Dumfries & Galloway - Autumn Voices

Telling Older People’s Stories (2023-24)

Thanks to funding from the Dumfries & Galloway Regional Arts Fund AV has been able to continue some activities in the region this autumn and winter.

Our first session took us back to Eskdalemuir, where Catherine Urquhart facilitated Writing about Ageing in Haiku on 28 October.

darts of autumn sun
set old tree ablaze
my heart sings

Marjorie Wilson

Participants read a selection of haiku on the theme of ageing and it’s relation to the change of the seasons, particularly autumn to winter. The rest of the session was spent crafting their own haikus, which you can read here.

Renita Boyle will be leading sessions at Stranraer and Wigtownshire Dementia Resource Centre in Stranraer later this month and in December.

Telling Older People’s Stories (2022-23)

Telling Older People’s Stories was an Autumn Voices project taking place across Dumfries & Galloway from summer 2022 to spring 2023.

We worked in partnership with Alzheimer’s Scotland, Annan Day Centre, Eskdalemuir Expressive Arts, and A’ the Airts, Sanquhar.

We offered workshops and other sessions led by a variety of artists, all with experience of working with older people.

Annan Day Centre

At Annan Day Centre, poet Stuart Paterson ran 5 sessions for the centre’s users in June and July 2022.

Please take some time to read their poems!

Eskdalemuir Community Hub

With Eskdalemuir Expressive Arts we ran four Saturday sessions at Eskdalemuir Community Hub:

Bookmaking with Hugh Bryden, Roncadora Press – 16 July 2022 – Details
Mastering The Art of Camera Phone Photography with Nicola Stead – 3 September 2022 – Details
Memory Doors: a poetry workshop with Hugh McMillan – 8 October 2022
Diving In with Sukhema (aka Larry Butler) – 18 February 2023