Youth dance residency

Friday 27 – Sunday 29 July 10am-3pm each day
Young people will have the chance to develop their contemporary dance technique, learn Rambert repertoire and create a short piece of choreography which will be shared with family and friends on the final day. Open to young people aged 11-17 years with an interest in dance.

Beginners’ contemporary dance classes for adults

Friday 27 July Session 1: 6.30 – 7.30pm / Session 2: 7.30 – 8.30pm
Brand new to dance? Do you want to learn something new with others who have never taken a dance class? These fun classes are aimed at newcomers to dance and all you need is enthusiasm! Suitable for adults (18+)

Family contemporary dance workshop

Saturday 28 July 3.30-5.30pm
A chance for families to discover contemporary dance together, the class will include warm-up games as well as the chance to learn a short piece of fun Rambert repertoire. Suitable for families with children aged 5 and over. No previous experience required.

Please email if you would like to register for places on any one of these three exciting activities and we will forward a registration form: jennydunoonarts@gmail.com

Source: J Saich

The renewed Gaelic Plan 2012-15 sets out HIE’s aims and ambitions for Gaelic over the next three years and details how these will be achieved through specific actions. It builds on the progress made in the organisation’s first plan which covered the period from 2009-12.

Members of the public can now read the draft Plan at www.hie.co.uk/gaelicplanconsultation  and take part in the consultation until Friday 15 June. The final version will be presented for consideration by Bòrd na Gàidhlig by 29 June.

Supporting Gaelic is at the heart of HIE’s remit for economic and social development in the Highlands and Islands. An important element of the Plan is a commitment to capitalise on the significant opportunities arising from the language’s potential contribution in helping to drive economic growth in the HIE area.

Support from HIE has helped create and sustain the impact of numerous organisations which enable Gaelic to flourish – from partner agencies such as Comunn na Gàidhlig and An Comunn Gaidhealach, to the University of the Highlands and Islands through Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, to Fèisean nan Gàidheal and others.

The renewed Gaelic Plan aims to further develop and enhance the role that Gaelic identity and culture plays in creating vibrant, resilient communities and sustainable economic growth.

HIE values Gaelic and promotes its use within the organisation. By providing its services, information, resources and opportunities in the medium of Gaelic, the agency intends to serve Gaelic-speaking customers in their own language.

The draft Gaelic Plan for HIE looks to promote the Gaelic identity of the Highlands and Islands and demonstrate equal respect to both Gaelic and English – a key element of the legislation protecting the language and the rights of its speakers.

HIE is required by the Scottish Government to draft and implement a plan which contributes to securing a sustainable future for the language.

Source: HIE communications team

Are you ready to Crowdfund?

HI-Arts, the cultural development agency for the Highlands and Islands, is visiting Argyll in May to deliver a series of Crowdfunding workshops and 1-2-1 sessions for professionals and individuals working in the cultural, creative and heritage sectors. On the 29th and 30th of May the team will visit Oban and Dunoon to offer specialist advice and support in the areas of Crafts, Visual Arts, Heritage, Music, Writing, Marketing and Audience Development.

What is Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is a modern, online and interactive way to raise funds for your projects and activities directly from the public – or the Crowd. With the advent of Crowdfunding we can now turn our audiences into supporters and funders, by collecting multiple small donations online and offering unique incentives to encourage giving. Not only can you raise funds to get your project off the ground but you can also start to create a ‘buzz’ around it before you start.

The Crowdfunding workshop will cover all the aspects you will need to create, implement and market your project. The workshop is suitable for all individuals, organisations and professionals who work within the cultural, creative, heritage and arts sector.

1-2-1 Sessions

Join colleagues and fellow creative people, meet HI-Arts staff to discuss your professional development, your future plans and get advice on a wide range of topics – tea and coffee provided. There is the opportunity to book a 1-2-1 meeting with Audience Development Manager, Sian Jamieson; Talent Development Manager, Craft, Pamela Conacher; Project Development Manager, John Saich and Talent Development Manager, Writing, Peter Urpeth.

