Cove Park’s annual summer Open Day, which takes place this Saturday, is a chance to see work in progress by current residency artists Melissa Gordon, Josh Bitelli, Linda Florence and Emlyn Firth, and hear new work from resident writer Jess Richards. But as Director Julian Forrester explains, the open day is also a chance to bid farewell to the residency centre’s current facilities.
“Our current public building is falling down and we desperately need a new one. And while the size of the building fits most of the projects we do through our residency programme, we are unable to offer any kind of community or participatory programme. We basically have one big room – if the artists are working in the one big room, nothing else can happen.”
Cove Park opened in 2000, located in 50 acres of unspoilt hillside in Argyll and Bute, overlooking Loch Long on Scotland’s west coast. Its year-round residency programme plays host to between 50-75 artists a year. The capital development project, which is planned to commence in March next year, will enable a significantly expanded education and participatory programme, and there will also be upgraded facilities for artists. The centre is scheduled to reopen in summer 2015.
“We are adding two additional bedrooms to bring the number of artists we can host at any given time up to twelve. That will allow us to look after slightly larger collaborating groups. We undertake residencies for individuals, but we’ve been restricted where artists are working in collaborative ways – such as in the performing arts – to the size of groups we can accommodate.
“After thirteen years of doing this, we understand what better – and bigger facilities – can enable artists to achieve. And we know there is a demand for it.”
Creativity and ideas
Centred on creativity and ideas, the residency programme is about space and freedom to find new ways of working. Distinguished Cove Park alumni include Simon Starling, Alison Turnbull, Adam Chodzko and Louise Hopkins.
“We are about the development of new work – about the thinking and the creativity and the unexpectedness that you get at the earliest stage of a work’s formation. We don’t stipulate some form of outcome – we select artists on the basis of who can take best advantage of the sort of place this is. I always think that we’ve succeeded if someone comes here and does something that they didn’t expect to do.
“And we will remain, in spite of wanting to do more with the local community, a place where artists – either together or on their own – can think about and make new work. But we’re not a retreat, we’re a place for engagement and the unexpected.”
So what can visitors to this weekend’s Open Day look forward to? “Alongside the chance to meet the resident artists and writers, there will be music from Mexican party band Rapido Mariachi, a surprise outdoor film screening introduced by former resident artist Rob Churm, and food from the barbeque. And we want people to run about on our hillside and enjoy themselves!”
Cove Park Open Day, Saturday 17 August, from 3pm.
A free bus will leave from Glasgow’s CCA at 2pm and will return around 10pm. To reserve your free place on the bus contact [email protected] 01436 850 123.
More on a-n.co.uk:
Residencies on Knowledge bank.
Residencies on Jobs and opps.
