Lowland

‘Lowland’ postcards. Generating over 500 responses from local people, these postcards have formed an archive within the project.

“I wrote about what was around me. But some people are so daft they don’t understand that writing about Prestwich is just as valid as Dante writing about his Inferno.” Mark E. Smith

Lowland is a three-year project devoted to exploring senses of belonging and place in Dumfries.

Primarily, the project is a gathering mechanism, collecting writing from the community to compile an archive of written responses about Dumfries. These may be poetry, short fiction, diary or even illustration.

On the commencement of the project, poet Stuart Paterson was commissioned as a writer-in-residence. Alongside the Lead Artist, Paterson worked with the community to generate as many responses to the Lowland identity, including workshops with emerging writers from the High Street Writers group which is hosted every two weeks at the Stove. The team also held regular workshops in local schools, engaging both primary and high school pupils in responsive writing.

Lowland is an evolving project that seeks to create a contemporary narrative of Dumfries town in a transitional phase of its history.

A play is now in development, to be staged at the end of March, 2020.