Where will the Hit Team be?

Tuesday 29th May 2012: Oban – Corran Halls

• 10am – 1pm Crowdfunding Workshop
• 10am – 1pm 1-2-1 sessions
• 1pm – 3.30pm HISEZ Networking Lunch www.hisez.co.uk
• 2pm – 4pm 1-2-1 sessions

Wednesday 30th May 2012: Dunoon – Dunoon Burgh Hall

• 10am – 1pm Crowdfunding Workshop
• 10am – 1pm 1-2-1 sessions
• 2pm – 4pm 1-2-1 sessions

Booking information

To Book your place with the Hit Team please click on the appropriate link to our event registration (you can book for both the Crowdfunding workshop and 1-2-1 sessions).

Book your place in Oban here (http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3422975211)

Book your place in Dunoon here (http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3423067487)

For more information about the event and for booking information please visit

http://hi-arts.co.uk/services/business-development/hiarts-hit-team-visits-argyll-this-may/

If you have any queries regarding these events then please feel free to contact Avril at HI-Arts on avril@hi-arts.co.uk or call 01463 720886.

Source: HI-Arts

The band’s harp player, Ailie Robertson, explains: “We have chosen two charities, one in the UK, and one in Ireland.  The choice for the UK was inspired by the title of the song, so we have gone for the Mountain Rescue, who do such a wonderful job without any subsidy and offer mountain rescue any day, any hour, any weather.  In Ireland we have opted for the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children,  which as well as offering services to children, also aims to improve relationships between parent and children.  That’s also a nice link to the song, which is about family. We really wanted a mix of charities that would reach as many people as possible, and I think we’ve achieved a great blend.”

The song, The Mountain Road, is a traditional Irish song and was arranged by the band.  It is one of the tracks from their forthcoming album Flash Company. Norah Rendell, singer and flute and whistle player in the band, explains: “We chose this song for the single because on our recent tour, it was the one that everyone was always singing.  Bands we met on tour got it stuck in their heads, and audiences would always sing along.

The new single is a digital release and is available from – Itunes, BandCamp, CDbaby, and Amazon.  The band are touring in the States in April and early May and then in the UK in May.

Ailie Robertson continues: “It would be fantastic if we raise lots of money for the charities at the same time as raising the profile of traditional music.  We’re hoping that people will see the 99p for the single as a cheap way to support the charities and they get a lovely song too!”

The Tour Dates

10 May            Queens Hall, Edinburgh

11 May             The Byre Theatre, St Andrews

12 May             Moniaive Folk Festival, Moniaive, Dumfries and Galloway

13 May             City Halls Recital Room, Glasgow

15 May             Poolewe, Wester Ross, West Coast Arts

16 May             Irvine Folk Club, Irvine

18 May             The Maltings Theatre, Berwick

22 May             St Andrew Blackadder Church, North Berwick

23 May             Eden Court Theatre, Inverness

24 May             Aros Centre, Isle of Skye

25 May             Skippinish Ceilidh House, Oban

26 May             Lyth Arts Centre, Lyth

The Band

A stunning synthesis of virtuosity and energy, The Outside Track’s marriage of Canadian, Scottish and Irish music and song has been rapturously received around the world. Hailing from Scotland, Ireland, Cape Breton and Vancouver, its five members are united by a love of traditional music and a commitment to creating new music on its foundation. Using fiddle, accordion, harp, guitar, flute, step-dance and vocals these five virtuosos blend boundless energy with unmistakable joie de vivre.

Each player within The Outside Track is a master of their chosen instrument with the band stacking up an impressive amount of international awards. This amount of talent alone would be enough to recommend the band but in this case the end result is so much greater than the sum of the parts.

The line up comprises Norah Rendell (Canadian Traditional Singer of the Year nominee),  Mairi Rankin (Beolach), Ailie Robertson (Live Ireland Winner, BBC Young Trad Finalist),  Fiona Black (BBC Fame Academy Winner), and Cillian Ó’Dálaigh.

