A celebration of D&G creativity and talent
Features: CAMPLE LINE–Borba
DG Cultural Partnership
Alycia Pirmohamed
Cerys Cooper
Up Yer Airts Sunday Scratch
Tate Modern
DAGFAS Spring Exhibition
Big Burns Supper
The Burns Family Flute
Kirkcudbright Galleries
As we move further into 2026, this issue reflects a period of growth, connection and continued momentum across Dumfries and Galloway and farther afield. It is a privilege to share the work, voices and creativity of our team, members, partners and communities, and to take a moment to look more closely at what is happening across our region and elsewhere.
In this edition, we begin at CAMPLE LINE with a powerful exhibition by Brazilian artist, Anderson Borba, and then we look at the work of the Dumfries and Galloway Cultural Partnership. We are proud to introduce this year’s Dr Gavin Wallace Fellow, Alycia Pirmohamed, and to welcome our new colleague Cerys Cooper to the DG Unlimited team. You will also find reflections from my recent visit to Tate Modern, alongside a range of showcases that highlight the depth and diversity of creative practice in the south of Scotland.
From the DAGFAS Spring Exhibition to Big Burns Supper, from the Burns Family Flute at Ellisland to the exhibitions at Kirkcudbright Galleries, this issue brings together moments of making, sharing and experiencing culture in different forms. We also include a reflection on our recent visit to Westminster, representing Dumfries and Galloway within a UK wide conversation about remembrance and creative response.
Alongside these features, we continue to share recommendations from the team, with Ellie’s Screen and Stage Pics, Mr D’s Listen Inn, and the latest selection of reading my bookshelf. These pages are a reminder that culture is something we return to, revisit and carry with us, in small and meaningful ways and they are our way of encouraging you to enjoy art in all its forms in any way that you can.
What runs through this issue is a sense of connection, between communities, people, and their ideas, regardless of where they live or where they come from. Whether we are hosting national programmes here in Dumfries and Galloway, or representing the region further afield, welcoming international artists, or creating space for residencies, our focus always remains the same: To support, showcase and champion the creative and cultural life of this region.
Thank you, as always, for being part of this creative community.
Tabi xx
Tabi Mudaliar is the Editor of FOCUS Magazine and Creative Director of DG Unlimited.
FOCUS is Dumfries and Galloway’s quarterly creative digital magazine brought to you by DG Unlimited, Dumfries and Galloway Chamber of the Arts SCIO. FOCUS is free to access and download from dgunlimited.org. It is published to shine a light on the creative people and projects who live and work in Dumfries and Galloway or who have strong links with our region.
FOCUS magazine is brought to you thanks to the generous support of Dumfries and Galloway Council and our members, friends, and supporters.
Cover image: Anderson Borba, Cloak, 2026 (detail), wood, paper, unfired clay, stones, wire, wood stain, oil pastel, lacquer, 204 x 34 x 7cm. Courtesy of the artist and, The Approach. Photo: Mike Bolam
Set within the quiet, rural landscape of Dumfriesshire, CAMPLE LINE has established itself as one of Scotland’s most distinctive contemporary arts spaces. And it is right here in our region. Housed in a beautifully restored former farm building, the gallery offers an annual programme which is both internationally ambitious and yet deeply rooted in nature, people and community. It is a venue where ideas unfold slowly, where artists are given space to think, and where audiences are invited into thoughtful, often transformative encounters with contemporary art from all over the globe.
There is something special about experiencing ambitious contemporary work in such a setting. The journey to CAMPLE LINE, passing working farms and fields on a narrow road lined with hedgerows and wild growing flora, feels like part of the experience itself. By the time you arrive, one has a sense of stepping outside the everyday. Inside, the gallery’s clean, light filled architecture provides a striking counterpoint to its rural surroundings, allowing the work to resonate.
This spring, CAMPLE LINE presents The Unearthed, a powerful exhibition by Brazilian artist Anderson Borba, Borba as he is known. Running from 21 March to 31 May 2026, the exhibition brings together a series of sculptural works which are intricate and feel ancient and futuristic, grounded in nature and otherworldly, almost from another universe.
Borba’s practice is rooted in transformation. Working primarily with wood, often combined with materials such as stone, bronze, paper and pigment, he creates elongated, totemic forms that seem to occupy a space between the human and the more than human. As described in the exhibition text, these sculptures emerge as “bodies, invested with a secret life of their own,” carrying with them traces of memory, ritual and imagined futures.
Encountering the work in the gallery is a quietly arresting experience. The sculptures stand like
sentinels, tall, slender figures with charred, carved and layered surfaces. Some appear ceremonial, others almost playful, yet all carry an underlying sense of presence. They seem less like static objects and more like participants in an unfolding narrative.
A group of these striking vertical forms stands together on the gallery’s main exhibition space, each distinct, yet clearly part of a shared language of mark making and material transformation. Look closely to see hand painted and collage embellishments on the forms. As you move around the pieces, they reveal themselves - intricate surfaces, burned wood, embedded stones, and fragments of colour that suggest both erosion and renewal – all become visible as you move around the artworks. These details reinforce the sense that Borba’s works are not simply made, but unearthed, assembled through a process that is as much archaeological as it is sculptural.
Central to Borba’s work is an exploration of belief systems and cultural memory. Drawing on influences such as Umbanda, a syncretic Afro Brazilian religion, his sculptures evoke ritual, spirituality and the idea of objects as carriers of deep spiritual meaning. Yet they resist fixed interpretation. Instead, they invite viewers to project, imagine and question. As the exhibition text suggests, these figures may be “totems for a civilisation yet to be,” prompting reflection on identity, otherness and our relationship with the unknown.
