April 2026
Spring is finally here, and our Awarded Residencies continue with interdisciplinary artist Debjani Banerjee, composer, researcher and oboist Emily Doolittle, poet and performer Harry Josephine Giles, writer, actor, and poet Jack Hunter, and painter Sin Park. We are also delighted to welcome furniture maker Jonny Taylor, the recipient of the Radcliffe Heritage Craft Residency, and musician and sound artist Dirar Kalash, here for a Counterflows Residency to coincide with the 2026 edition of the festival and its first international delegation.
Cove Park's year-round programme of Open Residencies welcomes artists this month from across the UK, Australia, and France: writer Tobe Ellen, artists and collaborators Madeleine Flynn & Tim Humphrey, artists and collaborators Helen McCrorie & Annabel Wright, actor and writer Tom Kelsey, multidisciplinary artist Anna Koutsafti, artist George Moody, and author Sumayya Usmani. We also welcome US based artist Melissa Joseph for a residency supported by Sim Smith.
Team News
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Kerr Aitchison to our team as Cove Park's Site, Facilities & Compliance Manager. Kerr is an experienced facilities and estates professional with hands‑on expertise in maintaining complex sites, managing contractors, and ensuring health and safety compliance across diverse buildings and landscapes. He has extensive experience of restoration and maintenance projects involving architect‑designed and historic structures, with full responsibility for site safety, risk management, and high‑quality delivery. Aligning with Cove Park’s values of environmental stewardship and collaboration, Kerr will be responsible for the ongoing care and development of our unique site.
Read on for several exciting announcements, including calls for applications for major new residencies and projects, programme and artist announcements for The Ocean’s Edge/Litoral do Limite, and Earth Month Residencies, a forthcoming Saturday Studio Workshop - Fabricating Dreams - with Florence Logan, details of our Space Hire Open Day on 15 May, and information on a performance by musician and former resident Anna McLuckie 0n 4 June.
Image: The View of Loch Long from Cove Park (photography, Ruth Clark).
Final Call for Embedded Artists
Collective Home, 2026-2027
We are thrilled to confirm that a major new Cove Park project, Collective Home, is one of 23 across Scotland to have been awarded funding through the Culture Collective initiative, administered by Creative Scotland. This programme aims to support a national network of creative practitioners, organisations, and communities working collaboratively to shape the cultural life of their local areas.
Collective Home focuses upon the concept of home and what this means for communities in Argyll & Bute and for creative practitioners across Scotland. This 17-month project will reflect the distinct character and composition of our rural and coastal region.
Collective Home will involve three new Embedded Artists, working closely with Cove Park and the participating communities, and employed for the full term of the project. More information on Collective Home, the Embedded Artists roles, and how to apply is available in the Recruitment Pack. The deadline for applications is Monday 27 April 2026.
Images: above, Loch Long, Argyll; below, Faslane Peace Camp, Argyll, the UK's oldest continuously occupied peace camp (photography, Alan Dimmick)
Final Call for Applications
Creative Residencies for Carers 2026
The call for applications for Creative Residencies for Carers in 2026 is live! This programme builds upon a successful pilot devised and delivered by Cove Park in 2024.
The aim of this expanded programme is to support individuals who have established creative careers – working in all art forms and specialisms - but are unable to fully maintain or develop their practices due to their roles as unpaid carers for adults. Five residency places are available and the residencies will take place at Cove Park from Monday 26 October to Monday 2 November 2026.
The pilot in 2024 demonstrated the acute need across Scotland for funded opportunities of this kind, offering valuable and supported time for artists working as unpaid carers to reconnect with and develop their creative work, but also to meet others sharing the same experiences. In addition to valuable self-directed time to focus upon their own work, we will facilitate group activities to bring the artists together for discussion, reflection, and recuperation.
Further information and details of how to apply, before 8 May, are available here.
We are grateful to The Binks Trust for making this programme possible.
Image: Courtesy of Heather Marshall, Creative Residencies for Carers resident, 2024.
Call for Applications
Magnetic 5 Residencies
Launched in 2022 under the umbrella of Fluxus Art Projects, Magnetic is a network of 10 fully funded residencies for visual artists in France and the United Kingdom.
Each residency is based on a tandem partnership between a French region and a UK nation. Artists based in a variety of French regions can apply for a residency in one of the UK nations, and vice versa.
Tandems will associate:
- Capc in Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine) with Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridge (England)
- Frac Bretagne in Rennes (Brittany) with Aberystwyth Arts Centre in Wales
- Frac Grand Large in Dunkirk (Hauts-de-France) with Flax Art Studios in Northern Ireland
- Villa Arson in Nice (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) with Cove Park in Scotland
- Bétonsalon – Centre for Art and Research in Paris (Île-de-France) with Gasworks in London (England)
Learn more about the residency programme here and apply by 2 June.
Image: Villa Arson (photography, JC Lett, courtesy of Fluxus Art Projects)
Call for Applications
(Current & Former Residents):
EDI Advisory Group
We seek to appoint three current or former residents based in the UK to our Equalities, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Advisory Group for a one year term. The new appointees will join current Advisory Group members: trustees and former residents multidisciplinary artist Ashanti Harris, cultural worker and writer Parvinder Marwaha, and writer Heather Parry, with staff team members Curator of Engagement Emma Henderson, Director Alexia Holt, and Senior Producer Alex Marrs.
