News

Join American Friends of Cove Park

Cove Park’s new American Friends of Cove Park membership programme is live!

This initiative is a new addition to our wider individual giving programme, to provide supporters based in the United States with a tax-effective way of donating. To do this, we have partnered with Outset Contemporary Art Fund.

Outset is an international charity that for 20 years has been supporting institutions to unlock funding for innovative art projects. They do not take any commissions and 100% of funds raised are received by Cove Park. Cove Park and Outset have worked together on several projects, including a residency for the artist Catherine Street at the time of her exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and a major commission of new work for Cove Park by artist Alex Frost. Support from Outset is also making possible a presentation of new work by artist Louise Hopkins, to be shown at Cove Park during the summer of 2023.

Gifts to Cove Park: 

  • benefits artists through our increased financial support (weekly stipends, materials and travel budget)
  • helps maintain and preserve our 50-acre site, artist accommodations and studios
  • provides more opportunities for artists based in the United States to travel to Scotland for a residency

Giving levels for American Friends of Cove Park

$150 annual: helps offset the cost of materials for a studio-based artist
$300 annual: covers the fee for an artist to provide a creative workshop for local children in Argyll
$700 annual: covers the weekly residency stipend of £550
$1,000 annual: helps offset the cost of international travel from the US to Scotland

Sponsor a fully-funded artists residency

Donations of $3,000 or $5,000 meet the costs of a fully-funded two-week or four-week residency for individual artists. These awards provide artist’s fees, travel costs and materials allowances. Program Patrons will be offered naming rights for the residency and invited to discuss their interests and requirements with Cove Park’s Director, Alexia Holt.

To join, please complete and submit the American Friends of Cove Park Form.

Digital Archive: A Compendium of Climate Literacies

A Compendium of Climate Literacies

This is the digital archive of the experimental intensive/symposium ‘Turbulence / Emergence / Enchantment: A Compendium of Climate Literacies’ that took place at Cove Park between 4-7 November 2021. It brought together artists, writers, performers, academics, and activists from a wide range of backgrounds to discuss climate literacy.

In the Western tradition, language has been viewed as our most powerful tool for ordering and mastering the world around us. And yet more and more we are having to acknowledge our struggle in communicating the current environmental crisis and its unequally distributed effects.

How do language and action relate to each other in climate science, narrative and activism? How can we rethink our responses to classical and premodern legacies of environmental thinking to create new understandings for the present? How can we open ourselves to new kinds of environmental literacies that give space to the agency of the other-than-human and more-than-human worlds? How do we ensure that languages have an impact on global discourse, in a context where the privilege of climate speech is still dominated by the elite discourses of the Global North?

TURBULENCE, EMERGENCE and ENCHANTMENT, with their unsettling mix of positive and negative connotations, acted as guiding metaphors for the week.


The SoundCloud link below features: 

Introduction to Turbulence, Emergence, Enchantment by Maureen Penjueli, Coordinator of Pacific Network on Globalisation.

 


TURBULENCE

The first chapter includes discussions around the theme of ‘Turbulent are climate, geo-politics, and living beings.’ The Turbulence YouTube playlist features:

Video 1: Climate Clarity/Confusion/Change by Derya Akkaynak (Oceanographer)

Video 2: Disaster, grief, apocalypse and empire in ancient ecological thinking by Jason König (Professor of Greek, Centre for Ancient Environmental Studies, University of St Andrews)

Video 3: After Ice by Kieran Baxter (Heritage Landscape Visualiser, University of Dundee)

Video 4: ‘Restore to us the necessary blizzards’ by Christina Alt (Lecturer in English, University of St. Andrews)

 

The Turbulence SoundCloud playlist features:

Track 1: Purple Haze by Deborah Dixon (Professor of Geography, University of Glasgow)

Track 2: Turbulence by Andreas Malm (Associate Professor of Human Ecology, Lund University)

Track 3: Turbulence by Oana Aristide (Novelist)


EMERGENCE

The second chapter includes discussions around the theme of ‘Emergent is metamorphosis.’ The Emergence YouTube playlist features:

Video 1: The Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes by Radha D’Souza (Professor of International Law, Development and Conflict Studies, Westminster Law School)

Video 2: Worm: art and ecology by Angela YT Chan (Independent Researcher, Curator and Artist)

Video 3: Listening with Another Ear by Annalee Davis (Artist, Cultural Instigator, Writer)

Video 4: Oceans in Transformation by Territorial Agency (Artists)