There is also a strong material intelligence at play. The use of organic matter, wood that has been carved, burned, painted and reassembled, speaks to cycles of transformation. Something has been lost, altered, reconfigured. In this sense, the work resonates with broader themes of ecological change and cultural hybridity, without ever becoming didactic.
What makes this exhibition particularly powerful is the dialogue between the work and the space. CAMPLE LINE’s architecture, with its exposed beams and natural light, allows Borba’s sculptures to breathe. The rural setting beyond the gallery walls subtly echoes the exhibition’s evocation of forests, mythologies and imagined landscapes.
As an organisation, CAMPLE LINE continues to play a vital role in bringing high quality contemporary art to the South of Scotland. Its programme demonstrates that world class artistic practice need not be confined to urban centres. Here is it, in the heart of Dumfriesshire, thriving within a rural context, offering new ways of seeing and engaging with contemporary art in all forms.
We are delighted to share that CAMPLE LINE will host this year’s Leaders Unlimited residential, our creative development programme which is featured later in this issue of FOCUS. The gallery’s commitment to dialogue, experimentation and exchange makes it an ideal setting for nurturing new ideas and leadership within the creative sector. We value our partnership and friendship with all at CAMPLE LINE.
In both its setting and its programme, CAMPLE LINE offers something rare, a space where contemporary art is not only presented, but truly experienced. With The Unearthed, that experience is both grounding and unsettling, in the best possible way.
CAMPLE LINE is a Scottish Charity. Our thanks to the CAMPLE LINE Director, Tina Fiske, and the whole team.
Anderson Borba | The Unearthed | 21 March – 31 May 2026
Visit: Open Thursday to Sunday 11am – 4pm or by appointment. CAMPLE LINE, Cample Mill, Cample, near Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, DG3 5HD
Ellie Stevens shares her work for the Dumfries and Galloway Cultural Partnership.
Alongside my role as Creative Producer for DG Unlimited, I am also the Administrator for the Dumfries and Galloway Cultural Partnership, of which DG Unlimited is a founding partner. As part of my role, I’ve been working closely with Sylvia Mallinson, Coordinator for the Cultural Partnership, to deliver a series of events across the region entitled, Connecting Our Cultural Landscape.
Over the past few weeks, we have been out across Dumfries and Galloway, spending time in different communities, meeting people in person and hearing directly from those shaping cultural activities in the region. It has been a pleasure to be out and about in the region and connect with the people who work and are passionate about culture.
These events were developed to introduce the Partnership and open up conversations about culture in Dumfries and Galloway. We wanted to share more about who we are and what we’re here to do, but just as importantly, to create space to listen.
A big part of this was getting a better sense of the creative and cultural activity already taking place and hearing directly from people across the region about how the Partnership can support and promote this work. Bringing people together in the room creates a valuable opportunity for connection, with artists, organisations, freelancers and community groups able to meet, share ideas and begin new conversations.
What felt particularly important was being able to have these conversations in person. Spending time in various places across the region allowed us to hear a wide range of voices and perspectives, and to start building relationships that will continue beyond these initial sessions.
There was a real sense of openness and generosity in each of the events, with people willing to share their experiences and engage with the Partnership at this early stage.
Sylvia reflected, “It has been incredibly encouraging to see so many people come together, share their experiences, and show such pride in their communities. The events have been a fantastic starting point for building connections across Dumfries and Galloway, and they have helped us understand what is working well and where more attention and support may be needed as we move forward together.”
This is just the beginning, and we are looking forward to continuing these conversations and building on the connections made so far.
To find out more about the Dumfries and Galloway Cultural Partnership, visit dgculturalpartnership.co.uk.
The Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship is one of Scotland’s most prestigious opportunities for writers, offering something increasingly rare: the time, space and support to develop new work. Created in memory of the late writer and cultural leader Dr Gavin Wallace, the Fellowship is rooted in the simple concept of giving a writer the freedom to think, read and write, and how this opportunity can lead to work that resonates far beyond the page.
In 2026, that Fellowship takes on new significance as it is hosted for the first time in the south of Scotland. DG Unlimited is proud to bring the Fellowship to Dumfries and Galloway, placing the Fellowship firmly within a region which has its place within the Scotland’s national literary landscape thanks to Scotland Book Town, Wigtown and its annual book festival, thanks to the legacy of Rabbie Burns, and thanks to all the writers who call Dumfries and Galloway home.
This year’s open call for submissions drew an unprecedented response. We received 48 applications from published writers across Scotland, spanning every region. The strength and diversity of submissions reflected the richness of contemporary writing in Scotland today, with an especially strong showing from Dumfries and Galloway, underlining the depth of talent rooted right here in the south.
From this highly competitive field, Alycia Pirmohamed has been selected by the panel as the 2026 Dr Gavin Wallace Fellow. A poet and writer of international standing, Alycia’s work moves across genres and forms, often exploring memory, migration, ecology and the shifting meanings of home.
Her Fellowship will be shaped by the theme UNFOLDING Scotland, with a year dedicated to research, writing and engagement across Dumfries and Galloway and beyond. Her proposed project, Even Now the Waterline Wavers, is described as a cross-genre
collection that explores hybridity in both subject and form, asking how ideas of homeland, ecology and the Anthropocene intersect with lived experience and inherited histories.
As Alycia reflects, “It’s an absolute honour to have been selected as the Dr Gavin Wallace Fellow and I very much look forward to exploring the theme, UNFOLDING Scotland”. Her work will consider “the connections between homeland… ecology, and the Anthropocene,” alongside questions of embodiment and the legacies that shape how we relate to the natural world.
