Why Give?
Cove Park offers transformational opportunities and bespoke support at key stages in creative careers. The ongoing economic crisis means it is more difficult than ever to maintain and develop a creative practice, and to create new work for the benefit of local, national, and international audiences.
For early career artists, our residencies are a vital means of maintaining the momentum gained during art school or college, and to imagine new ideas, develop new opportunities, and benefit from the experience of more established peers. For artists and creative practitioners who have faced barriers to maintaining established careers – perhaps due to ill health, economic pressures, or caring responsibilities – we offer the time and support required to reconnect with work and initiate new projects. For all involved, the opportunity to work in an outstanding rural location, away from everyday pressures and with the freedom to experiment and to focus upon work that is urgent and important to them, is a genuinely unique and often transformational moment.
Our work is embedded in our local region, shaped by, and addressing the interests and concerns of those living in our rural and coastal community. We share our facilities and resources widely, developing projects and events in collaboration with artists and local participants, creating access to innovative and imaginative work for people of all ages. This encompasses workshops, events, lifelong learning, and life-changing opportunities for children and young people.
The following testimonials highlight the benefits, impact, and reach of our work.
Edd Carr, visual artist
‘During my residency I developed my ecological moving image practice, and developed a work printed entirely on waste, which has since spurred further research within our organisation, The Sustainable Darkroom, into repurposing waste for photographic purposes. The residency was excellent – all of the staff were incredibly skilled and dedicated, and I had the freedom to develop my ideas and projects whilst still feeling wholly supported. Cove Park then asked me to return in January 2023, to lead a workshop in some of the techniques I use with local young people. During the workshop we discussed the idea of climate and ecological crisis and how it makes us feel, as well as some of the sustainable image techniques we use. Then, thanks to Cove Park, I was invited to Saari Residence, Finland, as part of their ecological programme, which was also an incredible experience.’
Edd Carr
The Leeds-based visual artist Edd Carr received a three-week Awarded Residency in 2022. As co-founder of The Sustainable Darkroom, Edd works with sustainable processes and moving image to explore anxieties around the ecological crisis and the mass extinction of life. He manipulates his own experiences to understand wider societal trauma surrounding the climate crisis. This residency aligned with the inclusion within Cove Park’s wider programme of residencies, commissions, engagement projects and public events connected to the climate crisis, encouraging ground-breaking work through cross sectoral partnerships and collaborations.
Edd returned to Cove Park in the summer of 2023 to deliver Plant-Based Photography, a Saturday Studio workshop on photographic animations and chemigrams, for young people developed as part of the NAARCA pedagogy project, bringing our work together with that of our Nordic partners. Following this Edd was awarded an eight-week funded residency in November 2023 at Saari Residence, the Finnish partner and co-lead of NAARCA. At Saari, Edd prepared his next documentary project on agriculture, violence and animism. This is an experimental essay documentary produced in collaboration with Film London and it will be his first feature film.
Kuppuswamy Ganesan, literary translator
‘I went around all the places mentioned in the novel [Shuggie Bain] and noted all the minor details… most importantly, I was able to grasp the musicality of Glasgow, which in turn made me revise some of the lines I had already written. The Glasgow visit arranged by Cove Park certainly enhanced the quality of my script. The support, hospitality, and care was excellent. As I was short of funds to book airline tickets, I requested an advance for booking the tickets and applying for the visa and I received the required money instantly. I cannot thank you sufficiently for that gesture.’
Kuppuswamy Ganesan
Translator Kuppuswamy Ganesan was awarded an eight-week Awarded Residency in 2023. Based in India, Kuppuswamy is an established translator working from English to Tamil. He has translated works by authors including Orhan Pamuk, Ben Okri, John Banville, Arundhati Roy, Haruki Murakami, and Raymond Carver. His work has been recognized through several awards including the Toronto Tamil Garden Award, SRM University Tamil Perayam Award, Ireland Literature Exchange Bursary, and the Government of Tamil Nadu Award.
In 2021 the translation rights for Douglas Stuart’s Booker Prize-winning novel ‘Shuggie Bain’ were financed through the Publishing Scotland Translation Fund, with support from Creative Scotland. Kuppuswamy’s publisher, Kalachuvadu Publications, was granted access to translate for the Tamil edition.
While at Cove Park, Kuppuswamy translated 90 pages of the 448-page novel (he explained this would have taken six months at home). He visited London for the first time to meet with professional colleagues, and he went on a bespoke tour of Glasgow led by Bryce Drennan, a Masters student in Strathclyde’s Creative Writing department (recommended by Bryce’s tutor Rodge Glass). Bryce introduced Kuppuswamy to significant sites referenced in the novel and helped him with the translation of Glaswegian dialect and colloquialisms. The Tamil edition of ‘Shuggie Bain’ will be published in 2024.