Video 5: The Swamp – a theory, a school, a design by Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas (Artists)

The Emergence SoundCloud playlist features:

Track 1: At the far end of the cave of gold by Col Gordon  (Farmer & Podcaster) and Iain MacKinnon (Assistant Professor, Centre for Agroecology, Coventry University)

Track 2: World Making by Ashish Ghadiali (Film-maker and Activist)

Track 3: An Inland Promenade by Fernando García-Dory (Artist)

Track 4: Emergence by Karen Guthrie (Artist, Film-maker and Gardener)


ENCHANTMENT

The final chapter includes discussions around the theme of ‘Enchantment is possibility of participating in the creation of just and environmentally thriving futures.’ The Enchantment YouTube playlist features:

Video 1: Small Acts of Hope and Lament by Janice Parker (Choreographer, Dance-maker)

Video 2: Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils by David Farrier (Professor of Literature and the Environment, University of Edinburgh)

Video 3: The Ecological Literacies of St. Hildegard of Bingen by Michael Marder (Ikerbasque Professor of Philosophy, University of the Basque Country)

Video 4: Marginalia by Katharine Earnshaw (Lecturer in Classics, University of Exeter) & Laura Hopes (Artist, Researcher)

Video 5: Language, silence & storytelling: to survive in the marine environment by Zoé Le Voyer & Justine Daquin (curators and co-founders of collective Calypso36°21)

     

The Enchantment SoundCloud playlist features:

Track 1: Epistemology of Caring by colectivo amasijo (Artists, Researchers, Food-makers)


Symposium participants also included: Tamara Colchester & Hermione Spriggs (Artists), Aka Niviâna (Poet, Activist), and Nada Tayeb (Architect, Food-maker).

This event signals a pivotal stage in the development of Cove Park. In its 21st year the organisation is moving beyond the boundaries of the traditional ‘time, space, freedom’ residency to include an enquiry-based model for facilitating cross-disciplinary work and collective intelligence around pressing global concerns. We are expanding the artforms and disciplines that are welcome to the residency, and enlarging its horizons towards other sectors, such as those of academic and scientific research, including the creative industries as a whole. On the occasion of COP26, Cove Park launched its first – and soon to become permanent – enquiry focussed on the environmental crisis and the radical change that our collective intelligence can affect in terms of climate action.

“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 PietroiustiTBA21-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. Thanks to the Green Art Lab Alliance for their support and friendship.

 

Christmas and New Year at Cove Park

Following our 14-month closure during the height of COVID-19, Cove Park will be available as a whole-site hire for Christmas 2021, and New Year 2021/22.

This is a perfect opportunity for families and groups of friends to reconnect over the winter holidays.

The dates available are:
Monday 20th December 2021 – Tuesday 4th January 2022 (3 nights minimum).

Cove Park sleeps 14 – 30 people across its unique range of buildings and facilities, all of which take in the incredible views over Loch Long and the Cowal Peninsula:

  • 6 converted shipping containers (‘The Cubes’), each containing a double bed, sofa bed, desk, kitchenette, WC & shower.
  • 2 curved roofed ‘Pods’: Oak Pod has 2 double bedrooms, each with en-suite roll top bath and WC, a large kitchen and lounge space; Taransay Pod has 2 bedrooms which can be set up as twins or doubles, each with en-suite roll top bath and WC, 2 kitchenettes and a shared lounge with piano.
  • 2 further bedrooms, one of which is wheelchair accessible, adjacent to the Jacobs Building at the top of the site. Each bedroom contains a double bed, desk, kitchenette and WC & shower. There are 2 artists’ studios adjoining each bedroom.

The award-winning Jacobs Building has a large communal kitchen with 2 ovens, 2 fridge-freezers, a coffee machine, 2 dishwashers and 2 large electric hobs. There is an extra large screen on wheels, a projector and large speakers, plus laundry facilities with drier. The Jacobs Building also has wifi throughout, and internet dongles can be loaned for the accommodation down site.

Additional large spaces contain black out blinds and a projector for cinematic film-watching, and a wooden-floored workshop space perfect for yoga, dancing and games. There is a snug and log burner, library and archive.

The Jacobs Building has been designed and built to take in the breath-taking views of the Firth of Clyde, to the islands of Bute and Arran beyond.

The cost for the whole site for 6 days is £7,000, and if booked before 10th December 2021, you will receive a 10% Early Bird discount. A 50% deposit will be required to book. Please visit this page for a more detailed breakdown of the site, its facilities and the accommodation.