The band have enjoyed 5 years of extensive touring in the UK, Europe, Canada and the USA, including appearances at Celtic Connections, Celtic Colours, Goderich, Mission, Memoire et Racines, Sidmouth, and Whitby Festivals

Source: The Outside Track

The production was recently remounted and performed at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow as part of Celtic Connections 2012.

May 2012 touring to:

1 May Perth Theatre

2-4 May Eden Court Inverness

5 May Glengarry

6 May Mountstuart Isle of Bute

8 May Craignish

9 May Cove Burgh Hall

10 May Byre Theatre St Andrews

11 May Dundee Rep

12 May Cumbernauld Theatre

15 May An Lanntair Stornoway

16 May Rosehall

17 May Eastgate Theatre Peebles

18 May Woodend Barn Banchory

19 May Tolbooth Stirling

22-23 May Traverse Edinburgh

24 Druimfin, Mull

25 May Taynuilt

Written by Hamish MacDonald, directed by celebrated actor and director Alison Peebles, featuring the sublime singing of Alyth McCormack, 2009 CATS Best Actor Matthew Zajac, and two of Scotland’s finest traditional musicians, Jonny Hardie and Ingrid Henderson, the play follows the seminal twists and turns of Highland composer Captain Simon Fraser (1773-1852) as he attempts to win fame by publishing his tunes. In order to gain the favour of elitist Regency society he is compelled to remove the Gaelic verses, often of Jacobite and anti-Royal sentiment. Meeting Captain Fraser in advanced age he is visited by the ghosts and dreams dwelling within the pages of his collection,  transported among the legends of the music and back through his own turbulent existence.

Source: Dogstar

Phil explains: “I started thinking about the word ‘Home’, at the time of The Homecoming. As an idea it became very rich. If you look across the room at someone- a stranger or someone you know well- Where do they come from? What was their childhood like? What does feeling ‘at home’ mean to them? What is their home like, their home life? What do they do there? What do they feel about where they live, their country, the government, their planet? These things are very central to who we are as people and who we are as a society. It captured my interest, so I found it a beautiful theme to create a show about.”

A musical journey carries audiences from the personal and domestic, through memories of childhood, our relationship with democracy, nationalism & war, to Planet Earth our collective home and beyond, at times with people’s thoughts, images and memories projected on screen. Technology in the home shows the future of music, with a star guest playing along live from their front room by Skype. The climax of the show has saxophonist Bancroft, his family and pets leaving Planet Earth in a 2nd-hand spaceship to start life on a new planet- accompanied by ironic pre-apocalyptic funk number “It’s Too Late Now, So Party On”.

The terrific 7-piece band, counts Instrumentalist Of The Year guitarist Graeme Stephen amongst the soloists, in music furnished with ECM melodies, homespun fiddle rounds, lyrical chamber music and George Clinton Funkadelia, but with a heart all of its own.

“We’ve been exploring this theme for the last two years. It’s such a fun show to play in – yet it touches on so many issues that people deeply care about, from identity, relationships roots, to politics, technology, the economy, and the environment. It’s very moving to see the thoughts and memories of people, and the way they combine with the music.“ says Phil.

Get readers involved: They can watch videos from the show, upload what ‘Home’ means to them in text and images – and see what others have said at www.smallastheworld.com. Submissions are used in video projections during live shows. The tour is supported by Creative Scotland.

