holidays, or for individuals to take some time away from it all. Please contact Zoe Robinson directly for more information on prices and availability. Images and descriptions of Cove Park's accommodation can be found here.
Image: Cove Park's site at nightfall (photography, Juliana Capes)
Open Call for Applications to Cove Park's Funded Residencies, 2022/23
A reminder that the deadline for applications to our funded residency programme in 2022/23 is Monday 20 December (midnight).
This call is open to national and international artists, cultural practitioners, and researchers at every career stage and working individually and collaboratively in all art forms, in the creative industries, and across disciplines.
Cove Park’s residencies support research, the development of existing and new projects, collaboration, interdisciplinary practice, and the production of new work and ideas. We host between 12 to 20 residents at any one time, and Cove Park’s team provide the support and care necessary to ensure each residency is as productive, engaging, and enjoyable as possible. More information on the programme, and how to apply, is available here.
Image: The view from Cove Park's accommodation (photography, Amna Saleem)
Limited Edition Prints, Artworks and Postcards
Please consider giving a gift from Cove Park. We have an outstanding series of limited edition prints and postcards which make perfect gifts and have the added benefit of supporting Cove Park's programme for national and international artists and our local community.
Cove Park's limited edition prints are by internationally recognised artists, including Claire Barclay, Christine Borland, Graham Fagen, Louise Hopkins, Nathan Coley, Charlotte Prodger, Simon Starling and Ross Sinclair. These works were generously donated by the artists to Cove Park and all funds raised through sales help to create new residencies and opportunities for artists.
To see the individual editions and the Cove Park Portfolio please visit our Shop or contact Alexia Holt. Please order by 13 December 2021 to guarantee delivery within the UK for Christmas.
Image: 'We love Real Life Scotland', Ross Sinclair, Screenprint, 2006 (photography, Ruth Clark).
Cove Park Engagement
Our final Saturday Studios of 2021 took place this month and we were pleased to welcome young people, their families and carers to Cove Park for a seed paper making workshop with artist Caitlin Dick. Caitlin took part in Cove Park's Crisis Residency programme this year and has a particular interest in the environment and plant life.
Thank you to everyone who came to Cove Park and took part in a wide variety of workshops, events and special projects this year. This includes not just our Saturday Studios participants, but all the generous volunteers that took part in the landscaping and planting around the Future by Design Outdoor Classroom.
We look forward to welcoming everyone back to Cove Park in January 2022.
Image: Paper Making Workshop with Caitlin Dick, December 2021.