Rodge Glass, writer
‘Highlights were the other residents and events, showing just what a community-minded place Cove Park is. I particularly enjoyed a talk by visual artists Miranda Bellamy & Amanda Fauteux, and the dinner which included the launch of new exhibition by Louise Hopkins. I gave a reading from my next book, Joshua in the Sky, which was partly about the work of Alasdair Gray. I enjoyed discussing my practice with students from GSA. I felt like I had the chance to share what I was doing, while I was doing it – and that was a real pleasure to do. I want to say just how welcoming everyone was at Cove Park, and how inclusive and genuinely friendly. On my final weekend… my daughters were able to stay. I could only do that as the team were so welcoming about making the residency happen for me in a way that fitted my personal circumstances. It made all the difference. I planned to draft a large chunk of a whole novel in 8 weeks, while also pursuing the research at the same time… I didn’t quite get there, very nearly, and it was the most productive writing time I’ve had since the last time I was at Cove Park!’ Rodge Glass
Rodge Glass is the author of seven published books, including three novels and a literary portrait of Alasdair Gray, Alasdair Gray: A Secretary’s Biography (for which he won the Somerset Maugham Award). His most recent work is the biography Michel Faber: The Writer & His Work. He is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde and Convener of its MLitt in Creative Writing.
In July 2011 Rodge was awarded a five-week Awarded Residency to focus on the development of new writing.
In 2022 Rodge contacted Cove Park to see if a further residency might be possible. Cove Park supported his application to Creative Scotland’s Open Fund for Individuals and was able to reserve time that worked well in relation to his caring and professional responsibilities. The award he received from Creative Scotland made possible an eight-week residency during the summer of 2023. During this time, he focused on new work, took part in our wider programme of peer-to-peer events, and gave a talk to visiting students of Glasgow School of Art’s MLitt Art Writing programme.
Cameron Glendinning, Young Ambassador for Creative Learning & Engagement Programme, 2018-2021
‘My Cove Park experience was fantastic, I met some great artists and worked on projects that were new and not something we were doing at School. I enjoyed the Net Zero filmmaking and the chance to work on an issue that is very important to me, alongside artists and scientists was, really good.’
Cameron Glendinning
Cameron Glendinning began attending Cove Park’s Creative Learning & Engagement programme as a pupil at Kilcreggan Primary School. He was a regular attendee, enjoying creative workshops, the opportunity to work with professional artists, and to meet young people from other local schools. In his final year at Primary School, he became one of our first Young Ambassadors, regular participants who help our Curator of Engagement to shape the content and direction of our workshop and events programme for young people.
Cameron, who has autism, was one of seven teenagers attending Hermitage Academy, Helensburgh, to take part in Net Zero Youth Voice in 2021 and 2022. This project stemmed from Imperial College London’s Environmental Research Group, who were modelling climate policy scenarios that would enable the UK to reach net zero by 2050. Curator Jessie Krish was employed by the research group to commission a new artist film by Louis Brown. This was developed in partnership with Cove Park. Louise Brown worked with teenagers from Argyll (including Cameron and students involved in his school’s Eco Committee) and from south London, to explore climate justice and the uneven impacts of ‘net zero’ climate policies from the perspectives of teenagers in Scotland and England.
This experience strengthened Cameron’s growing interest in climate action and environmentalism. He took part in the UK School’s Sustainability Network visit to COP26 in Glasgow and was invited by this network to write a blog on his experience of working on the Net Zero project. The Net Zero film was launched at CCA Glasgow in November 2022 and Cameron was invited to sit on a panel to discuss the project alongside the artist, curator, and Dr Sean Beevers, Reader in Atmospheric Health, Imperial College London.
Cameron was also interviewed for the NAARCA podcast series ‘Testing Grounds’ and the episode on the Net Zero Youth Voice project.
Cameron is now in his third year of a Geography MA at Glasgow University. He stays in contact with Cove Park, and we recently provided a reference to support his application for the role of Sustainability Coordinator at the University.
Sekai Machache, visual artist
‘Not only is Cove Park in a beautiful location that supports and fundamentally fuels the notion of creativity being nourished in an isolated rural site, but this residency is also so important to me because it allows for a period of time that is absent from distraction. I can spend my time developing my curatorial aims and focus on particular projects, which as a multidisciplinary artist, is most welcome because projects often overlap and are developed in a fragmented way, often online. The month at Cove Park… (meant) finalising these projects and gaining further clarity in the direction of my professional practice.’