Small As The World Band:

Phil Bancroft- Saxes

Aidan O’Rourke- Fiddle

Felicity Provan- Trumpet

Paul Harrison- Piano

Graeme Stephen- Guitar

Mario Caribe- Bass

Stu Ritchie- Drums

Tour Dates:

Corran Halls, Oban Weds 25th April 8pm

Woodend Barn, Banchory Thur 26th April 8pm

The Tolbooth Stirling Fri 27th April 8pm

The Queens Hall Edinburgh Sat 28th April 8pm

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Skye Sun 29th April 7.30pm

An Lanntair Stornoway Mon 30th April 8pm

Eden Court Theatre Inverness Tues 1st May 7.30pm

All ticketing info on www.smallastheworld.com

Source: Phil Bancroft

Crouchte is a high quality, selected showcase, where cutting edge designer-makers are given the opportunity to sell their work directly to the public within an exciting new pop-up gallery in the Eastgate Shopping Centre, Inverness, providing a unique shopping experience and widening audiences for arts and crafts. The centre enjoys exposure to roughly 25,000 customers a day and the largest catchment population in Europe.

5 makers will be selected to take part in a two week showcase for their area. These showcases are back to back for 6 months.

There is a fee to take part but no commission, selected artist/maker keeps 100% of their sales.

Please email crouchte@yahoo.co.uk for an application pack or pass on to anyone you may know who might be interested.

Please state which region you are applying for in your message.

Regions:-

• Shetland
• Orkney
• Caithness
• Sutherland
• Ross & Cromarty
• Inverness-shire
• Skye & Lochalsh
• Moray
• Argyll & Bute

Visit the Hung Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hung-Inverness/205325119477900

Source: Hung

YOU know how it is. One festival leads to another.

I MET Giles Perring at the Edinburgh Storytelling Festival last year. I’d heard rumours of a music festival on Jura, famous for good spirit and an eclectic mix of music. But Giles was plotting a spring variation – a new Easter Festival which would have a basis in spoken and sung vernacular culture. But then it could go anywhere, on the theme of the spoken or sung word.

Ambrosia Rasputin (photo Douglas Cape)

Over the winter, I got a feeling of just how large the range of tide could be. Links and CDs and publications were swapped. So I was not shocked to find that this local Festival had the Canadian novelist Anne Michaels (Fugitive Pieces) as a headline performer. And it was a performance all right.

A comfortable small bus was filled and we were taken on a comprehensive tour of the parts of the Island accessible by a slim tarmac strand. When the rain relented we would step outside. Anne would read sections from her novel, The Winter Vault, which contains sections about engineering works and depopulation on Jura and in the Nubian desert. It’s now on order from Western Isles Libraries and I look forward to hearing more from this huge imagination, quietly but powerfully expressed.

The tour was a double act with the driver, married into a local family and presenting a counterpoint voice of contemporary politics and the economic climate. We were issued with tea and fine cakes on a west-side beach and there was time for the assembly to chat and compare reactions. I think it might have been what used to be called a “happening”. Suffice to say the word spread and the bus was again filled for a second day’s outing.

That first evening, Anne was joined by the singer-songwriter Alasdair Roberts and the Lewis performer Maggie Smith. As host, I could not shirk from telling the story of Breac, the Norwegian prince who attempted to anchor his ship three nights running in the Corrievreckan, in a trial of love. The moonlight was a theme of the weekend, with big tides running.

I’d heard Alasdair in the company of the poet Robin Robertson but I’d felt there were just too many layers for me to gain a clear focus. As a solo artist, he is powerful. The guitar playing is dynamic and the voice has something of the emotive wail that enters much vernacular music. In fact he has recently had a residency at the School of Scottish Studies, in Edinburgh. His lyrics are humane and finely made.

Maggie Smith alternated between Gaelic and English workshops and performances, over the weekend. She also swung between witty ditties and intensely moving storytelling. Her central piece was a monologue written by the Lewis-based Eric John Macdonald. A herring-girl, now with white hair, looks back on days of travel and a strange freedom within an economy which demanded grueling work. It was completely engrossing. The gathering then adjourned to the hotel where the writer James Attlee and the performance storyteller Katrice Horsley were primed to work under the moon.

