Artists selected for The Bridge Awards Residency 2026 at Cove Park
We are delighted to share with you the six artists who have been selected for the 2026 Bridge Awards Residency at Cove Park. This residency is designed for artists based in Scotland whose careers have been impacted by a breast cancer diagnosis and who have undergone successful treatment and are up to five years in remission. The applications were open to people based in Scotland, at any stage of their creative career, and working in any art form or creative discipline. The aim is to provide the artist, writer, creative practitioner, or researcher with time and space to reconnect with their practice, and to do this within the peaceful, supportive, and inspiring context of Cove Park and its national and international residency programme.
The Residency will include music and wellbeing sessions led by Lesley Howells, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Maggie’s Lead Psychologist and members of the Scottish Ensemble.
We’re delighted to confirm that the six artists taking part this year are: flautist and music producer Shona Brown , writer and researcher Jo Clements , theatre maker, performance artist, and researcherLori Delaney , multidisciplinary artist Susanne Nørregård Nielson , writer Gillian Shirrefs and multidisciplinary artist researcher Deniz Uster .
We would like to thank the cancer charity Maggie’s for their help in setting up this award and for their participation in the 2025 residency, along with Scottish Ensemble . We would also like to thank Dr Olga Oikonomidou and Liz Barling for their input as consultants on the project.
2025 RESIDENCY:
The 2025 Residency took place from Monday 19 May – Thursday 29 May 2025 and included a workshop led by the Scottish Ensemble.
The five artists who took part this year were: artist and creative facilitator Jo Arksey visual artist Jackie Bell digital artist Alison Clifford filmmaker Diane Devlin and writer Catherine Simpson.
Here’s what they had to say about their time at Cove Park:
Jackie Bell: ‘I was working on a large installation for Hidden Doors in Edinburgh at the time of the residency but that could not make it to Cove Park in my suitcase alas. Instead I focused partly on experiencing and reacting to the environment around me using found materials: sheep’s wool, plant material augmented with clay and paint. I intended to use the time to be reflective about the experiences of the last few years and use the space and support for some creative “play” and renewal. It was wonderful to have a studio next to me, warm and flooded with light overlooking Loch Long. A real treat. I always tend to begin by making small intuitive models and some of the results of my explorations will be the foundation of future work I have no doubt.
Thank you to the Bridge Awards, Cove Park, Maggie’s and the Scottish Ensemble. The residency was a healing and numinous experience. It was great to be with other women artists who had all had huge challenges, in a liminal space where we were free from domestic responsibility and the other intrusions on life and creativity. It creates a space for understanding and friendships to grow and perhaps be open to new paths. Never forgotten.’
Alison Clifford: ‘Although I had initially planned to work on a project I have been working on for several years, I ended up working on a new project that was influenced by the location and surroundings of Cove Park. This involved digital interpretations of maps and photographs of the area together with photographs of flora and fauna that were combined and collaged into 3D abstract landscapes with subtle traces of the emotional experience of my breast cancer journey woven through the images. Working on something new at Cove has helped me move forward and feel inspired and motivated to continue with this new direction and new processes. The methods and techniques I used at Cove will also breathe new life into the work I had originally planned to complete.
I think each member of staff, and I mean every person I met that works at Cove Park, helps to make it an even more special place.’
Diane Devlin: ‘During the residency, I worked on journals I had gathered over a thirty-year period. Reviewing and curating the material, I was helped with some tech support from Alex Marrs. I also worked and made a further draft of a screenplay for a TV Pilot. I found the whole atmosphere at Cove Park from the team, to the surroundings, to my wonderful pod, to the spaces in the Jacobs building, and to my fellow artists blissful. The word/phrase which encapsulates my experience is a soulful and sacred journey, and I needed that as looking over the journals was at times challenging. To be able to create and be creative, to play and be energised in nature.
My time at Cove Park has given me a renewed confidence in my creative abilities. A deeper belief in my storytelling and in myself. I have more courage to do more in terms of reaching out for further opportunities, and I am writing with more energy.
I felt very privileged and blessed to be part of The Bridge Awards Residency. From the moment I drove to the building (nervously) to the moment I drove away (sadly) – I felt wrapped in cashmere metaphorically with the care and kindness of the team, the workshops and the beautiful and mystical surroundings. We connected as a group, and we connected with other artists. If we needed anything we only had to ask. I hope one day to come back to Cove Park. Blessings to the team and to the women who provided the opportunity for us to have the residency. It’s more than an artist’s residency, for me it was a spiritual retreat and awakening. I felt ALIVE and powerfully creative at Cove Park.’
Catherine Simpson: ‘Cove Park was the perfect place to get away from real life and concentrate on the book I was editing. I was not tied to the lives of others – I could start and finish in the day when it suited me. I could sit and stare, contemplate and write. I could get company when I wanted it and solitude when I needed it. The experience emphasized how important a spell of concentrated single-mindedness can be, and it could not have come at a better time for me. I wanted the residency to act as a sort of ‘refresh’ button – and I really think it did. It was wholly positive and nourishing and indeed life-affirming and life-changing. The people I met were lovely and I will stay in touch with them. It was and will remain a life highlight.’
Jo Arksey: ‘It’s good to be inspiring others to make art again with the Travelling Gallery but also, I’m really wanting to continue where I left off at Cove as it has opened up that creative need big time. We 5 residents are all keeping in touch!’
‘tenter’; Jackie Bell 2023, oxidised steel, textile, salt (courtesy of the artist).