Sekai Machache
Zimbabwean-Scottish visual artist and curator Sekai Machache took part in a four-week Awarded Residency funded by The Bridge Awards in August 2022. Sekai’s work is a deep interrogation of the notion of self. She is interested in the relationship between spirituality, imagination, and the role of the artist in disseminating symbolic imagery to provide a space for healing.
During her residency, Sekai was accompanied by her assistant, and visual artist, Tilda Williams-Kelly, who supports Sekai’s access needs. Sekai returned to Cove Park in 2023 through the Talbot Rice Residency programme and worked on the final touches of the new body of work initiated during her first residency. This work, ‘Svikiro’, a series of site-specific, short films with experimental and innovative storytelling suggesting alternative readings of the past and present, offering a model for a decolonised future archive built on collaboration, was exhibited at Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute in 2023. It is currently showing in the Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh.
In April 2024, Sekai exhibited at the 60th Venice Biennale as part of the Zimbabwe Pavilion.
Bonnie MacRae, writer and filmmaker
‘It was an amazing experience to be at Cove Park. Coming from a working-class background with no residency experience whatsoever, I couldn’t have felt more welcome and supported. From meeting other likeminded emerging artists from all over the world, to being connected with legendary industry mentors that have totally instilled confidence and belief in me that I never fully had before the Bursary, every aspect of the process has been incredible. I would urge any other young Scottish artist to undertake an experience like this one… it’s been so pivotal in my development as an artist.’
Bonnie MacRae
An award from Creative Scotland’s Youth Arts Fund made possible four Bursaries for young people based in Scotland aged 18-24. The Bursaries, in Design, Digital Practice, Literature and Theatre, each involved a 4-week residency and bespoke mentoring and support during the 12-month period of each award. Bonnie MacRae (Literature Bursary) is a writer and director known for work that gives a platform for loud, pertinent, socially focussed Scottish stories celebrating strong female characters and shining a light on the stories not always shown on screen.
During her residency Bonnie worked on a TV pilot episode inspired by her GMAC and Creative Scotland-supported short film, All Up There. She had time to work closely with her collaborator, Hannah Collins, and prepared to screen their short film at an event on endometriosis organised at the Houses of Parliament, London, in June 2023. She was introduced to four inspiring mentors: 1. Playwright & TV writer Noelle Viñas (Peacock’s ‘Mrs Davis’); 2. TV writer & former resident Anita Vettesse (BBC Writers’ Room Residency, 2016); 3. Artistic Director of New York Stage & Film & creative producer Liz Carlson; 4. Playwright and TV writer Leah Nanako Winkler (A24’s ‘Ramy’, HBO Max’s ‘Love Life’).
These meetings grew Bonnie’s network of women working in film and TV and helped to prepare her for the next steps: finding an agent and submitting treatments to production companies. Bonnie has since gained representation from Bacon Production, won Best Director at BFI Future Film Festival 2024, and has screened her short film in the UK and beyond including Kyiv’s International Short Film Festival.
Charlie Prodger, visual artist
‘I spent a month at Cove Park on the Craignish Trust Emerging Visual Arts Residency in 2010. It was my first residency. I had recently finished my MFA at Glasgow School of Art. I read more in my first afternoon at Cove Park than I had in months, and the effects of that residency impacted on my practice in ways that continue to resonate and reconfigure several years on. I have returned to Cove Park many times to hear talks and participate in events, both with immediate peers and artists whose work is new to me.
I think of Cove Park as a unique site of friendship, of exchange, community, discourse, walking and – very importantly – space. In 2018, I spent time again at Cove Park on a summer residency. Allowing artists to return for further residencies is another much-valued aspect of Cove Park and reflects the value they see in continued relationships across a number of years.
For me, I value the lack of pressure for an “outcome” during Cove Park’s residencies. The artists are trusted to pursue their work there in ways that are unique to each participant, and Cove Park works hard to protect them from the “front-facing” aspects that so many institutions ask of artists. This situation is increasingly rare and is much valued by the many artists in our community – both local and national, who have spent time on residencies at Cove Park. Cove Park is part of the life blood of Scotland’s arts community. Alexia Holt, having been at Cove Park for long time, is much-loved and appreciated because of her deep understanding of artists’ processes, her curiosity, her years of experience in this unique role, and the importance she places on funded time and space for artists for research and development in a unique environment.’
