BOOK FESTIVAL TO APPOINT WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE

Wigtown Festival Company (the organisation which delivers Wigtown Book Festival) and Upland Arts Development CIC (the new organisation which delivers Spring Fling Open Studios as its flagship event) are seeking to appoint a writer-in-residence at Spring Fling Open Studios (May 2016). The writer appointed will also be expected to take part in Wigtown Book Festival 2016.

This will be the second year that Wigtown Book Festival has worked with Spring Fling to offer an opportunity for a writer-in-residence at the May open-studios events. This follows the first residency undertaken by Marjorie Lotfi Gill who worked closely with Spring Fling artists and audiences to create SPRUNG – a collection of poems written in response to the work of Spring Fling’s artists.

The new residency is intended to deepen the creative relationship between the two organisations and to appeal to audiences of both events.

BACKGROUND

In 1998 Wigtown became Scotland’s National Book Town. Since then this small, previously neglected town in Dumfries & Galloway, south-west Scotland, has been revitalised and become a destination for book-lovers, while its book festival has grown into one of the best-loved autumn arts gatherings in the UK.

The festival now has an audience of more than 20,000. In 2012, Wigtown was awarded the inaugural Creative Place Award for communities under 2,500 people, designed to recognise places of exceptional creativity in Scotland. The festival is run by the Wigtown Festival Company, a charitable company limited by guarantee. Further details can be found at www.wigtownbookfestival.com.

Spring Fling is a vibrant visual art and craft open studios event covering the length and breadth of Dumfries and Galloway in South West Scotland; it is highly regarded as one of the UK’s most successful contemporary visual art and craft events.

In Autumn 2015 Spring Fling CIC evolved to become Upland CIC, a bold, ambitious, world-class rural based visual art and craft development organisation. Spring Fling is Upland’s flagship event.

Dumfries and Galloway; inspiring, vibrant and buzzing with creativity is well recognised as a haven for artists and makers and Spring Fling has helped put the region on the national and international cultural map.  Further details can be found at www.spring-fling.co.uk and www.weareupland.com.

THE RESIDENCY

We are seeking to appoint a writer-in-residence for Spring Fling Open Studios 2016 (28 – 30 May). The resident will be expected to attend all three days of Spring Fling and also to visit the region for a minimum of three days for research purposes before the event (during March/April 2016). The successful candidate will also be required to attend the 2016 Wigtown Book Festival (23 September – 2 October) to talk about their residency and present the new work created. We strongly recommend that applicants familiarise themselves with both Spring Fling Open Studios, Upland CIC and Wigtown Book Festival through their websites before applying.

Applications are invited from writers with a track record working in any medium, eg fiction, creative non-fiction, theatre, poetry.