For DG Unlimited, hosting the Fellowship is part of a wider commitment to supporting artists and building creative infrastructure within the south of Scotland. As our Creative Director Tabi Mudaliar noted, the response to the call reflects “the strength of contemporary writing across the country,” and we are “absolutely delighted to welcome Alycia” to the region.
What the Fellowship offers is not just recognition, but the conditions for something new to emerge. A year of attention, rooted in Dumfries and Galloway, but considering culture across Scotland, the Fellow’s year will be shaped by landscape, community and conversation. In welcoming Alycia Pirmohamed, the Fellowship continues its legacy, while DG Unlimited hosts the Fellow and opens a new chapter in the south of Scotland.
We are delighted to welcome Cerys Cooper to DG Unlimited as our new Creative Communications Assistant, joining the team at an important and energised moment in our work across Dumfries and Galloway.
Cerys brings with her a broad and grounded creative practice, shaped by both formal study and hands on experience across the sector. Based in the region, she is already deeply connected to the creative life of Dumfries and Galloway, with a background that spans music, visual art, photography and event production.
A graduate of the University of the West of Scotland with an honours degree in music business, Cerys has developed a skillset which reflects the realities of working in and alongside creative communities. Her work moves easily between disciplines, from gig photography and artist support to developing and producing live events. At the centre of this is a clear commitment to creating opportunities for others and building platforms where creativity can be shared and experienced.
This is perhaps most visible in her role as founder and director of Hidden Gem Festival, a Dumfries based music festival celebrating local venues, artists and audiences. Built from a love of the region’s music scene and the spaces that sustain it, the festival is growing into a platform for both emerging and established artists, creating opportunities to perform, connect and develop. As Cerys describes it, these spaces and people form the “heartbeat of the community,” with artists giving voice to that shared energy.
At DG Unlimited, Cerys steps into a role central to how we tell our story and the stories of others. As Creative Communications Assistant, she will work with the team and across the Creative Compass programme and our wider organisational activities, contributing to the
creation of written, visual and digital content which reflects the depth and diversity of the creative sector in our region and beyond.
This is a role rooted in storytelling. It is about paying attention to what is happening across the region, capturing it with care and clarity, and sharing it in ways that connect people to each other and to the cultural landscape across Scotland. From articles and features to photography and short form digital content, Cerys will be part of a growing team helping to shape how creativity in Dumfries and Galloway is seen, understood and valued.
What makes this appointment particularly meaningful is that it builds on an existing connection to Dumfries and Galloway. Cerys is returning to the region to once again call it home, and she is already a respected members of the creative community here, tanks to her previous work with Dumfries Music Collective (DMC), Big Burns Supper, and Arts DG. She understands the rhythms of the region, the people, the challenges, and the opportunities, and the importance of creating space for artists to be visible and heard.
As we continue to grow DG Unlimited, having someone in this role who brings both creative skill and local knowledge is essential. We are very pleased to have Cerys as part of our team, and we look forward to the stories she will help us tell.
Our thanks also to Creative Scotland who have funded this role as part of the Creative Compass project.
We invited the Up Yer Airts team at Arts DG to tell us about Sunday Scratch…
For many artists, the hardest step is not the performance itself but finding a space to begin. A space where ideas can be tested, shared, and shaped without the pressure of perfection. Up Yer Airts’ Sunday Scratch is creating exactly that.
At its core, the event is about removing barriers. Artists can bring early drafts, half-formed ideas or work-in-progress pieces and try them out in front of a live audience. It is not about perfection, but about building confidence, taking risks, and developing craft overtime.
As Liam Russell, Creative Director of Up Yer Airts, puts it: “This isn’t about being polished. It’s about being brave, taking risks, and making something real. Sunday Scratch is a space where young musicians and creatives can step onto a real stage, try things, fail, learn, and grow. That’s how talent turns into craft.”
The event also creates opportunities beyond performance. Young people interested in the wider creative industries, from sound and lighting to
photography and event production, are able to gain hands-on experience in a live setting. This wider ecosystem of support is what makes Up Yer Airts’ work feel both practical and forward-thinking.
What makes Sunday Scratch particularly important is its place within the wider creative landscape of the region. Opportunities to test new work locally are often limited, and many young artists feel the need to move elsewhere to develop their practice. Initiatives like this offer an alternative, creating space for ideas to grow within Dumfries and Galloway, and supporting artists to stay connected to the place that shapes their work.
There is also something powerful in the atmosphere these events create. Without the pressure of a finished
Launched in partnership with Loreburn Hall, Sunday Scratch is a monthly live session designed to give young musicians a professional platform to experiment, grow and be seen. It offers access to a full stage setup, including sound, lighting, and technical support, allowing artists to test new material in front of an audience in a low-pressure, supportive environment.
performance, there is a different kind of honesty in the room. Audiences are part of the process, witnessing the beginnings of something rather than the result, and that openness allows for a deeper connection between artist, work, and community.
As Sunday Scratch continues to develop, it offers an exciting glimpse into what a more connected and supported creative ecology in the region might look like. It is not only about what is presented on the day, but about what might come next. New collaborations, new ideas and new voices finding the confidence to take their work further.
The next Sunday Scratch will take place on Sunday 12 April at Loreburn Hall in Dumfries, running from 2pm to 5pm. Entry is free, and all are welcome.
Recently, I spent time in Tate Modern, London, attending the private view of Tracey Emin’s new exhibition. It was a privilege to be there, not only to experience the work firsthand, but to take time to think, to look closely, and to reconnect with the conversations shaping contemporary practice. Alongside the exhibition, I met with our London based Trustee, Yoni Bentovim, and key contacts from cultural venues in London, continuing to build relationships that are important to the long-term development of DG Unlimited and the work we are doing here in Dumfries and Galloway.
