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

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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.