Our Dark Nights: a new community archive for the Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park
Our Dark Nights is a creative research project initiated by Natalie Marr and Mirjami Lantto Klein that will create a new physical archive about the Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park and the region’s internationally recognised dark skies. Together with communities of place and interest, the project will gather together artefacts, reading materials, oral histories and artworks that celebrate the rich cultural and ecological heritage of dark skies in this region. 

Not only will the archive inform and celebrate these things, but it will also foster new relationships with natural darkness, the night sky and nocturnal environments. It will be an important community resource for local residents and stakeholders, but will also have resonance beyond the Dark Sky Park, being of interest to researchers, artists, planners, environmental practitioners and anyone who wishes to learn more about our nocturnal world and reconnect with the wonder and richness of the night-time.

 
 

How you can get involved...


Make an entry- submit an object, image, story... that captures something about your relationship to dark skies and landscapes - you can interpret this as freely as you like!

Suggest a reference- is there a book, piece of research, an artwork, film or song that you’d like to access or link to from the archive’s reference library?

Collaborate with us on an archive event! Set up a call or invite us to your school, community space, studio or business to explore the different ways that this archive might support or link with your activities and interests.

Connect with us online via Instagram @ourdarknightsarchive


What we’ve been up to so far...


Visiting the Michael A. Lang 35mm slide collection at Newton Stewart Museum in December 2024

Workshop at Glentrool Hive, April 2025
Workshop at Glentrool Hive, April 2025
Test slide Ektachrome 100: Mirjami Lantto Klein and Natalie Marr 2024
Test slide Velvia 50: Natalie Marr and Mirjami Lantto Klein 2024
Test slides on display with homemade lightboxes at Glentrool Hive soft launch event, April 2025
Visitors at Our Dark Nights soft launch event at Glentrool Hive, April 2025
Test slide Velvia 50: Natalie Marr and Mirjami Lantto Klein 2024
Archive detail at Our Dark Nights soft launch event at Glentrool Hive, April 2025

Archive detail at Our Dark Nights soft launch event at Glentrool Hive, April 2025 (Credit: Heather Nelson)


 

   

 

This project has been made possible with funding from the Hope Scott Trust and a Visual Artist and Craft Maker Award bursary (Creative Scotland).

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© Natalie Marr 2024