As Creative Director, part of my role is to step beyond our immediate geography and remain connected to what is happening nationally and internationally. This means seeing work in different contexts, listening, learning, and bringing those insights and observations back into our region. This is not separate from our work in Dumfries and Galloway, it for our work in this region and strengthens it. Our Board and management recognise the value of this type of development across the organisation, and we support and encourage all our team members to expand their horizons as an essential part of how we grow, advocate and ensure that our creative community is visible within a national cultural landscape.
I am always conscious that when I travel, I do so as part of something bigger than myself. I carry with me the voices, ambitions and potential of our team, members and of our region. Being present in spaces like Tate Modern is not about distance from home, it is about connection, representation and making sure that Dumfries and Galloway is a part of the UK’s cultural conversation.
There
are experiences we have in life that stay with us long after we close the pages of a book, leave the cinema, or step quietly out of a room. Attending the private view of A Second Life by Tracey Emin at Tate Modern was one of those moments.
deeply thankful for,
It was a privilege I didn’t expect, am
and one I know will remain with me.
Emin’s work has always carried a rare honesty. It is unflinching, intimate, and deeply human. Not universally embraced, and for many years widely misunderstood, her practice has often asked more of its audience than many are willing to give. In this latest exhibition, that honesty feels both sharpened and softened by time. There is a maturity here, not in the sense of restraint, but in a deepened clarity of voice.
Her neon works, those instantly recognisable declarations that have become embedded in our cultural consciousness, still carry urgency but now they seem to breathe differently. Phrases such as I Want My Time With You and Love Is What You Want glow with defiance and tenderness, holding contradiction in ways that feel profoundly human. They are no longer mere statements. For me, seeing them surrounded by her lifetime of work, they are reflections, echoes of a life lived fully and at personal cost.
Her paintings remain raw, figurative, and unapologetically direct. Works such as It Was All Too Much and I Followed You to the End hold the body at their centre ache with love, pain and honesty while they are distorted, vulnerable, exposed. These are not images seeking to please; they demand presence and time. They speak of memory, trauma, survival, and of the complicated relationship and conversations we hold with our own physical selves. There is a fragility within these works, and a quiet, undeniable steely strength.
The exhibition is rich with deeply personal artworks that invite close attention. Standing before Hotel International, her hand-sewn appliqué blanket, I found myself tracing the stitches with my eyes, each piece of fabric carrying fragments of the story of her life. Nearby, Exploration of the Soul offers text which feels diaristic and philosophical. Emin’s words are layered with vulnerability yet grounded in a fierce sense of selfawareness. I read every word.
I stood before the screen and marvelled at, Why I Never Became a Dancer, a work of film that continues to resonate with its blend of humour, pain, and defiance. Watching it again within this context, it was no longer a singular story but a vital part of a wider vision. A lifelong conversation Emin has bravely been having with herself, and with us, for decades.
And of course, My Bed. I found myself alone in the room for several minutes, save for a discreet security guard in the corner. Standing beside it, I understood it properly for the first time. Not as controversy, not as spectacle, but as truth. Her bed is a place of safety/danger, of reformation/ collapse, healing/damage, tranquillity/chaos. The detritus of a life being lived, well, wildly, and without apology. It is both deeply personal and universally recognisable. We have all, in some form, been there.
Throughout the exhibition, Emin is in dialogue with her own life, and the life of a woman, of mixed race, in Britain, and all that encompasses. Her work does not separate the artist from the art, instead it insists upon their entanglement. And if you stop to truly listen to her, what emerges is something profoundly moving. For years, this openness was misinterpreted, dismissed, often ridiculed in the most misogynistic terms. I still recall the harshness of the press she once received. And yet here she stands Dame Tracey Emin. Not diminished but amplified. A survivor. A force.
There is something deeply important in witnessing this artist’s journey. Emin’s work does not seek to make itself comfortable. Instead, it asks us to sit with complexity and contradiction, to behold and hold the discomfort with her, and to see the beauty in truth. In doing so, it continues to help shift conversations on authorship, the female body, and about whose stories are deemed worthy of space within our cultural institutions.
Being present at A Second Life was a personal experience and a purposeful one. I was there as part of my own creative development, taking time to reflect, to be challenged, and to learn. Equally, I was there representing DG Unlimited, building connections, engaging with leading cultural spaces, and considering how these experiences can inform and strengthen our work back home in Dumfries and Galloway.
Opportunities like this matter. They allow us to step beyond our immediate context and see how creativity is nurtured and presented on a national and international stage. But they also reaffirm something equally important that extraordinary creativity exists everywhere. Including here.
A Second Life is, in many ways, about continuation, about what comes after, and what we choose to carry forward. I left with a renewed sense of purpose, and a quiet determination to keep building pathways between people, place, and possibility.
Our role is to continue supporting, championing, and making space for creativity. To recognise that every creative voice carries value. Every story matters.
The Dumfries and Galloway Fine Arts Society returns this spring with a vibrant group exhibition at the Harbour Cottage Gallery in Kirkcudbright, bringing together over 30 artists from across the region. Running daily until 11 April, the exhibition offers a rich snapshot of creative practice in Dumfries and Galloway, with work spanning painting, sculpture, printmaking and, notably this year, photography.