Charlotte Prodger
Charlie Prodger is an internationally acclaimed visual artist and winner of the 2018 Turner Prize. Charlie was also selected to represent Scotland at the 2019 Venice Biennale. This solo presentation was curated by Linsey Young and produced by Cove Park in partnership with Creative Scotland, British Council Scotland, and National Galleries of Scotland. Charlotte graduated from Glasgow School of Art’s MFA programme in 2009. In 2010 she was awarded a Craignish Trust Early Career Residency at Cove Park, her first residency.
In 2018 Charlie was awarded a second residency to develop her first monograph. In 2019 she approached Cove Park to see if we could work with her and curator Linsey Young on her Scotland + Venice commission. Returning in 2019 to Cove Park for research time as she developed the work SaF05, she also produced a limited-edition print, ‘Baked Alaska’ for Cove Park in the same year. Participating in Scotland + Venice was a landmark moment for Cove Park. Not only were we able to work directly with one of Scotland’s leading artists on a major new work, but we were also able to highlight our programme internationally, giving significant visibility to our residency programme. We were delighted to lead on the simultaneous Scottish tour of SaF05, working with venues and cinemas across the west coast, highlands, and islands. Cove Park also led on the development of the Scotland + Venice professional development programme, supporting young artists from Scotland’s five art schools to work with us as exhibition assistants.
Veronika Skliarova, theatre producer and curator
‘As I was researching human migration, I was deeply inspired by the presence of birds around Cove Park’s site, specifically swallows who migrate twice a year between the UK and South Africa. Thank you for the great care you gave to me and for this opportunity to recover and quietly work, meeting all this amazing people. I feel very privileged and thankful.’
Veronia Skliarova
As part of Scotland-Ukraine Arts Residencies Cove Park hosted theatre producer and curator Veronika Skliarova for five weeks in 2023. Veronika is the Programme Director of Parade-Fest, producer of ‘Сrimea, 5am’, an intersectoral performance project, and ‘Ukrainian Odyssey’, involving performances in five cities in Ukraine. She also created ‘Anthology24’, a collection of texts for theatre written following the invasion.
Cove Park offered Veronika a safe and supportive environment, away from the turmoil of conflict, to reflect and imagine a future for her own practice, the organisations she works with, and the wider cultural sector in Ukraine. She worked with collaborator and theatre director Zoe Lafferty (a 2023 resident), having time together to reflect on their recent audio production ‘With Fire and Rage – on Ukrainian Artist Resistance and Resilience’, included in Liverpool’s EuroFestival in 2023. Veronika also connected with former collaborator and composer Nigel Osborne and attended the Edinburgh International Festival.
Veronika gave a presentation to her fellow residents about her experience following the invasion of Ukraine, which involved discussion concerning her research around forced migration. In Cove Park’s library she found a book that would inform her research, ‘A Natural History of Nest Building’ by Andy Holden & Peter Holden, donated by visual artist and 2023 Andy Holden.
Following her residency, Veronika and Zoe were awarded The Stage’s Digital Project of the Year for ‘With Fire and Rage.’ Veronika presented research undertaken at Cove Park at the biennial Ukrainian Congress of Culture in September 2023. British Council Scotland published a short film documenting her time at Cove Park.
Sean Wai Keung, poet and interdisciplinary artist
‘Without Cove Park I wouldn’t be the creative I am now. The opportunity to first take part in the Scottish Emerging Writers Residency in 2021 kickstarted my writing post-pandemic and since then the support they have continued to offer me has only further strengthened my practice. I’m especially grateful that Cove Park takes a personable and individual approach to working with creatives, and I feel that they have helped to encourage not only my writing but also my other artistic endeavours, including supporting me to facilitate cooking workshops as part of the Project Studio / Saturday Studio programme. I’m so grateful for the chance to take part in the Varuna Writers Exchange next year and would happily recommend Cove Park to any creative looking for support.’
Sean Wai Keung
Sean Wai Keung is a Glasgow-based poet, interdisciplinary and community artist. His work often uses food as a starting point for explorations of identity, migration, community, and hospitality, and he enjoys challenging dominant notions of economics and exchange through participatory meal events.
Cove Park awarded Sean an Emerging Writer Residency in 2021. He joined our Associates programme after this residency and in 2023 took part in our Associates & Engagement programme, which included mentoring and the development of a Saturday Studios pasta and poetry workshop. In the same year he participated in ‘Taking Root’, the Food Lab Film Festival at CCA Glasgow, and led a Project Studio workshop. ‘Edible Art’, for teenagers. In 2024 he applied for the Cove Park/Varuna International Residency Exchange programme and was awarded the 2025 one-month residency at Varuna, the Writers’ House of Australia, and the opportunity to take part in the Blue Mountains Book Festival.