The Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival are delighted to announce the successful applicants for their Support for Ambition initiative for 2022.
Support for Ambition is an initiative from the Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival that enables local venues and artists to present performance events in the region by providing financial, promotional, and advisory support to deliver the next season of performing arts events. It is a great opportunity for artists to showcase their work and for venues to share performances, bringing communities back together again.
The Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival launched the return of their initiative back in October this year, looking for artists or venues who were looking to stage events in 2022 to be part of their 10 day Festival in May or their year-round Arts Live programme in Spring/Summer 2022.
The team received many fantastic applications to be part of their programmes in 2022, highlighting the high calibre of work that takes place in every corner of our region and showing how the industry is bouncing back after a hard period over the pandemic.
The task of shortlisting the final candidates for the awards was no mean feat and the final successful applicants for the Support for Ambition award showcase the best in artistic quality and creativity that Dumfries & Galloway has to offer.
The Support for Ambition programme consists of 11 events, across the region, showcasing a mix of genres from theatre, music and dance with themes of our history, nature, Gaelic language and the climate emergency. The work features artists young and old through both the Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival 10 Festival, their year-round Arts Live programme and youth Stage iT strand.
The successful applicants include, Harps for Spring by the Clarsach Society, Dumfries & Galloway Branch who are presenting an afternoon traditional harp concert at the Usual Place on 16th April.
Glenkens Community & Arts Trust present Kenbridge Song Suite – a bicentenary celebration marking 200 years since the Ken Bridge was completed, commissioning a performance of a new song suite composed by local musician Wendy Stewart.
The Usual Place in Dumfries are hosting Raven Abbey Music on 31st March, with up and coming local musician Frank Morgan who will perform an acoustic set, supporting the venue to bring back events and opportunities for their team of young people to learn new skills in events.
SongWave choir are relaunching their Spring Concert. SongWave aims to reach members of the local community and include them in their future projects once restrictions are lifted.
The Galloway Consort will present Tapestry – a weave of renaissance music and storytelling at Moffat Town Hall on 19th June. Tapestry focuses on beautifully restored unicorn tapestries in Stirling Castle and the myths and history that they reflect.
Alan Temperley will present ‘The art of telling a good story’ in Wigtownshire in 2022. Alan Temperley is a skilled orator and writer with over 30 years’ experience writing in several genres and his talk will include a rendition of William Nicolson’s “Brownie of the Bladnoch”.
Supporting young people throughout the region, the Support for Ambition initiative will also support Dumfries Youth Theatre to present Superglue by Tim Crouch at the Usual Place on 12th & 13th March. A story of a group of climate activists at the funeral of a friend who dies during a protest, raising questions about peaceful versus violent action and how society dismisses the climate crisis.
Cultural Connections will present Lady Nairne – Scotland’s Secret Songstress a story of Scotland’s most prolific songwriters, credited with writing around one hundred songs, never receiving any credit for her achievements. All will be revealed about this mysterious songstress in a performance at Easterbrook Hall on 26th May during the Dumfries & Galloway Art Festival.
The Cairn Chorus presents Sing for the Trees, a performance of tree themed songs and music that will highlight our essential connection with the natural environment and bring awareness of its ability to inspire creative response in both singer and listener.
Cultured Mongrel Dance presents Something Smashing, an event that brings together musicians and dancers with an interest in improvisation within live performance. A platform for improvisors and the audience to practice, explore, play, share, laugh cry and celebrate the unexpected in Lockerbie in May 2022.
And last but not least, Tales from the Drove Roads of Scotland is a night of storytelling from romantic days of cattle droving with Margaret Bennett, a renowned and popular folklorist where audiences can experience the heritage and promote Gaelic within the region at Beltie Books Café on 21st May 2022.
More details will be released about the shows in the Arts Live and Festival programmes in the new year, showcasing the work of fantastic local artists and venues right across Dumfries & Galloway.
Lou Davies, General Manager of the Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival stated, “It is great to work with venues, artists and promoters across Dumfries & Galloway new and old, reconnecting after such a hard period of isolation. The calibre of artistic skill shown in every corner of our region is exceptional and we are very proud to be able to support these events and the recovery of performing arts in our region. We will have another round of our Support for Ambition initiative going out in 2022 and we hope that these events will inspire more people to get involved and apply.”
The Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival supports people in some of Scotland’s most rural areas to experience world class performing arts on their doorstep, engaging people of all ages, from all walks of life with their imaginative programme and are the only region wide performing arts organisation in the region supporting a network of artists, venues and promoters to create a future for performing arts in Dumfries & Galloway.
