Artful Migration Artist-in-Residence Announcement

This year we are delighted to be continuing our partnership with Moving Souls Dance to deliver the fourth Artful Migration Residency. The residency offers artists a unique insight into the migratory birds of Dumfries & Galloway through partnership working with local nature reserves and the opportunity to create new work in response.

This year the focus of the residency will be expanded to encompass a unique habitat, in the temperate rainforest of Galloway, highlighting the rich biodiversity the woodland supports.This year’s programme partners are the Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere and RSPB.

We are excited to announce that the 2026 artists-in-residence will be Coulson & Tennant. Saskia Coulson and Colin Tennant are an artist partnership based in Dumfries and Galloway. Their lens-based practice blends genres of documentary and fine art and is rooted in visual storytelling, environmental engagement, and activism. Through their work, they aim to connect communities and audiences by depicting fragile ecosystems and raising awareness of the critical environmental challenges they face.

“We are delighted to have been selected for the Artful Migration residency and to have the opportunity to spend time researching and responding to Galloway’s temperate rainforests. These rare and fragile habitats support extraordinary biodiversity, yet remain relatively unknown, and this project offers a vital chance to explore their ecological and cultural significance through an artistic lens.

Working in close partnership with writer and naturalist Stephen Rutt, we will combine still and moving image with creative non-fiction to create work that brings together scientific knowledge, lived experience, and emotional connection. Our aim is to produce work that not only raises awareness of the challenges these rainforests face, but also invites audiences to slow down, observe, and develop a deeper relationship with these landscapes.

We are particularly excited to collaborate with local partners and communities, and to share the project through exhibitions, publications, film, and educational resources that can reach both local and international audiences.” (Coulson & Tennant).

You will be able to follow Coulson & Tennant’s progress via the Upland blog page over the coming months.

The project is funded by Creative Scotland