Culture Collective
Culture Collective is a network of 26 participatory arts projects, shaped by local communities alongside artists and creative organisations.
Bringing together partners from the northern and western islands, The Creative Islands Network is a Culture Collective programme which will explore ways of working together, supporting artists and embedding the arts within communities. All the projects aim to provide opportunities for people to connect with each other and focus on wellbeing in relaxed, fun and creative ways.
Culture Collective is funded by Creative Scotland and run in partnership by An Lanntair (Lewis and Harris, Outer Hebrides), Pier Arts Centre (Orkney), Shetland Arts (Shetland) and Taigh Chearsabhagh (North Uist, Outer Hebrides). The Creative Island Network aims to build connections and share experiences and ideas between creative practitioners and project participants across our islands.
Image: Last Days at Gudden, 2019, Berenice Carrington.
Dates
2021 – 2023
Project Subject
Community
Partners
Creative Scotland, Pier Arts Centre (Orkney), An Lanntair (Lewis and Harris, Outer Hebrides), and Taigh Chearsabhagh (North Uist, Outer Hebrides)
Location
Across Shetland
Culture Collective Projects
Culture Collective 21/22
Shetland Arts are pleased to announce the creative practitioners delivering activities and projects across Shetland as part of Culture Collective for the year 21-22.
Pockets Full of Positivity – Christina Inkster
Christina is hoping to work with participants in care centres across Shetland to create individual handkerchiefs, embellished with positive messages and decorations, which can be combined into a large-scale tapestry, which will tour care homes and other locations at the end of the project.
Aeropuerto – Kristi Tait
Residents at the Walter and Joan Gray Care will jet off to new destinations, and visit family and friends through creativity and imagination with Kristi in her Aeropuerto project. In addition, recognising their contribution, hard-working staff at the centre will have the opportunity to delve into some fun-provoking creative sessions.
Wance apo a time… – Alex Purbrick and Jane Cockayne
In Yell and Whalsay, Alex and Jane will work intergenerationally between elder care centres and primany school-age children, and with the primary school in Sandness, to share local folklore and stories and create new ones through written and visual arts as part of their project.
Finding Our Voice – Alice Ritch
In Bigton and the South Mainland, a wide variety of folk – from parent and toddler groups to older folk living independently or in care settings – will have the opportunity to take part in collective music and song making sessions as part of Alice’s work. The project will culminate in a sharing and performance event and the creation of a song book containing old and new material for continued use.
Gathering Strings – Aimee Labourne
In Gathering Strings, an intergenerational project between history societies and primary school-aged children will take place across Bressay, Lunnasting, Burra and Northmavine. Aimee Labourne and participants will explore the theme of connectivity in Shetland, past and present. They will undertake research and create artwork that can be exhibited in heritage centres and community museums for the Summer 2022 season.
Still Lives – Heather Christie
Family, personal assistants and unpaid carers have had a particularly difficult time during the Covid-19 pandemic, and Heather’s workshops offer a chance for caregivers to relax, reflect on and share their experiences through painting, drawing and collage.
Sheltered – Berenice Carrington
Bus shelters are familiar beacons in Yell’s landscape. What if these shelters were a portal to another world? Berenice will be working with local folk to map their interior worlds that blossomed during the crisis of the Pandemic. With them she will trace the landscapes they walked, close to home, during lockdown. Maps of these landscapes will decorate Yell’s shelters, inviting you to explore these worlds.
Glöril – Helen Robertson
Helen will be travelling to every inhabited island in Shetland – except the Mainland – to create work with communities. Together Helen and workshop participants will explore lace knitting techniques, using a variety of materials to create unique lampshades, and enjoy connecting and making things together again after pandemic restrictions have kept us apart for so long.
Culture Collective 22/23
Shetland Arts are pleased to announce the creative practitioners delivering activities and projects across Shetland as part of Culture Collective for the year 22-23.
Pocket Beats – David Boyter
Young people living in the Northern Isles and the North and West Mainland will have the opportunity to get creative with micro-synths – small, ultra portable music devices capable of producing a wide variety of sounds, that can be used singly or combined together to create a ‘band’. Young people don’t need to have any musical experience to participate and a mix of in-person and online sessions will introduce people to the exciting potential of electronic music creation.
Seafield Art Project – Berenice Carrington
What will Seafield (Yell) look like in 100 years time? Young people will explore the area of Seafield using play as a tool for mapping and creating, thinking about it’s past and present uses, and create a vision for it’s future. Participants will create and install sculptural ‘avatars’ of themselves and of the features of this future place and create a sci-fi comic about their dreams and ideas for Seafield. The project will culminate in a futuristic parade of guizers through Seafield, with a book produced to record the project.
Embrace – Jane Cockayne
Working with Ability Shetland, this project will celebrate neurodiversity, and capture a variety of lived experiences in the words and images of young neurodiverse people. Together the young people will make a film, and create a pack of activities that focus on sharing and celebrating individuality in a fun and gentle way.
Kiln Connections – Niela Nell Kalra & Katie Leask
Students at the Bridges Project will explore design and learn the fused-glass making process with Niela and Katie. Participants will explore composition, colour and function, getting more comfortable with experimenting and testing out processes and ideas before developing their own glass pieces, both individually and collaboratively.
FILSKIT – Helen Robertson
Building on a previous project, Helen returns to 9 outer isles of Shetland, to deliver a two-day workshop in Fizzy Fair Isle knitting. Workshops are open to all, regardless of experience, with the focus on making confident design decisions to suit personal tastes. The activities also aim to provide opportunities to consolidate friendships and connections, whilst islanders spend time together making.
Past project