Presiding moon (projection and photo Douglas Cape)

You could stroll outside and see the presiding force. A superb projection by Douglas Cape brought the full moon into the room. James Attlee writes reflective prose prompted by travel and by comparison. He is a man of ideas and, as we found, is blessed with a sustained Gordons-dry wit expressed in a fine speaking voice. It was all like Radio 3 in 3 dimensions. And then we were into Katrice, in full sparkling lunar corsetry, wailing with the wolves in Angela Carter and expounding sensual stories with the pace of a running pack.

Throughout the Monday, the pace slowed to a steady progression of events where visiting artists continued links with the local community. The quality of the various acts in community ceilidhs was high and the variety astonishing. There might be jigs and reels, a Gaelic song and then a gravel-voiced man took us to Leadbelly country with a medley of chain-gang songs that had all age-groups beating out the time.

Gary Cordingley (photo Douglas Caoe)

Islay High School’s success in the Film G competition was a factor in an eclectic mix of story-films screened in the hall, but my favourite was a 1 minute short made with Pimary 1 to 3 in Bowmore. It was the classic slice of life where anything was about to happen but nothing very much did. And yet you were held, waiting in the minute. Sean Martin and Louise Milne introduced their sensitive documentary, A Boat Retold, which is based on the analogy between a rebuild of a historic boat and the versions of any story. Andy Mackinnon’s Sruth na Fear Gorm matches expressionist seas around the Shiant islands with improvisations by Peter Urpeth and Maggie Nicols.

But the finale revealed just how wide the variations of the rhythms of spoken language could take us. I was mesmerised by the performance poetry of Ambrosia Rasputin (Ivor Kallin), improvising rants of wordplay between sketched lines that left him very little security. This was perfectly matched by Giles’ improvisations on percussion and guitar. But Giles’ key medium was also voice. It echoed far and wide.

We were all left with a perfectly told example of a timeless story. Gary Cordingley has been working with “The Whirlpool Team” in a Jura storytelling project recorded in a new book and dvd launched at the festival. His telling of the story of the baker who wanted to charge a poor lad for breathing in the smell of his bread was engaging and memorable. That spoken story will now go on that bit further than it did before.

© Ian Stephen, 2012

Links

• Tip of the Tongue
• Jura Music Festival
• Dougas Cape
• Ian Stephen

Blogging has become quite the social media phenomenon in the last 2 years. They’re a fantastic tool to be using for both marketing and promoting yourself, your artwork, your organisation, basically anything that you do, or it can also be a brilliant way of putting your thoughts and inspirations down into words, a creative journal if you like.

Below are just some of the creative Blogs I’ve come across recently.

If you have a blog you would like to add to this list please do contact me.

ARTS AND CULTURAL ORGANISATIONS

• Creative Cultures Scotland  – A place for creative practitioners to network and represent their skills.
• The Editorial - The Editorial: The Temporary Projects Season: Ruth Barker’s Blog
• Rowan Gallery - The Rowan Gallery in Helensburgh
• Craft Research -  Knowledge through making
• Craftspace - A Crafts Development Organisation
• Innovative Craft - The latest developments at IC: Innovative Crafts
• Caritas Music -  Music promoter, distributor, store and production company blog
• Creative Industries Shetland - Textiles and music in the North Isles of Scotland

