Events and Activities

Exhibition and launch of the Song for Stranraer

2 July 2022 12.30pm–3.30pm

What We Do Now artists Hope London and Rory Laycock have worked with the Stranraer community, through the Stranraer Millennium Centre, for the last ten months on a participatory art project, shaped by the local community, which has aimed to reimagine a future for the historic harbour town.

The culmination of Hope and Rory’s work will be the delivery of an audio-visual manifesto for change, that they hope will continue to inspire the inhabitants of Stranraer and foster empowerment and confidence in the future of the town.

Comprising of an original song with accompanying video and one-day celebration event including an exhibition of works, including some generated by the public though engagement with the Stranraer Colouring Book – What Could Happen Here, the manifesto is based on the thoughts, aspirations, challenges, and frustrations of the local community and aims to shine a light on the possibilities for the future of Stranraer.

“The development of a song for Stranraer has been an important aspect of my creative approach to this project, inspired by the amazing feedback gained from the community consultation and engagement work Rory and I have carried out over the last ten months. A song can be an anthem and can bring people together and this song, quite literally, gives voice to the subject of this project, and I hope the aspiration expressed within the song will inspire much needed change, particularly with regard to deteriorating buildings that have so much history and future potential”.

What We Do Now Established Artist for Stranraer – Hope London

“Building trust within the community has been central to our approach, engaging with a wide variety of people to explore the new ways of looking at the town, our aim with this project is to inspire not only the towns people but also the local authority and Scottish government to look at public spaces in a new way and inform changes in policy that will encourage investment in towns throughout Scotland and in particular to look at the opportunities to develop disused sites for the community.”

What We Do Now Emerging Artist for Stranraer – Rory Laycock

This project is one of 26 taking place across Scotland involving artists, creative organisations, and is funded by Scottish Government’s emergency COVID-19 funds through Creative Scotland.