What stands out in this year’s exhibition is the inclusion of photographic work alongside more traditional fine art forms. This feels like a natural and timely development for the Society, recognising the breadth of contemporary practice and the ways in which artists are working across and between mediums. As Chair Paul O’Keeffe notes, many members are already using photography either as their primary medium or as part of mixed media approaches, and this exhibition makes space for that work to be seen and valued within a fine arts context.
For artists like Alistair Hamilton, exhibiting photographic work within this setting marks an important moment. His approach, like others in the exhibition, focuses on photography as an artistic process rather than documentation, creating images that are intentional, constructed and expressive. It signals a wider shift in how photography is understood within regional exhibitions, moving beyond reportage and into the realm of fine art practice.
Alongside this, the exhibition features a strong line up of established and returning artists. Past President Alexander Robb presents oil paintings, while former Chairs Sheena McCurrach and John Fairgrieve
contribute mixed media and sculpture respectively. Printmaker Joshua Miles brings new reduction lino cuts, adding further depth and texture to the overall show.
Together, these works create a varied and engaging exhibition that reflects both continuity and change. There is a sense of an organisation that honours its history while remaining open to evolving forms of practice. The Harbour Cottage Gallery provides an intimate setting for this, allowing each piece the space to be encountered closely and thoughtfully.
Open daily with free entry, the exhibition offers an accessible opportunity to experience the work of artists living and working in the region. It is a reminder of the strength of Dumfries and Galloway’s creative community, and of the importance of spaces where that work can be shared.
Dumfries and Galloway Fine Arts Society’s spring exhibition can be viewed in the Harbour Cottage Gallery, Kirkcudbright. The exhibition runs daily from 10.30am-4.30pm, until Saturday 11th April, when it closes at 3pm. Entry is free.
There are some events that capture the spirit of a place, not just in what they programme, but in how they bring people together. Big Burns Supper has long been one of those for Dumfries, creating moments that feel open, generous and full of energy. This spring, they return with something a little different, but very much in keeping with that ethos.
On Saturday 4 April, Big Burns Supper hosts Bonkers Bingo: Easter Brunch Special at The Supper Club Dumfries, an afternoon event that blends food, music, games and performance into a single shared experience. Running from 1.30pm to 4.30pm, it offers a lively and informal way to spend time together, with a hot finger food brunch buffet, bingo, live music and hosted games woven throughout.
There is a sense here of not overcomplicating things. It is about enjoyment, participation and atmosphere. Bingo becomes something more than a game, shaped by performance and interaction, with prizes that range from the playful to the substantial, including a weekend in Barcelona for two. It is designed to be engaging, accessible and, above all, social.
What sits underneath the event, though, is something more purposeful. This is a fundraiser, and an important
one. Big Burns Supper continues to play a significant role in the cultural life of Dumfries, delivering work that is ambitious, inclusive and rooted in community. Events like this help to sustain that work, ensuring it can continue to grow and evolve in the years ahead.
As Kirsty Adamson from Big Burns Supper reflects, “This is about more than just one event, it is about keeping something special going for Dumfries. Big Burns Supper has always been rooted in community, creativity, and bringing people together.” That sense of continuity, of building on what has come before while looking forward, is central to what the organisation does.
There is also something important in the scale and format of the event itself. Not every cultural experience needs to be large or formal to be meaningful.
An afternoon gathering, shared food, music and conversation, these are the building blocks of a creative community. They create space for connection, for participation, and for people to feel part of something.
At its heart, Bonkers Bingo offers a simple invitation, to come together, to take part, and to support the future of Big Burns Supper as it looks towards 2027 and beyond. In doing so, it reflects the wider role that culture plays in Dumfries and Galloway, not as something separate from everyday life, but as something that is lived, shared and sustained collectively.
For more details about the Bonkers Bingo, visit Big Burns Supper
Recently, I had the honour of attending the COVID-19 Day of Reflection 2026 Parliamentary Reception at the House of Lords, representing Dumfries and Galloway as part of the UK wide programme of Covid memorial projects. The invitation, extended to us through the Scottish Government, brought together contributors from across the country who have been involved in creating spaces for reflection, remembrance and collective healing following the pandemic.
The Day of Reflection, marked on Sunday 8 March 2026, recognises the lives lost, the impact felt across communities, and the extraordinary efforts of those who worked to protect public health. It also acknowledges the ongoing responsibility to learn, to listen and to strengthen how we respond to future challenges. Being present at this national moment, within a space of such significance, was both moving and grounding.
DG Unlimited was invited to represent the work developed in partnership with Greenspace Scotland and the Scottish Government: Dumfries and Galloway’s Dispersed Memorial Forest. This project spans five sites across the region, each one open and free to visit, offering quiet, accessible places where people can spend time, reflect and remember.
What makes the Dispersed Memorial Forest distinctive is its scale and its approach. Rather than a single site, it is held across landscapes, shaped by the character of each place and by the communities connected to them. Managed by DG Unlimited alongside partners, the project has been created through collaboration, with local artists, community voices, and lead artists dr t s Beall and Katie Anderson responsible for its creative development.
At the reception, hosted by the Minister for Culture Media and Sport, there was a shared understanding of the role that creative practice has played in responding to the pandemic, and continues to play in our health and wellbeing. These memorials create space for reflection and connection and acknowledge experiences of loss and pain that are often difficult to articulate. The memorials around the UK sit within everyday environments, inviting people to return in their own time and in their own way.
Representing Dumfries and Galloway in this context was a great honour. It was an opportunity to ensure the work happening in our region is part of a wider national conversation, and the voices and experiences of our communities are recognised alongside others across the UK.