 ARTISTS AND MAKERS

• Judy Scott Textiles and Mixed Media -  A Vintage Girl who just loves to create with fabric paper thread and paint
• Elizabeth McCrindle’s Art from Scotland - The journey of a Scottish artist, equine, canine, landscape and sporting art
• The Thoughts of An Artist - A blog from Ralph Taylor, a Fife based Painter
• Jan Patience Journalist and Art Lover – Blogs about the art she’s seen and artists she met on her travels in Scotland
• Lightstalker’s Blog – Glen Campbell – Highland based photographer
• My Minds Eye - A blog from an Edinburgh based artistic dabbler – Alexander J Blair
• Mad Cat Art Studio - A blog from Marion Boddy-Evans in Skye
• Tim Wootton - A wildlife artist based in Stromness, Orkney
• Lesley McInally Ceramic Art - A Scottish ceramic artist living and working in Canada
• Pure Art and Soul - An artist’s blog inspired by music, by dreams, by hope for a better world
• Feltsket - A crofter and textile maker in Shetland
• Austin Taylor Photography - Freelance Photographer based in Shetland
• Felt Addiction - A blog from maker Joni Phippin
• Home in the Highlands - A Midwest American transplanted to the Highlands
• Red 2 White - A self-taught designer-maker based in the Highlands
• Ebba Redman - Jewellery Designer who runs Tayberry Gallery in Perth
• Taking Time - A touring exhibition from Craftspace curated with Helen Carnac
• Text-Isles - Shetland’s Contemporary Textile Group
• Kerrianne Flett - Third Year Duncan of Jordanstone Art and Design Student
• Mary-Ann’s Cottage - Two artists inspired by the maiden voyage of the Westland in 1879
• Paper Boats - Documenting the Paper Boat Fundraiser and Exhibition to raise funds for Mary-Ann’s Cottage
• Joanne B Kaar - Journeys of an Artist in residency in Durness, Sutherland
• Timespan Artists in Residence - A place for artists staying with us to record their ideas, encounters and thoughts.

WRITERS & MUSICIANS

• Breathing Out - Occasional journal of Scottish writer and musician Clare O’Brien
• The Truth About Lies - A writer based in Glasgow
• Sea Penguin - The view from nowhere, to everywhere – or should that be the other way round?
• John Crosbie - Various bits of writing, opinions, plays, screenpalys, poems etc

THEATRE & DANCE

• Theatre in Scotland -  Theatre in Scotland aims to inform the theatre going public of Scotland which shows are playing around the country and when, with reviews, interviews and much more
• Scottish Ballet - Latest news from the Scottish Ballet
• Citymoves Dance - Dance news and opportunities in the North East

CULTURAL COMMUNITIES

• The Spill Blog - An open to all music and culture blog which originated from the Guardian’s Readers Recommended community
• Artists Talking - Artists Talking is a unique space to explore artists’ insights and perspectives on contemporary practice
• UK Handmade - UK Handmade is a design led online magazine committed to showcasing and promoting the best creative talent the UK has to offer

AROUND THE GLOBE

• Las Vegas Art and Culture - Arts and Culture from the other side of the pond
• Granny Sue – Storytelling, writing, life and all that intervenes based in the USA
• Writing, fishing and sesenach’s Scotland - A freelance writer in Staffordshire
• Natalie De Koning - A blog from an Aspiring Artist from the Netherlands

* We’ve recently changed our blog set up on Northings which means that some of the content on the ‘old’ audience development blog hasn’t been available recently. However, I’ve finally found some time to copy and paste the most important content across to the ‘new’ audience development blog.

Created: April 2010

Updated:

April 2011

April 2012

Try telling that to all those hardy, cheery, creative islanders!

Scotland’s Islands ALWAYS put on great activities, exhibitions and events and the coming 12 months will be full of music, dance, theatre, literature, food, never mind sport, traditional gatherings and celebration.

We  have a few listed on our web-site right now, but there’s many more already confirmed on their own sites, from Colonsay’s first ever Book Festival to Folk, Fiddle, Blues and Jazz Festivals on Arran, Shetland, Bute, Orkney, Gigha and Islay never mind the big ones like Hebridean Celtic Festival in Stornoway and St.Magnus Festival on Orkney and not counting the fabulous days and weeks of Sanday’s Soulka and the Unst Fest.

Here’s just a few between now and the start of May.

MAD DOG MACREA in concert
5 Apr 2012, Skye

With a fresh six piece and three albums, MAD DOG MCREA blend a unique mixture of folk, rock, pop, gypsy jazz, bluegrass and Irish music. From self penned songs of adventure, drinking, love and life to traditional songs of gypsies, fairies, legless pirates and black flies, Mad Dog never fail to capture their audience with their infectious songs.

