Cluran Project - School visits, Heritage Events, Storytelling, Heritage Crafts, developing quality formal volunteering and business opportunities.

Our main areas of activity to 31st January 2026 continued to be Cluaran and The Quartz Partnership projects. We have continued to consolidate this part of Wordsmith Crafts activity. We continue to support the Galloway Longfhada Viking reenactment group (a charity registered in England and Wales) and a highlight of this year was arranging a special event with them for New Scots by arranging connections, transport a venue, volunteer support, and translation services. We have provided 9 school visits in D&G and the central belt this year. Through Cluaran Simon makes his studio available for drop in Making Space sessions and for artists to develop their skills. One activated member in particular has developed her hobby into a small enterprise Rowena Cottage.


Quartz project – using visual arts to help people explore, understand, and express spirituality. - Sensing Spirituality activities drawing on the Christian heritage of Scotland.

As well as the core Quartz activities of meeting as a CLC House group, providing assemblies for Dumfries High School and running Forest Church services we have also provided artist support for the contemporary service at St Johns. We ran a series of Faith and Art sessions with St Michaels church of Scotland. This developed into a storytelling session for doors open day and a pattern of working which will be of use to other congregations in Dumfries. We continued to work with H.E.S. creative Caerlaverock programme through participation in the Queer Caerlaverock events. The Canopy of Stars installation in St Johns also deserves special mention.

Wordsmith Crafts C.I.C operates an open communication policy with it's own volunteers and regular meetings take place with the Rector of St John's Dumfries. For local schools and voluntary groups, consultations are carried out on an event by event basis.

Following consultation with St John's Dumfries, Wordsmith Crafts C.I.C collaborated with the Church to stage art work for the duration of Lent and Easter, using visual arts to help people explore the themes from their Christian Heritage. We also worked with congregation members and the wider community to install a canopy of stars for Christmas, displaying how this heritage can be accessed by the whole community.

A series of Faith and Art sessions were led by Wordsmith Crafts C.I.C in collaboration with St John's Dumfries and St Michaels Church of Scotland. An invitation from The Stove Network led to participation in Queer Caerlaverock as part of Historic Environment Scotland Creative Caerlaverock, with the aim of shifting perspectives and socio-historical experiences of sexuality and gender identity/gender non-conformity, real and imagined to help bridge the gaps that exist in the representation and understanding of queer heritage. We built connections and contributed to the design of a piece of art to be installed at the castle.

Wordsmith Crafts C.I.C has also responded to enquiries from another 10 schools which unfortunately did not result in a booking. The most common reason given for this was a lack of funding. Following internal consultation with our own freelancers and volunteers, the price of a school visit was reduced in order to keep the price per pupil to a consistent level and where possible we also group visits together to lower overheads and travel costs. This has made school visits remote from our base possible and also visits to smaller schools more affordable.