Please get in touch with Director of Partnerships & Business Development Catrin Kemp catrin@covepark.org if you would like to enquire about hiring Cove Park this winter.

Winter Subsidised Residencies 2022

Cove Park is delighted to offer opportunities for artists, researchers and makers from across disciplines to take up a subsidised residency in early 2022. Residencies are offered to individuals and groups working in the arts and the creative industries, in the humanities and sciences.

We are pleased to advertise these opportunities now, in the hope that those interested have enough time to apply for funding to support their residency. Please see this introductory list on our website for guidance as to where you might apply for financial support. Those who are employed might also consider a residency as part of their CPD, and approach their employer for funding.

Dates and Duration
In January & February 2022, residencies are for 6 or 13 nights, beginning on a Monday, ending on a Sunday. Applicants should identify their preferred duration residency dates from the following list:

    • Mon 10th – Sun 16th Jan
    • Mon 17th – Sun 23rd Jan
    • Mon 31st – Sun 6th Feb
    • Mon 7th – Sun 13th Feb
    • Mon 14th – Sun 20th Feb
    • Mon 21st – Sun 27th Feb
    • Mon 28th Feb – Sun 6th Mar

COVID-19
We reopened following the COVID-19 crisis and have been operating successfully since May 2021, in accordance with the latest Scottish government restrictions. Enhanced hygiene, regular testing and mask-wearing measures are in place to mitigate the risks of bringing COVID-19 to the site. You can read more about these measures here.

Please read the full guidelines – which include details of how to apply – here: SUBSIDISED WINTER 21-22 final.
The deadline is 22 November 2021.

Image by Tracey Bloxham / Inside Story Photography

 

Arts & Business Awards 2021

Cove Park is delighted to announce a new collaboration with award-winning design studio Ab Rogers Design and success across three applications for match-funding from The Culture & Business Fund Scotland COVID-19 Recovery & Renewal Strand, through Arts & Business Scotland.

Ab Rogers and his team will work closely with Cove Park to redesign and fit out the interiors of the largest huts at Cove Park, whose curved roofs and wraparound balconies have been part of the landscape for over 20 years. Oak and Taransay Pods have both recently undergone substantial improvements, supported through the Scottish Government’s Community Climate Asset Fund, and will now benefit from nurturing interventions for sitting, eating, working and sleeping, inspired by the spectacular surrounding environment.

Arts & Business Scotland have match-funded Ab Rogers Design’s sponsorship and the funding will go towards a symposium taking place at Cove Park in concomitance with COP26. This 3-day event will bring academics, artists, researchers, makers and writers together to discuss transhistorical and transdisciplinary climate histories and narratives. More will be announced soon.

From 2022, the Pods will be able to house families and become home to residents staying at Cove Park for longer periods of time, in line with our commitment to reducing carbon emissions by reducing travel. The Pods will be unveiled in September.

Arts & Business Scotland, through The Culture & Business Fund Scotland COVID-19 Recovery & Renewal Strand, are also match-funding in-kind sponsorship from Ghanaian-Filipino agrowaste designer Mae-ling Lokko and Scottish architect Tom Morton of Arc Architects. The funding will bolster the Future By Design programme of activity to support four live events around the future of water, co-curated by both Ghanaian and Scottish cohorts of young people, with the guidance and support of Morton & Lokko, and delivered by Cove Park. The focus of many of the events and conversations will be the intersectionality of environmental, racial and social justice.

The culmination of Future By Design, a project funded by and in collaboration with British Council Architecture Design Fashion, will be the opening, also in September, of a hybrid and eco-sustainable ‘open landscape classroom’ on site at Cove Park, which will house public programmes about the impact of climate change on water for the foreseeable future.

David Watt, Chief Executive at Arts & Business Scotland, said“We are delighted that, through The Culture & Business Fund Scotland COVID-19 Recovery & Renewal Strand, not one, but three commercial partners – Ab Rogers Design, designer Mae-ling Lokko and architect Tom Morton of Arc Architects – have been able to come together to support the fantastic work carried out by Cove Park.

Not only will these three individual projects overlap to help future proof Cove Park for generations to come, they will also facilitate a whole host of exciting events and residencies aimed at supporting the centre in tackling important issues around climate change and social and racial equality. After the past year and a bit these conversations have never been more important, or timely, and I have no doubt the benefits will ripple out to the wider west coast community.  