The EDI Advisory Group will support the ongoing development of Cove Park’s EDI Policy & Action Plan, 2023-2028 and respond to our policies, practices, and programme evaluations.
Group members will participate in an Away Day at Cove Park plus two 90-minute virtual meetings between June 2026 and April 2027. The selected artists will be paid £850 for their preparation and participation in the EDI Advisory Group. Travel expenses for the Away Day will also be provided. There is additional funding to support those with access requirements.
Learn more and apply here by Monday 25 May.
Image: Oak Pod (photography, Tracy Bloxham)
Call for Applications
New Dutch Writing Translation Residency
We are delighted to partner with the Dutch Foundation for Literature and Modern Culture to welcome two translators for a fully funded residency centred on mentorship.
The Dutch Foundation for Literature invites proposals from a collaborating translator and their mentee translator to take part in a week-long residency from 24 August – 29 August 2026 as part of its New Dutch Writing programme.
Produced by the agency Modern Culture, the focus of the residency is to develop the translation skills of the mentee under the guidance of a more experienced translator, by working on a mutually agreed text or set of texts, with a view to future publication.
Learn more about this opportunity and apply here.
Image: Eva Corijn, Flip through Flanders Translation Residency, Summer 2025
The Ocean’s Edge / Litoral do Limite
Programme Announcement
We are delighted to welcome the Brazilian artists Letícia Ramos and Licida Vidal to Cove Park this month for residencies connected to The Ocean's Edge/Litoral do Limite programme.
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, Licida Vidal, and Alberta Whittle (Scotland). 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.
We are also delighted to host Alice Sharp, Artistic Director of Invisible Dust, for the first part of this partnership residency.
Images: above, Letícia Ramos; below, Lucida Vidal (images courtesy of the artists).
Earth Month Residencies 2026
Artist Announcement
Earth Month 2026 is a collaborative initiative between Goethe-Institut Glasgow, Institut Français d'Écosse, and Alliance Française Glasgow, aimed at fostering cultural exchange and climate action by connecting artistic and cultural practice with scientific discourse. This programme unites France, Germany, and Scotland in a dynamic, multidisciplinary dialogue around sustainability.
Cove Park is delighted to be working with the above partners, and with Linkshouse/Pier Arts Centre Orkney, on the Slow Travel Artist's Residency. We are pleased to confirm that the participating artists this year are: Eleonora Strano (France) and Carolin Seeliger (Germany). Both artists will slow travel from their respective home countries to Scotland, taking part in two-week residencies at Linkshouse and at Cove Park. More information on this programme is available here.
Images: above, Eleonora Strano (photography, Julie Rochereau); below, Carolin Seeliger
Saturday Studio
Fabricating Dreams with Florence Logan
25 April 2026, 2-4pm
Children and their families are invited to our next Saturday Studio workshop with performance maker and former Cove Park resident Florence Logan.
Using movement, video, and a mix of everyday objects we’ll turn our dreams into 'wonky realities' whether that be big ambitions, like becoming a hairdresser or climbing all the Munros or completely fantastical ideas like a snail leaving rainbow trails across the sky.
Through simple exercises and group activities, we’ll explore imagination, absurdity and storytelling. Together, we’ll create short, playful scenes or vignettes that bring our ideas to life and even imagine the dreams of unexpected things, from pebbles to patches of moss to the moon.
If you have questions about workshop accessibility, please get in touch with Emma Henderson (Curator of Engagement). Book your free place here.
Image: Oh to be a snail’ Florence Logan with Amy Murray (photography, Jassy Earl)
Space Hire Open Day
15 May 2026
All are welcome to visit Cove Park on 15 May, 2pm – 4.30pm, to explore how our unique space can be used for meetings, workshops, team away days and corporate events. Set in a beautiful coastal landscape, just over one hour from Glasgow and accessible by public transport, Cove Park’s Space Hire programme offers organisations, collectives, and community groups a calm and creative environment for teams to connect and collaborate.
Whether you are a business seeking a change of pace for a team away day, an artist delivering a workshop, or an educator leading a training activity, Cove Park provides a flexible and welcoming context for focussed discussion, collaboration, and the development of new ideas. We offer affordable day rates and bespoke support from our experienced team. As a registered charity, all income from Space Hire supports Cove Park’s residencies for local, national, and international artists and our community engagement and creative learning programme.
From 2pm, our team will provide a tour of our site and facilities followed by tea and coffee to discuss how our space can work for your organisation and upcoming events.
Please RSVP to Producer Nicola Jamieson, by 10th May if you are able to join us. If the timing of this event doesn’t suit, please get in touch and we will organise your visit for a different time.
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: The Jacobs Building (photography, Tracy Bloxham)
Anna McLuckie
The Little Winters Performance
4 June 2026
Please join us here at Cove Park on Thursday 4 June 2026 for a special performance by former resident and Cove Park Associate Anna McLuckie. Anna, accompanied by a double bassist, will share songs and stories from her debut album, The Little Winters.
Anna is a Scottish singer, songwriter and Clàrsach player. Raised on classical and traditional music, Anna’s writing draws on her musical beginnings and also takes influence from her love of popular music and more experimental sounds. Her music sits in a world of contemporary folklore; her songs layered with interweaving harmonies, story led lyricism, and free form structures.
In 2024 Anna took part in the Making Tracks Residency at Cove Park and toured the UK with renowned global roots musicians. Learn more and book your ticket here.
Images: Anna McLuckie (courtesy of the artist).
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.
