By means of an update to the Stove Network’s What We Do Now project, the ArtLab as it is now known is finally complete with power and plumbing and just needs a final sign-off from the town Council. Alice and Rosie have shown vision and resilience and true social engagement by hanging in with the concept of having an art station within the community of Lochside. They have kitted it out with loving care in hand-worked wood and there is a working kitchen in there now.

A few unofficial workshops have already taken place to try out the new space (slightly cheekily before formal hand-overs etc, but there are limits to the sacrificing of possibilities over tugging every forelock). Alice and Rosie conducted a council-funded project called Weeds which involved foraging for local plants and drawing them as folk learned about them and their importance to the local biosphere.

Then there were a series of workshops connected to the local Wild Goose Festival which celebrates the migration of geese between Galloway and Svalbard in Norway. My own contribution to these was an enjoyable half-day working with younger folk on the theme of Migration. It was great to see some familiar faces from 18 months ago when I last worked in Lochside.

And welcome to another community – seekers of asylum in the UK, from many different countries. Dumfries has been receiving a large number of young men from Iran, Afganistan, Yemen, Kurdistan, Turkey, Sudan and others. As well as the Ukrainians who have joined us. I have been working with a Dumfries-based refugee charity (MOOL) and Shambellie House, an arts and craft centre in New Abbey to offer some of the guys a friendly taste of Scottish culture using photography. We went into town with cameras to document their early impressions of local life.

Refugee Festival Scotland 2024 – a day out at Shambellie House to relax and take photos

It was a really good day of sharing friendship and personal stories and images and enjoying each other’s company. Community is about sharing what we have and are as people and staying on a level playing field with others. It has been a privilege to be part of both communities – with the folk of Lochside in NW Dumfries who have lived here a while and with the new Scots from some of the hotels in Dumfries who have more recently joined us. I hope that gradually these two local communities will start to know each other a bit and learn something great from each other.

Perhaps football could be a good way to begin…