There is a quiet strength in projects like the Dispersed Memorial Forest. They do not seek to define how people should feel but instead offer a place to pause. In doing so, they remind us that remembrance is not a single moment, it is something that continues, shaped by time, place and shared experience. The project was completed in 2023, and yet, we can see that it is still of relevance and importance to our government, not just to us here in this region.
Read more about the Dispersed Memorial Forest.
A small, carefully preserved object has found its voice again. After more than a century of silence, a Burns family flute has been restored and played in public once more, offering a direct and resonant connection to one of Scotland’s most significant literary families.
The instrument, a four keyed German flute made of boxwood by Gerock of London in the early nineteenth century, once belonged to James Glencairn Burns, son of Robert Burns. Held within the Ellisland collection since the 1930s, it has long been recognised as a rare and important artefact, but until now, it had remained unplayable. Years of exposure to soot and everyday life, from a time when Ellisland was still a lived in home, had left it fragile and deteriorated.
That has now changed. Supported by funding from the Pilgrim Trust and the Association of Independent Museums, the flute has undergone a careful and considered restoration. Conservator Lydia Messerschmitt of Phoenix Conservation led the work, alongside early flute specialist Robert Biglio, who carried out the technical repairs. The process involved cleaning and oiling the wood, repairing the original keys, and recreating worn elements using historically accurate references from other Gerock instruments. What has emerged is not simply a repaired object, but a working instrument, capable once again of being heard.
Its return to sound was marked at a special event at the Blackie House Library and Museum. There, flautist Claire Mann performed alongside Robyn Stapleton and Wendy Stewart, bringing the instrument back into musical life. The programme drew from The Ellisland Songbook, including Auld Lang Syne, John Anderson, My Jo, and Ye Banks and Braes, songs written during Burns’s time at Ellisland in Dumfriesshire.
DG Unlimited Trustees and team members were fortunate to experience the flute being played live earlier this year at the Theatre Royal Dumfries, performed by the same trio of gifted musicians. Hearing the instrument in our own region, in the hands of artists so closely connected to the work, brought a particular
immediacy and deep meaning to the experience. It was a moment where heritage, art and performance came together in a way that felt both intimate and powerful.
Hearing these works played on an instrument so closely connected to the Burns family creates a different kind of encounter with Burns’ heritage. It shifts something from archive to experience. As Joan McAlpine of the Robert Burns Ellisland Trust reflected, ‘the instrument offers a tangible link to the family, and to the possibility that music, like poetry, was part of daily life at Ellisland’.
There is something powerful in that idea. That an object, once handled, played and set aside, can return to us restored, beautiful and being played. It speaks to care, craft, and the value of investing in restoration as preservation alone and a sense of renewal.
We look forward to more performances with the Flute at Ellisland, to be heard again in the landscape that shaped Burns’s work. For another chance to gather and listen to a precious reminder that our cultural heritage is not fixed in the past, it continues to live and be shared.
To visit and support Ellisland, The Home of Auld Lang Syne visit: https://www.ellislandfarm.co.uk/
Published recently in DG Life, Tabi Mudaliar shares thoughts and images from a visit to Kirkcudbright Galleries.
If you’re looking for a genuinely special day out in Dumfries and Galloway, I can’t recommend Kirkcudbright Galleries highly enough. I recently visited the two exhibitions currently on show, ‘The Galloway Hoard: Rock Crystal Jar’ and ‘Common Ground: The Living Landscape’. What started out as a Saturday afternoon with friends turned into a day of ‘Oohs and Ahhs’ and we came away feeling inspired, moved, and (in the best way) in awe of what is right here on our doorsteps, free of charge and available for all to see.
Let me tell you about, ‘The Galloway Hoard: Rock Crystal Jar’. This exhibition is outstanding. There’s something powerful about being in the presence of an object that has survived intact, hidden in its earthly hidey-hole, undetected through centuries while the back and forth of life and the turmoil of change went on above ground. The Rock Crystal Jar survived, hidden for all that time, and then re-emerging to tell its story. And what a fascinating story it is. The Crystal Jar is breathtaking, beautiful and ornate. We all marvelled at the mysterious wee pot sparkling in its case. Its display and the interpretation have been
done thoughtfully and creatively by the Kirkcudbright Galleries team. They share a story in visuals, animation and there is even a 3D digital rendering visitors can access via a QR code which lets you get up close to the Jar, understand what it might have been and how it was found, and to take in the fine detail and stunning craftsmanship. It’s the kind of exhibit which makes you pause, take a breath, and remember just how extraordinary our local heritage is, and how fortunate we are to have a space like Kirkcudbright Galleries in our region, capable of exhibiting world-class and rare artefacts.
The highlight for me - and I acknowledge my passion always centres around visual art, film and storytelling in some formwas the brilliant animation created by D&G animator, Dylan Gibson who is a member of the DG Council Graphics team. It’s excellent, and you must go and see it. This short animation is informative, engaging, and brings the story of the jar to life for all. It adds a unique layer to the exhibition, connecting past and present in a fresh, accessible way. Bravo, Dylan!
On the 2nd floor is, ‘Common Ground: The Living Landscape’. The thoughtfully curated artworks on display fill the exhibition with atmospheric texture, a true sense of nature and our place within it and showcase the excellence we have in arts & crafts in our region. This is landscape as lived experience, all shaped by memory, weather, work, and wonder, and influenced by thought, care and a deep understanding of the environment and how and why we should protect it. The exhibition offers a creative exploration of the land beneath our feet, and I love how it celebrates both the familiar and the unexpected. Don’t leave without a closer look at 9 pairs of underpants, it’s a unique artwork by Ted Leeming and was my favourite amongst them all. This is the kind of show which makes you look, and think, and take a different view of the world outside when you step back onto the street.
