The Stove Network was started by a small group of artists in 2011, who wanted to use creative practice to aid the regeneration of the rural market town of Dumfries, Scotland (UK). Stove used participatory events to engage townspeople in imagining futures for the town centre, creating a community-led vision for regeneration, as well as platforming the arts through a range of festivals and events.

Stove followed an emergent process of co-creation with local people, building capacity in the town and its organisation, eventually leading to the regeneration of a section of the high street called Midsteeple Quarter. It is the only arts-led development trust in Scotland.

Transformative creative practice:

“It’s about visioning for places, so using creative practice as a way of visioning, and getting under-represented voices being heard in local decision making and place planning, which I think comes into the sustainable future conversation quite strongly” – Matt Baker

The Stove Network’s approach embeds arts practice within communities, by creating a physical hub that features a venue, café and offices on Dumfries High Street. Stove uses creative events at the hub (and beyond), to gather people together in engaging ways, enabling their voices to be heard within planning and regeneration processes that may otherwise feel closed or inaccessible. Stove’s approach has been so successful that they have started working at a regional level. The ‘What We Do Now’ project aims to re-create creative place hubs in five towns across Dumfries and Galloway, to enable other communities to adopt arts-led processes that fit their localities.  

Connections to eco-social sustainability:

Stove’s place-based work engages holistically with the environmental aspects of local regeneration. For example, the Nithraid project features an annual river race and festival that helps the community to forge relationships with the town’s river that are both practical and meaningful, against the backdrop of flood management consultations in the town.

As an organisation, they input into regeneration strategies that have practical consequences for the management of the local environment, and also deal with future action on climate change, equality, diversity and inclusion.

On learning and evaluation:

The Stove Network team have been keen to document their approach, alongside other social innovations in the Dumfries and Galloway region. They led the Embers: Creative place-making in South Scotland research project (supported by the South of Scotland Economic Partnership and the Carnegie Trust UK). Over a 6 month process of reflection and consultation, they worked with local organisations in Dumfries and Galloway, and policy-makers to create a framework about what works in creative place-making.  

“The framework is more like an approach to working, it’s like a values and principles based approach because again the project looks very different in each place because of the different set of circumstances… So, it’s like who needs to be heard, who’s not being heard who’s involved in decision making? It’s more like a set of interrogations and principles” – Katharine Wheeler

Learn more:

Find a longer and more detailed case study in the CreaTures-commissioned report Transforming futures through place-based creative practices, written by Gemma Lawrence and Emma Hall from Creative Carbon Scotland.

Visit The Stove Network website – https://thestove.org/

Yarmouth Springs Eternal brings the perspectives of those with lived experience of homelessness and migration into conversations about ‘nature’. Last year the project featured a community programme of artist-led workshops with adults connected to Herring House Trust (a group for single, homeless people) and GYROS (a group that supports migrants and culturally diverse communities) and a public exhibition with open-to-all free events, including a conference, artist-led walks, printed folded pamphlet and a resource booklet on creative walking activities by the participating artists. 

In the second year, the project authors took a different approach to the first year of activities. With a mix of returning and new participants and facilitators, they nurtured their roots and built valuable space for reflection and evolution throughout the process. Growing from long relationships with the people connected to the project, the group has developed to make space for unheard voices and those with an interrupted connection to ‘home’ or place. The relationship between these life stories and self-seeded plants growing around town has become a symbol of respect for all lives and journeys. The group has also been recognising the difference between gardened and wild, valued and neglected, and how this mirrors particular social conditions too. 

In 2022, the group took part in a series of workshops, welcoming an inspiring team of visiting arts and ecology practitioners who brought their own perspective on engaging with the natural world through arts, science and wellbeing approaches. Inspired by the ideas and approaches presented by the visiting practitioners, the community participants co-designed and led a series of free events for the public, organised during the Creativity and Wellbeing Week in May.  

Some reflections of the group members:

• “To compare to last year, I feel more confident. It’s so important to share knowledge and experience with others. I received so much positive feedback” (Sara Moreira, reflecting on leading an event for the public).

• “After the first Yarmouth Springs Eternal, I was really looking forward to the next one. This year has exceeded expectations. This group has helped me to create space in my head to appreciate the spaces around me. I enjoyed hosting a session” (Russell Hughes, reflecting on the whole programme and leading a public event).
• “Six years ago, when I was in the depth of depression and addiction, I would never have thought I would be leading a group. It has really boosted my confidence, and inspired me” (a participant, sharing their personal journey with pride after leading a public event).
   

Through the programme, the group explores what living/working in Great Yarmouth means – whether people are here through choice or necessity – and continue to explore the symbolism of Spring unfolding, plants growing in neglected or overlooked places, and bleak spaces becoming beautiful with the presence of abundant life. The experience this year has been turned into a short film produced by filmmaker Becky Demmen of Supporting Your Art.