We would encourage anyone inspired by Cove Park and its partners to get in touch for more information on how their local area, arts & culture organisations and businesses, could benefit through The Culture & Business Fund Scotland COVID-19 Recovery & Renewal Strand.”

Cove Park is deeply grateful to Arts & Business Scotland for their generous match-funding across these two programmes. We are also very grateful to Bute Fabrics, HAY and Muji for their generous support to the refurbishment of the Pods.

  

Virtual Studio & Site Tour with Creative Entrepreneurs’ Club

On 25th May at 12pm, Cove Park will give a virtual studio tour and interview with Creative Entrepreneurs’ Club Director Medeia Cohan. The tour will take in Cove Park’s site, its buildings and facilities and will be followed by a conversation and Q&A between CEC’s membership and Cove Park’s CEO Francesca Bertolotti-Bailey and Partnerships Manager Catrin Kemp. Learn more and sign up here:

https://creativeentrepreneursclub.co.uk/event/cove-park-artists-residency-centre-visit/

About the Creative Entrepreneurs Club:
CEC is a home for like-spirited creative people looking to access powerful support, network with peers and develop new skills. Our members determine what we offer and we respond to the challenges that they tell us they’re facing by developing relevant content and training to support them.

We welcome creative entrepreneurs at all stages of their businesses, from those just starting out to those looking to exit.

Membership is free for a limited time at creativeentrepreneursclub.co.uk

Cove Park Receives Award from Community Climate Asset Fund

We are very pleased to share news of an award made to Cove Park from the Scottish Government’s Community Climate Asset Fund. The award of £34,720 will support the extensive refurbishment of the Oak and Taransay Pods, our  two largest accommodatiuon units, allowing us to ensure this essential work will contribute to our commitment to reducing our carbon emissions.

The Oak and Taransay Pods were designed by the Glasgow-based architect Andy McAvoy in 1999 and first constructed on the island of Taransay in the same year to house participants in the BBC programme Castaway. The Pods were relocated to Cove Park in 2001 and upgraded for use as accommodation for resident artists. This spirit of recycling applied to all the accommodation units being sourced for Cove Park during the first years of the residency programme, notably our Cubes – shipping containers repurposed as individual accommodation units and studios.

The Pods are timber-framed units with expansive areas of glass, making the most of the wonderful views across Loch Long to the Cowal peninsula. Over the past twenty years the two Pods have accommodated hundreds of artists, and their generous communal spaces have proven ideal for both individual and collaborative work. Although they have been consistently maintained since 2001, they now require more extensive refurbishment. This award offers the perfect opportunity to improve their efficiency via a series of upgrades that will ensure these idiosyncratic, much-loved buildings are ready for the future.

For further information on this project and our Pods please contact Vanessa Paynton.

Image: Cove Park’s Oak and Taransay Pods (photography, Ruth Clark)

 

August 2020 Newsletter

Cove Park’s August Newsletter includes an update on our reopening plans for September 2020, news of our 20th Anniversary Limited Edition Postcards and details of our forthcoming HOCP at Home films with Roanna Gonsalves and Duncan Marquiss. Read more here.

July 2020 Newsletter

Our July 2020 Newsletter includes details of our plans to reopen Cove Park in September this year and features our new set of Cove Park Limited Edition Postcards to mark our 20th anniversary year. It also shares the news of the forthcoming retirement of Cove Park’s Director, Julian Forrester. Read more here.

Reopening Statement

We are pleased to confirm that Cove Park plans to reopen from Monday 14 September. This will be a gradual and phased reopening and the site will not operate at full capacity for some weeks. This is to ensure we can take the best possible care of all the artists, visitors and staff working with us over the next few months and maintain appropriate social distancing and health and safety measures in line with current Scottish Government guidelines.

Extensive preparations for the reopening of Cove Park are now underway and we will continually review Scottish Government guidelines and adjust our plans if and when required. We are in touch with all of the artists and organisations due to come to Cove Park in the summer, autumn and winter this year and will continue to share regular updates on our progress.

We do expect to have availability for Independently-Funded Residencies from September 2020 onwards and look forward to welcoming those for whom a residency at Cove Park will offer focussed and concentrated time to develop ongoing projects and new work. Please contact Catrin Kemp directly if you wish to discuss this further.

We have prepared a Reopening FAQ page – available below – to provide further information on our approach to reopening Cove Park and the shape and structure of residencies as we emerge from lockdown.

