Looking Ahead

The Moffat Gallery, 21 Well Road, Moffat DG10 9AR

At our 'mopping up' meeting last night at The Moffat Gallery www.themoffatgallery.co.uk we looked back at how 'Beyond the Garden Gate' went, and ahead to our next events.  As a fledgling organisation we depend on enthusiastic volunteer organisers, local sponsorship and the support of our community. With this in mind, for our first event next year, 2013, we are going to focus on what people actually go into the Moffat bookshop to buy: crime fiction. More immediately, we are exploring the possibility of holding an evening at The Moffat Gallery thinking about the Weaver Man - a patient who spent his time making whole suits of clothes out of grass - , celebrated most recently by Chrys Salt in a book out on July 6 2012. This September 14-17 2012 we will be taking a long hard and expert look at 'Russia: Lessons and Legacy'. We are very lucky to have Alan Thomson a well kent figure for many years on the D&G arts scene to steer us through this exciting departure, including through such tide races as visas for our many Russian delegates all of whom are looking forward to visiting the same places (such as Moffat's the Black Bull Inn) as their hero Robert Burns, and the place where 'Ossian' wrote his fake epics (Moffat House). Efforts from now on will be devoted to recruiting volunteers to help us 'on the day' (or three days) and to keep the budget from emulating that of Greece, Spain and others too numerous to mention. For the first time, for this event, Moffat Book Events will be working in partnership with Moffat Academy, who will be holding a 'Russian Day' in the week before the event, so lots to look forward to.