Easter on the Gulden Leeuw Tall Ship
7 Apr 2012, Orkney Mainland

The celebrated Dutch class A Tall Ship Gulden Leeuw is returning to Orkney over Easter, offering six fantastic 3 hour day and evening sails from Stromness.

The sailing routes each day will be to the Old Man of Hoy on the daytime sails and to Scapa Flow on the evening sails. If the weather is inclement, then Scapa Flow will become the default route. Wherever you go, live music from local bands of notoriety, a buffet meal and 3 complimentary drinks will definitely be part of the experience.

Andy Cannon & Mull Theatre – SCOTA-LAND
12 Apr 2012, Mull

A cast of three actors and a musician bring you a wonderful storytelling performance!

The Isle of Mickle, a small Scottish island well off the beaten track, is famous for just one thing; “The Crown of Destiny”, a national icon on display in Scota-land, a museum and visitor centre. This simple but beautiful crown was worn by Scota, the ancient Egyptian princess, on the day of her wedding to Prince Gathelus of Greece, the legendary patriarch of the Scottish nation – or was it? The authenticity of the musuem’s most treasured relic has always been hotly disputed and no-one has been permitted to remove it from its plinth in 250 years…until now, that is…

Dolalay in Concert
17 Apr 2012, Skye

Emerging from the dirt and dust that is the Coachella Valley, USA, Indie Rock band ‘Dolalay’ climbed to the top of the local Alternative Rock Charts quickly, gaining recognition from local music fans and booking shows at the top venues in the area. Their debut EP ‘Days Like This’ joins together Scottish born Rebecca Connelly’s sweet tones and unparalleled melodies with unhinged rhythms, creative and dark lyrics to compile a genre-defining EP overflowing with Indie rock at its finest.

Shetland’s 32nd Folk Festival
3 – 6 May 2012, Shetland Mainland

The Shetland Folk Festival is the granddaddy of folk festivals! Every year sees yet another eclectic and innovative line up of visiting artistes.

The UK’s most northerly folk festival is a prestigious event for performers, locals and visitors alike. The festival’s “sessions” are amongst the best in the world and visiting artistes are regularly dumbfounded by the quantity and quality of local musicians that these beautiful isles have to offer.

For more information contact Scotland’s Islands,c/o Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Development Department, Sandwick Road, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, HS1 2BW  Tel: 01851 822693 Email: info@scotlandsislands.com

Project supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

Source: Scotland’s Islands

The Captain’s Collection is an acclaimed theatrical production, designed by Ali Maclaurin, and performed by some of Scotland’s finest actors and traditional musicians. It sees the return to Scotland of the sublime singer Alyth McCormack, CATS Award winner 2009 Matthew Zajac as Captain Simon Fraser, regular Dogstar artist Jonny Hardie as Musical Director and multi-instrumentalist Ingrid Henderson.

The story is set around a published collection of Highland music, the family inheritance of Captain Simon Fraser of Knockie. In the era of Sir Walter Scott and Waverley, when Highland Scotland was becoming viewed as the Romantic ideal of Europe, Captain Fraser attempts to win fame by publishing his Highland music. In order to gain the favour of elitist Regency society, Captain Fraser is forced to remove the Gaelic verses, often of Jacobite and virulently anti-Royal sentiment, from his collection to be presented as refined chamber pieces fit for the drawing room.

Visiting Captain Fraser in old age, as he draws his final breath, he is visited by the ghosts and dreams dwelling within the pages of his collection. Transported through the legends of the music itself and back through his own turbulent existence as composer, the British Army

Captain, dispossessed laird and imprisoned bankrupt, relives a story where ambition to succeed has been thwarted at every turn.