Although our residency programme will resume from early September, our creative learning programme Hands-On Cove Park will continue to focus primarily, over the coming few weeks at least, on remote projects such as the series of HOCP at Home Films and Activity Sheets. We will provide regular updates on our plans and hope to welcome children, young people and their families back to Cove Park as soon as possible. The response to HOCP at Home has been overwhelmingly positive and we would like to thank all those that worked with us on this series and everyone that has taken part to date.

This has been a particularly challenging time and a great many of our planned residencies, commissions and projects, in this our 20th year, have had to be postponed. We are committed to supporting all of the artists we planned to work with this year and we are working hard to reschedule residencies and projects for 2021. The experience of lockdown has demonstrated just how important cultural activity is to our well-being and to society as a whole and yet artists, and the individuals and organisations that support their work, are amongst those most adversely affected by the financial impact of this crisis. If you feel you can support Cove Park and the artists we work with at this critical time, please consider becoming a Supporter, Friend or Patron or making a donation in our 20th year. We would like to thank those individuals that have made donations to date this year and thus helped to ensure our programme can continue to develop in 2020 and 2021.

We look forward to welcoming everyone back to Cove Park and thank you for your ongoing support.

If you have questions concerning our reopening plans, please contact Julian Forrester, Director:

julian.forrester@covepark.org
07860 791206 / 01436 850500

_________________________________________________________________
COVE PARK – REOPENING FAQ

When will Cove Park reopen?
We are planning to reopen Cove Park on Monday the 14th September assuming that it remains safe to do so. We are following the public health guidance from the Scottish Government and using the time between now and early September to get everything ready to welcome you back.

Who will be on site?
The staff team will be on site in limited numbers to support residents at Cove Park. Funded and self-funded residents will be welcomed on site. We will initially be open to artists resident within Scotland and the UK. Our international residencies are a vital part of our programme and we fully intend to welcome artists based overseas back to Cove Park as soon as possible.

What will a residency be like?
Artists will arrive and leave as a single cohort to minimise the level of coming and going on site. Each artist will have self-contained accommodation and work space with their own front door giving them direct outside access to our 50-acre site. We imagine that arrivals will be on a Monday and departures on a Friday (during office hours, 9am – 5pm), with, initially, a minimum residency period of twelve days.

Interaction with staff and other artists on site will be possible, in line with social distancing guidance.

The Artists Centre will be open and available between 10am and 7pm each day. The space can be used for working, research, accessing our library, catching up on email or more practical tasks such as laundry and collecting mail. The kitchen will not be available to residents. Cooking will be limited to accommodation units (our Pods and Cubes all have their own individual kitchens).

What safety measures will be in place for residents and staff?
We are working hard to make the site and facilities safe for artists and staff. We will follow best practice guidelines for cleaning the Artists Centre and all the accommodation units, ensuring that appropriate information, signage and personal protective equipment [PPE] and hand sanitiser is available.

All members of the housekeeping team will undertake Covid-19 specific training and we will introduce a new cleaning regime that allows for the required two-stage clean and disinfect process. We will also have a 72-hour break between cohorts of residents.

All residents will be asked to complete a questionnaire ahead of their residency and to agree to a code of conduct, recognising that it is everyone’s responsibility to minimise risk.

A full Covid-19 Statement and Action Plan has been prepared and can be shared with residents, if required, ahead of a residency.

What happens if circumstances require the reimposition of lockdown?
If a local or national lockdown was imposed we will require all residents on site to end their residency period and return home.

What happens if you develop symptoms of Covid-19 whilst at Cove Park?
If you develop symptoms during your residency Scottish Government Guidance states that you should stay indoors and self-isolate. Immediately book a test through NHS Inform using Cove Park’s address or, if you can’t get online, by phoning 0800 028 2816.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-consumers/pages/tourism-and-hospitality

https://www.nhsinform.scot/self-help-guides/self-help-guide-access-to-testing-for-coronavirus

If your test is positive you must inform us immediately.

If you are well enough to travel you should return home, avoiding the use of public transport, and self-isolate in accordance with current Government guidance. If you are unwell and cannot return home, the Cove Park team will provide food and medical supplies as required.

We will participate in the Test and Protect scheme:

https://www.nhsinform.scot/campaigns/test-and-protect

Will Hands-On Cove Park activity take place?
Our Hands-On programme will continue to be online over the summer months but we hope to be in a position to run Saturday Studios at Cove Park and a full outreach programme from September 2020.

Thank you.