On the way home, what really struck me is how important exhibitions like these are, not just artistically, but culturally and economically. Kirkcudbright Galleries is hosting signature events which bring visitors here from outside the region, and that matters. These exhibitions help put our corner of Scotland on the map, supporting local tourism, local creatives, and our cultural ecosystem.
You must go, take a friend or bring the family. Make a day of it! And most of all, support the Galleries because what’s happening there right now is something to be proud of.
Visit Kirkcudbright Galleries
Common Ground: The Living Landscape, Jan 31 10:00 am - May 10 @ 4:00 pm
The Galloway Hoard: Rock Crystal Jar, 8th Nov 2025 10:00 am - 14th June 2026 3:30 pm
I Swear has just been added to Netflix and it’s one I would recommend watching. Not necessarily for the writing, or even all the performances (some of the Scottish accents aren’t quite there), although Robert Aramayo, who plays John, gives an incredible performance, it’s really the story at the centre of it. The film is based on a true story and follows John’s life as someone living with Tourette’s. It’s a human, nuanced and often very moving story.
What feels most important is how it brings awareness to Tourette’s in a way that feels honest rather than sensationalised. It was only when the incident happened at the Baftas, and people were so unforgiving, that I began to realise quite how uneducated some people still are. That is why I’m recommending it. It feels important that we watch, support and talk about work like this.
It’s not one for sensitive ears as there is a lot of swearing, but that feels rooted in truth rather than for shock. The message is stronger than the film itself at times, but it’s an important watch and one I would still really recommend.
I recently saw the National Theatre Live Screening of The Audience at the Fullerton Theatre, and it’s a brilliant reminder of how powerful theatre can be, even when experienced on screen.
Written by Peter Morgan and performed by Helen Mirren, the play imagines the private weekly meetings between Queen Elizabeth II and her Prime Ministers across her sixty-year reign. These conversations were never recorded, so the play offers a fictional glimpse into what might have been said behind closed doors, moving between different moments in history and different relationships.
What I found most compelling is how deceptively simple the concept is. At its core, it’s a series of conversations, but within that, you get shifts in power, personality and time that are incredibly precise. It becomes less about politics and more about the person behind the role, and how that shifts over time.
It’s also a masterclass in performance. Helen Mirren holds the stage with such control and subtlety, and the transitions between ages and moments feel seamless. It’s the kind of work that reminds you how much can be done with very little, when the writing and performances are working together so clearly.
If you get the chance to see it through NT Live, I highly recommend it. It’s a brilliant example of how theatre can feel both intimate and expansive at the same time.
I’ve just finished Slow Horses on Apple TV+ and absolutely flew through it. My boyfriend and I ended up watching all five seasons in the space of about two weeks, which tells you everything you need to know.
It’s a spy drama, but not in the way you might expect. The story follows a group of MI5 agents who have all, in one way or another, messed up and been pushed to the side into this forgotten department called Slough House (named because they’re so far from the action they might as well be in Slough). What follows is a mix of high-stakes espionage and complete chaos, with a team that are often as dysfunctional as they are capable.
What makes it so enjoyable is the tone. It’s funny, sharp and doesn’t take itself too seriously, whilst still managing to build real tension when it needs to. Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb is particularly brilliant, completely unpredictable, slightly disgusting, and somehow always the smartest person in the room.
It’s the kind of show that’s very easy to keep watching, one more episode turns into three, and suddenly you’re halfway through a season. If you’re after something fun, fast-paced, and character-driven, this is a great one to dive into.
Finally, if you’re looking for something to go and see in person, I would really recommend exploring this year’s Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival. Running from 21 May to 14 June, the programme spans the whole region and offers a real mix of work, from theatre and music to visual arts and community events.
What I love about the festival is that there genuinely is something for everyone, and it creates an opportunity to experience high-quality work right on our doorstep. It also brings a real sense of energy to the region, with venues and spaces coming alive in a way that feels both exciting and accessible.
Festivals like this are vital. They support local artists, bring communities together, and make space for people to encounter work they might not otherwise seek out. If you can, have a look at what’s on, book a ticket, and go and support something. You might just find your new favourite artist, or experience something you wouldn’t have chosen otherwise.
Hi pop pickers this issue’s listen inns are of the dissonant instrumental variety. I make no apologies for my liking of cough, ‘modern composition’ which the three records below fall into that category. A certain Creative Director likens it to a left side/right side brain thing. I’m convinced. I’ll pick some Fall and Ivor Cutler next time for those in need of lyrics and the semblance of a ‘tune’.
Jonny Greenwood who has a line in olive oil as well as side hustle with a band called Radiohead also has an impressive film soundtrack discography.
‘One Battle After Another’ is a superb addition - Paul Thomas Anderson never misses with his composers* and this dissonant score with its huge tonal shifts is a fine example. *see also Jon Brions’s score to ‘Punch Drunk Love’, a brilliant movie starring comedy genius Adam Sandler.
- William Basinski ( Temporary Residence )
This is a huge box set of basically the same sound edits ( 5- 10 sec duration ) that go on for hours. I’ve only listened to the first half hour, but it’s been on repeat for daily walks, it’s an ambient classic - faint praise, but really, please, have a listen. Don’t buy the vinyl box unless you have a deep masochistic collecting urge - get the CD box if you are a hard copy fan or a stream from Bandcamp/Qobuz/Tidal.
Soon as I saw this on the Monorail Records mailer, I was in. The record is a collection of Autechre covers from their mid 90’s run of albums with something resembling a tune (Incunabula’ ‘Amber’ ‘LP5’) played on a nylon string guitar in a finger picking style - unlikely, but really works. I dare Shane Parish to play in Autechre’s hometown, Rochdale.
