When open, a window can be music, birdsong, laughter. A window is connections to different possibilities. They bring a world closer, they show us how to reach. A real source of inspiration for the original sanctuary garden were stories and poems from the area’s historical and industrial past: One poem, brought to a workshop by…

Boghall Primary School, St Columba’s Primary School, Boghall Parish Church, Boghall Drop in Centre and Leylines are working together to bring the local community a fun, creative and social day for all the family in 4 venues around Boghall. Come along and enjoy the activites on offer.

This was the first day that Viva Boghall welcomed new people to the activites on offer throughout March. Noon to 1pm was a free lunch of homemade soup and bread made by Patrick, Anna and Dorothy, then from 1 to 3pm people can stay on and join in the various activities on offer. We were…

This week Trevor, Jan-Bert and Renee were in the kitchen to prepare lunch. After a morning of chopping & sweating vegetables and kneading dough, a nourishing offering of Scotch Broth, Broccoli & Stilton Soup and lovely savoury Scones appeared. In the meantime the different creative stations were set up and ready for people to try…

A busy morning of roasting vegetables, baking bread and blitzing parmesan, pine nuts and basil, resulted in a lovely lunch of roast pepper soup with a dollop of pesto and fresh slices of the best soda bread. With all feeling well fed the focus soon changed to carving wood, sowing together colourfull materials, drawing out…

This was the last week of ‘lets throw everything at it’ as Urszula, one of our participants said at the start of this adventure. Over the last four weeks we have built momentum, gathered new ideas, got people interested in what they wanted to see happen and had some nice food along the way. Its…

Come and join us. Have some food and try your hand at the different activities on offer, or perhaps you have hidden talents that you would like share with us……

We asked Peter Johnstone to make a special issue of Slush Poppy to help document the 5th Exit festival at Howden Park. Slush Poppy is a zine he has been making since 2018, it usually covers art, music and anything of interest.We think you will enjoy this latest edition!  

The 5TH EXIT exhibition was accompanied by a series of workshops and events expertly led by the artists. They wanted you to have the opportunity to join in and be part of a growing network of likeminded communities who are open to new experiences and supportive of each other’s potential.    The purpose of involvement…

In the last two years we have all found new ways of connecting and creatively occupying our time. Computer screens were taken over by the talking heads of Zoom and WhatsApp became our new best friend. Fifth Exit presents the work of a group of artists who devised their own ways of keeping in touch…

Sitting round a large table, listening to impromptu playlists selected by the different artists in the group, while making things, is very conducive to good chat, getting the ideas flowing and strengthening friendships. The 5th Exit artist have been meeting up in the Howden Park Centre artists’ studios for the last two years and through…

The work on display has been shaped by social interaction, especially gatherings based around food – but then, most of us are more likely to go along to something if there is food involved! These interests have very much influenced the pieces that artists Jo and Urszula have skilfully created. Over the past months Jo…

We have really enjoyed pulling together 5th Exit. It has been a joy to see the artists’ work on display, and we have loved meeting people and making new friends through the public workshops and events. Everything we do is about that social interaction and as the artists and participants have so clearly said: “It…

Howden Park Centre | April – June 2022 The Fifth Exit exhibtion presented the work of a group of artists who devised their own ways of keeping in touch to share ideas, make work and create positive strategies for wellbeing during the lockdowns of the pandemic. The exhibition content changed every two weeks and was…

In April 2018 we worked with our sister project ‘Curious Routes’ in Edinburgh to bring a series of month long activity to Broxburn United Sports Club’s ‘Alive and Kicking’ group.  We developed a programme of activity that would feed into common interests in the environment, keeping fit and creativity. A varied programme of walking, bird…