From pagan hunting gods to traditional tapestry weaving and pottery decorated with images of wildlife – this weekend’s Spring Fling promises an amazing array of contemporary visual arts and craft.
Scotland’s premiere open studios weekend takes place will see nearly 100 studios, all across Dumfries and Galloway, open their doors to the public from 2-5 June.
Sixteen of the specially selected artists and makers have never taken part before, including slipware potter Mary Gladstone of Craighlaw, Kirkcowan, Newton Stewart. Her pieces are decorated with powerful contemporary images mainly inspired by Galloway wildlife.
Also new to Spring Fling is Gyllian Thomson, of Corstorphine Road, Thornhill, who creates vibrant and colourful tapestries using cotton, wool, linen, acrylic on her upright scaffold loom.
Silvy Weatherall, who specialises in creating art from items that have been used, forgotten or thrown away, will be welcoming visitors into her new studio at Mallabay Steadings, Irongray.
A while ago a champion target shooter gifted her a bathtub full of spent bullet casings and challenged her to use them to create artworks. The results are spectacular – new pieces intended to encourage people to think about human relationships with nature, food, hunting, history and religion.
Silvy said: “While these bullets were only used for target shooting they made me think about hunters and hunting, so I used them to create sculptures of the ancient gods of the hunt.
“I made one of the goddess Diana, using a dressmaker’s dummy that has a very curvaceous, feminine and sexy shape, and a head like a roe deer.
“I also made one representing Cernunnos, the Celtic god of wild things, who has a human form and a deer’s antlers.”
Silvy has also created a series of artworks using keys set in resin to form the shape of a heart which were inspired by ideas of love and belonging.
She said: “The key represents so many things. With migrants and refugees for example, the last thing they do when leaving is lock the door. They will keep the key but it no longer has a function. It becomes an amulet, a symbol, a memory of love and home.”
This year’s Spring Fling is particularly special as it is the 20th event and also marks its return to being in-person after two years when COVID dictated that it went digital.
The event was started in the aftermath of foot and mouth as a way to use the arts and culture to help in the recovery of a rural region where the economy had suffered badly.
Between 2003-19 Spring Fling attracted 162,600 visitors who made around 487,000 studio visits. In 2020 and 2021 the event was online and attracted 26,000 visits to artists’ and makers’ websites. From 2003-21 over £3.3 million of art and craft was bought from studios or online. The event has brought in over £16 million to the local economy.
This year the organisers hope that this Spring Fling will begin the event’s own recovery and will once again see it bring in visitors and economic benefits to Dumfries and Galloway.
Jane McArthur, former Galloway Council Visual Arts Development Officer who was a founder of Spring Fling, has been hugely impressed with the development of the event over the years.
She said: “One of the strengths of Spring Fling is that it supports artists and makers at every stage of their careers, from those who are emerging to the well-established.
“And it’s different every year, with new artists and different studios, and an enormous variety of art and craft, which gives visitors lots of reasons to keep on coming back.”
This year’s event has been specially extended to four days this year to coincide with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Joanna Jones, Assistant Director of Upland which delivers Spring Fling, said: “This will be a very special year for us, the 20th ever Spring Fling and our return from digital to physical after COVID.
“There’s an incredible variety of art and craft to see, and we have lots of new artists and new studios as well as long-established participants who people love to keep visiting.
“So we are really looking forward to welcoming visitors back to Spring Fling as we begin rebuilding after the pandemic.”
- For further details see the Spring Fling website at www.spring-fling.co.uk.
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Notes for editors
Picture by Colin Hattersley
This year’s Spring Fling programme includes
- Spring Fling at 20: 28 May to 2 July at Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries. An exhibition featuring work by more than 40 past and present participants.
- Modern Makers: 14 May to 25 June at Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries. An exhibition celebrating the Modern Makers programme which allows young people to learn traditional craft techniques.
- Spring Fling Open Studios Weekend: 2-5 June across Dumfries and Galloway. Close to 100 specially selected artists and makers open their studios.
- Biscuit Factory Exhibition: 14 May to 24 July at the Biscuit Factory, Newcastle Upon Tyne. Twenty past and present Spring Flingers fly the flag for the art and craft of south west Scotland at the UK’s largest art, craft and design gallery.
About Spring Fling
- Brochures can be ordered from the Spring Fling website and a downloadable version is also available. For further details visit www.spring-fling.co.uk.
- The organisers will ensure that all government COVID-19 guidance is followed so visitors and participants can take part in a safe Spring Fling.
- Spring Fling made its name as Scotland’s premier visual art and contemporary craft open studios event covering all Dumfries and Galloway, South West Scotland. It is the flagship annual event of Upland CIC.
- For further details visit www.spring-fling.co.uk or contact [email protected]
- Spring Fling is pleased to once again have support from Dumfries & Galloway Council as one of the region’s Signature Events.
About Upland
Upland CIC (Community Interest Company) supports artists and makers based in, and with connections to, the region. It delivers events, training, networking, support and opportunities as part of a year-round programme to benefit the region, its artists, communities and economy. Upland CIC runs the annual Spring Fling contemporary visual art and craft open studios weekend in Dumfries and Galloway. It will work closely with other arts bodies in the region to further strengthen the sector. Upland is based at Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries and exists to:
- produce and deliver festivals, events, and experimental projects of the highest quality
- nurture an environment where artistic excellence thrives and grows
- inspire and educate a wide range of audiences, customers and clients to understand, celebrate, be actively engaged in and supportive of visual art and craft practice
- raise the profile of visual artists and makers locally, nationally and internationally fulfilling a crucial role in the culture and tourism of Dumfries and Galloway
- build strategic partnerships at regional, national and international level
- maintain a financially sound and adaptively resilient organisation
- work to the benefit the local economy and the sustainability of local communities.
Its funders are Creative Scotland, D&G Council, The Holywood Trust, The Barfill Trust.
About Creative Scotland
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. We enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life. We distribute funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery. For further information about Creative Scotland please visit www.creativescotland.com. Follow us @creativescots and www.facebook.com/CreativeScotland.
For media information contact Matthew Shelley on 07786 704299 or at [email protected] or call Upland on 01387 213 218.