SFRM 2024
Spring Fling Rural Mural (SFRM) returns!
See the brand-new mural at Spring Fling 2024.
SFRM returns in 2024 celebrating 10 years since the project was established. This time with a large-scale mural in the west of the region!
We are delighted to deliver another year of SFRM in partnership with Recoat, the Argyll-based street art duo. This year’s project focuses on the west of our region and the coastal town of Stranraer.
Recoat have paired up with local visual artist Jennifer Buchanan to paint the wall of the Boathouse in Agnew Park, Stranraer.
The design of the mural has been heavily influenced by Stranraer residents through various public engagement sessions and meetings with town groups.
Visit at Spring Fling
Mural Location:
The Boat House, Agnew Park, Stranraer, DG9 7JZ
What3Words: computers.glass.heads
Access & Parking:
The mural can be accessed via a tarmacked path around the building. Free parking is available at Agnew Crescent Car Park.
What’s On:
Information on what to expect/what’s on during Spring Fling weekend coming soon!
The Artists
Recoat & SFRM
In 2007, artists Amy Whiten and Ali Wyllie founded Recoat; an arts organisation that specialises in contemporary urban art. Creating and curating exhibitions and mural projects, undertaking commercial design
commissions and community art education programmes in Scotland and abroad.
Recoat first partnered with Upland to create Spring Fling Rural Mural in 2014. This saw 6 murals being painted across the region, partnering international mural and street artists with Dumfries and Galloway artists to bring high quality mural art normally seen in urban areas to rural south west Scotland. The project received a great response from residents, visitors and the media. For the artists, it was about collaboration, exchanging skills and new experiences.
In 2016, SFRM returned, led by Recoat, to do a mix of murals in D&G and beyond. With collaboration and exchange at its core, the project saw 3 D&G artists pair up with international street artists to paint 3 murals in D&G and three outwith the region (Newcastle, Glasgow and Berlin).
This year, our focus is community-based and centre around Stranraer. Recoat with be leading on the project, bringing their invaluable experience to the painting and the community engagement. They will pair up with local artist, Jennifer Buchanan to develop their ideas, talk to the community, deliver design-generating workshops, and merge their creative styles to create an incredible artwork for the benefit of the community.
Find out about Recoat and their previous work by visiting their website:
Jennifer Buchanan
Jennifer Buchanan (nee Hastie) is a local visual artist living and working in Stranraer.
Jennifer grew up near the WWII airstrip, West Fruegh, surrounded by abandoned watch towers, ground-shaking from target practice along the beach, burned-out planes, and telecommunications systems. Her work naturally began to focus on the obsolescence of one of the most significant historic periods in human history; looking at buildings, machinery, and technology that was once vital and is now forgotten. This obsession with history and the preservation of its memory evoked the idea of legacy, i.e. when we leave this world, what is left and who will remember, and led Jennifer to explore this in her work. Focusing on local history that has disappeared, been distorted or that was not documented and will naturally be forgotten in years to come, Jennifer is interested in producing work that could withstand time and preserve images for posterity to focus on the connection we have to places, people and the memories they hold.
The Wall
We are delighted to be working in partnership with Stranraer Water Sports Association to paint the mural for this year’s SFRM.
The mural has been painted on their Boat House in Agnew Park in Stranraer and is a great addition to the area. This image shows the wall before the mural was painted.
Stranraer Water Sports Association (SWSA) is a membership organisation supporting the community to engage with the coast and to learn new skills. Find out about SWSA by visiting their website here:
https://www.stranraerwatersports.com/
Work began in April and was completed in May. We hope you will come and view the finished mural as part of Spring Fling Open Studios, 25-27 May 2024.
Engaging the Community
Hearing from and engaging with the local community is at the heart of this project as the mural must be appealing to both residents and visitors so we invited the public to input their ideas, tell us about what is important, and help create the mural artwork.
In the lead-up to the painting of the mural, we held a series of engagement sessions, some of which have been arranged to connect with specific groups and some that were open for the wider public to attend for free. The sessions are as follows:
29th January 2024:
Creative Stranraer Visioning & Actioning Meeting – A public consultation and presentation of project and gathering of ideas (now passed).
Friday 8th March:
Stranraer Academy – a full day of workshops with 180 S2 pupils (now passed).
Saturday 9th March:
Public engagement session at The Boat House, Agnew Park (now passed).
Saturday 9th March:
Workshop with Urban Collective at the skate park (now passed).
