A presentation was held in Gairloch High School multi-purpose hall on Wed 27th April, to promote the Ceangal project which will bring 10 international visual artists to the NW Highlands in September 2012 to create a variety of art works and interact with the artistic and local communities.

This project is the brainchild of Lynn Bennett-Mackenzie, an artist living and working in the NW Highlands of Scotland.

An idea inspired by talking online to artists who had attended symposiums in other countries, the seed grew after her own experience on an international symposium she attended in Elabuga, Russia in August 2010.

After this, Lynn made many connections thro social networking media and this led to a conversation with Somu Desai, an artist working in Gujarat, India. He has been involved a similar project in Rajahastan, so the decision was made to collaborate, pull ideas together and create a project that would fit the environment in north west Scotland.

Instead of rural based artists and people mainly having to travel to see art, the intention is to bring an art experience to the area which will benefit many, as well as the local community as a whole.

Lynn has gained support from Hi-arts, the local estate, SNH, and the community council amongst others. The presentation was very well received and Ceangal will now move onto the next stage of development, which includes an exchange trip with Somu Desai, who plans to visit in September 2011 and whilst here will give another presentation.

If you would like to know more, or help support the project, please contact Lynn on 1445 712389, or follow the blog on the internet for updates.

Source: Lynn Bennett-Mackenzie