Also : Ivor Cutler Tribute Show & Songs of the Shintytribe — OLD SCHOOL THORNHILL
Trib acts aren’t my bag. I’ve never fully recovered from Radioned, an early noughties trib act that if it wasn’t for the rough zider (those who know, know) I would be a PTSD sufferer. HOWEVER anything that presents Ivor Cutler to a new audience gets my vote - Cutler along with Lynn Ramsay, Arab Strap and James Kelman have nailed post war Scottish life. Get into it and get along to the Old School - they’ve done a cracking job and turned a miserable institution into a nice venue.
Follow Dumfries Music Collective and Big Red and his merry band who work hard to give D and G fab new music old boys like me have no reason to like at all, which makes the DMC programme and mission even more relevant and worthy of your attention.
As ever: please support record shops and online sites where the artist gets the £££’s - Tidal, Qobuz, Bandcamp. Hopper Records in Dumfries and Monorail Records, Glasgow are good shops with nice staff and decent stock.
Regular readers of FOCUS and my friends all know -there is always a small stack of books by my chair, and by my bed. A few remain half read, some returned to several times, other titles patiently awaiting their turn to be read. This time I have chosen three books that have stayed with me in very different ways. Each offers something unique, in form, voice, and how they invite us to look at the world and ourselves with care and a little more closely.
Roy
Arundhati Roy writes with a clarity and precision that feels both grounded and expansive. Here latest collection of essays brings together reflections on politics, identity, power and resistance, but she never makes her writing feel abstract. Instead, her works are rooted in lived experience, in belonging, and in a deep sense of justice, or injustice, depending upon how you look at things.
What I admire most in this work is its courage. It asks difficult questions and does not look away. At the same time, there is a tenderness in how Roy holds complexity, allowing space for contradiction and uncertainty. It is a book that asks you to slow down, to think, and to stay with ideas that do not resolve easily. This is another book to return to over time. Also, I love the image of Roy on the cover – a beautiful India woman, enjoying a smoke. Glorious!
Title: Mother Mary Comes to Me
Author: Arundhati Roy
ISBN: 978-0241673884
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2025
Kiran Desai’s writing is precise, observant and quietly powerful. This novel explores relationships, migration and identity with a sensitivity that is intimate and expansive in its approach. The characters are carefully drawn, their lives unfolding in with complexity and often unresolved emotion.
There is a stillness to Desai’s work that I find compelling, and while it took me a little while to settle with the book, I am getting there. This is a slow red for me, but I am enjoying it as a turn the pages. Desai allows space for reflection, for the unspoken, and for the small moments that shape larger narratives. It is a book that stays with you, not because of dramatic events, but because of how deeply it understands its characters and the world they live in. I invite you to read along with me.
Title: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
Author: Kiran Desai
ISBN: 978-0241622660
Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
Year: 2024
by Reuters photojournalists
This is a book I will keep coming back to. It is not something you read from cover to cover in one sitting, but something you spend time with. Page by page, it offers moments, captured in real time, that reflect the complexity, fragility and intensity of life across the world.
What makes this collection exceptional is its honesty. These are not distant images, they are immediate, often uncomfortable, and always human. There is a quiet discipline in photojournalism, being present, observing, and capturing without interference, and this book holds that beautifully. It reminds me of the power of visual storytelling, and the responsibility that comes with it. Photography is one of my favourite artforms, and reportage photography is an art of story telling all on its own.
Title: In the Moment: 40 Years of Reuters
Photojournalism
Author: Reuters
ISBN: 978-0500970945
Publisher: Thames and Hudson Year: 2015
I also want to take a moment to acknowledge two special poets much closer to home. Alycia Pirmohamed’s Another Way to Split Water is a collection I am delighted to own, and I look forward to discussing the poems with Alycia who takes up her residency as the Dr Gavin Wallace Fellow, later this month. It is a thoughtful, precise and beautifully crafted collection of poetry. We are also very much looking forward to the forthcoming poetry collection from our friend and local poet, Hugh MacMillan. His new collection is launching on 30th April at the Coach and Horses in Dumfries, a date to note in the calendar. Watch our socials for more news on this launch.
As always, these are just a few choices from my bookshelf, chosen for how they have made me pause, reflect and look again, and because to me, they are a continuation of this issue’s themes of connection between communities, people, and their ideas, regardless of where they live or where they come from.
Enjoy!
DG Unlimited’s vision is to shine a light on the excellence which is continually demonstrated within the creative and cultural sector in Dumfries and Galloway. Our readership goes far beyond this region, we’re proud to have readers all around the UK and beyond. DG Unlimited is the operational arm of the Dumfries and Galloway Chamber of the Arts and we are a registered Scottish charity and a membership organisation. We are proud to be one of four founding members of the Dumfries and Galloway Cultural Partnership and to strategically represent the creative sector of Dumfries and Galloway as we work with our partners in the region, in Scotland and the UK for the benefit of our members and the creative and cultural professionals and activities here in our region.
Visit dgunlimited.org to find out about how to become a member, to join our Talent Pool, and to see all the latest news and opportunities.
To contribute to FOCUS magazine, please email our FOCUS editor, Creative Director, Tabi Mudaliar, comms.dgu@gmail.com
Acknowledgements: DG Unlimited would like to thank all the contributors and everyone who has contributed to the making of this magazine. And, to extend our gratitude to Dumfries and Galloway’s creative community for helping to make our region such a vibrant, culturally active, and creative force in Scotland.