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Nordic Viola at Birnam Arts
Sun 14 Jun
Nordic Viola String Trio | Auditorium
14:00 - 16:00
Doors Open 13:30

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Chance Operations

Chance Operations Poetry Workshop with Martine Foltier Pugh

9 November 2024

A Birnam Book Festival Fringe Event, Chance Operations with Martine Foltier Pugh will appeal to aspiring and practising writers and artists alike. In the course of the workshop, you will learn how to pick words randomly from newspapers and books and how to present your findings. You will take home your own blackout poems that are visually striking works of art in themselves and some fresh ideas to develop further.

Words inspire Martine, in a playful way. ‘Chance Operations’ is called after Dada and the Surrealists who were fascinated by Freud’s study of dreams and the subconscious.  They experimented with simple techniques to generate text randomly and independently of the author’s control and rational thinking.  ‘Letting go’ feels liberating when everything else we do is about making hard choices. The process becomes meditative and brings about strangely evocative and uncanny juxtapositions, little poetic nuggets even, surprising and otherworldly.

    glide wonderful doubt  -  arching choice in shallow summer  -  soft despair never so true 

Of French and Italian heritage, writer and artist Martine Foltier Pugh grew up near Paris and has lived in Scotland since her early twenties.  She writes about art and artists, notably Scottish colourist Marj Bond. Her visual practice is text based. She is a member and regular exhibitor with the collective Heartwood Artists, has run a series of concrete poetry workshops during an artist residency in Abbeyhill primary school in Edinburgh and earlier this year gave a Chance Operations workshop in Birnam Arts.

 

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Links to our Cafe, opening times and directions.

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Other Events This Month

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Every third Tuesday

Knitting and Fibre Arts Club

Arts Workshop   |   Studios   |   19:00 - 21:00
Knitting and Fibre Arts Club at Birnam Arts
Every Thursday

Handbuilding with Clay

Arts Workshop   |   Studios   |   12:30 - 14:30
Handbuilding with Clay at Birnam Arts
Sat 4 Jul 2026

Introduction to Lino cut workshop

Arts Workshop   |   Studios   |   10:30 - 15:30
Introduction to Lino Cut Workshop with Lisa Speirs-Fleming at Birnam Arts
Sat 18 Jul 2026

Introduction to Drypoint Printmaking

Arts Workshop   |   Studios   |   10:00 - 16:00
An Introduction to Drypoint Printmaking with Hetty Haxworth at Birnam Arts
Map showing Birnam Arts and conference centre in Scotland

Opening Times

Box Office
Open periodically throughout the week | Book online 24/7


Cafe
Daily | 10 - 4



Birnam Arts
Station Road
Birnam Dunkeld
PH8 0DS
admin@birnamarts.com
Tel: 01350 727 674

Entrance

Welcome to Birnam Arts, a boutique multi-purpose arts, conferencing and entertainment venue.

Highlights

Pop in to the Foyer Cafe for breakfast, grab a delicious coffee with a selection of our homemade baking or enjoy a light lunch whilst browsing on the free WiFi. Wander upstairs to view the latest of our monthly art exhibitions before visiting the world of Beatrix Potter, or the Gift Shop to purchase a special gift for your loved ones or yourself!

Star Star Star Star

A lovely welcome. Keep on flourishing.

Alan Reid   |   Birnam Book Festival 2018

Beatrix Potter Garden

Opening times

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Star Star Star Star Star

My alternative office, my morning cup of coffee, the place where we run our workshops, meet friends, come to concerts ... Without Birnam Arts our community would lose a bit of its soul.

Jamie Jauncey   |   Crowdfunder #savebirnamarts 2020

  • Entrance

  • Kinnaird

  • Cafe

  • Beatrix Potter

  • Shop

  • Gallery

  • Studio