The triumphs and tribulations of Captain Fraser’s life are played out through a tapestry of moving and rousing tunes and songs that lie at the heart of traditional Gaelic and Scottish music. The music from the play was commissioned as a CD on the Greentrax label and highly acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic. The play was also adapted into an international award-winning radio series for BBC Radio Scotland. Dogstar’s recent productions include Sweetness by Kevin MacNeil and Matthew Zajac’s fantastically successful solo show The Tailor of Inverness.

The Captain’s Collection is a recipient of Creative Scotland’s Redistribution of Existing Work investment award.

For further information email daisy.ben@live.co.uk  or visit www.dogstartheatre.co.uk

Listings Information

Perth Theatre Tuesday 1 May 7.45pm
Box Office 01738 621 031
www.horsecross.co.uk
£10.50-£14.50

One Touch, Eden Court Inverness Wednesday 2 – Friday 4 May 8pm
Box Office 01463 234 234 online
www.eden-court.co.uk
£12/£10

Glengarry Community Hall Saturday 5 May 7.30pm
Tickets 01809 511220 & on the door

Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute Sunday 6 May 7.30pm (Doors open 7pm)
Tickets 01700 503877
Online events@mountstuart.com
£20/£10

Craignish Village Hall Tuesday 8 May 7.30pm
Tickets 01852 500 746
www.craignishvillagehall.org.uk

Cove Burgh Hall, KIlcreggan Wednesday 9 May 8pm
Tickets: 01436 842177 online www.coveburghhall.org.uk
Tickets £10

The Byre Theatre, St Andrews Thursday 10 May 7.30pm
Box Office 01334 475000
www.byretheatre.com
£12/£10/£8

Dundee Rep Theatre Friday 11 May 7.30pm
Box Office 01382 223 530
www.dundeerep.co.uk
£14/£12/£10

Cumbernauld Theatre Saturday 12 May 7.45pm
Box Office 01236 732 887
www.cumbernauldtheatre.co.uk
£9/£7/under 18s £5

An Lanntair, Stornoway Tuesday 15 May 8pm
Box Office 01851 708480
online www.lanntair.com
Tickets £10

Rosehall Village Hall, by Lairg Wednesday 16 May 8pm
Tickets 01549 441283 & on the door

Eastgate Theatre, Peebles Thursday 17 May 7.30pm
Box Office 01721 725 777
www.eastgatearts.co.uk
Tickets £13

Woodend Barn, Banchory Friday 18 May 7.30pm
Box Office 01330 825 431
www.woodendbarn.co.uk
£11/£9/£5 U16s in advance + bf . £12/£10/£5 U16 on the door + bf

Tolbooth Stirling Saturday 19 May 8pm
Box Office 01786 27 4000
www.stirling.gov.uk/tolbooth

Traverse Theatre, Cambridge Street, Edinburgh Tuesday 22 & Wednesday 23 May 7.30pm
Box Office 0131 228 1404
www.traverse.co.uk
£15/£11/£6

Mull Theatre, Druimfin, Tobermory Thursday 24 May 8pm
Box Office 01688 302 828
www.mulltheatre.com
£9/£6

Taynuilt Hall
Friday 25 May 8pm
Tickets Robin’s Nest & 01688 302 828
£9/£6

Source: Dogstar Theatre

presents

the spring exhibition

Opening on the 7th of april, resipole studios are proud to open their doors for the 2012 season.

This year promises to bring a treasure trove of great art to the gallery, and our inaugural exhibition for the year showcases a splendid selection of new paintings from our regular artists.

Come along and enjoy our opening preview on the 6th of april between 6pm till 8pm. There will be refreshments on offer

Should you be unable to make the opening night then just visit during the exhibition, which will be running until the middle of May.

Resipole Studios website

Source: Resipole Studios

Created by David Greig (Writer) and Wils Wilson (Director) with Designer Georgia McGuinness, and Composer Alasdair Macrae.

Cast:  Andy Clark, Annie Grace, Alasdair Macrae, David McKay and Madeleine Worrall

Following on from its phenomenal success and critical acclaim, both on tour and at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The National Theatre of Scotland’s The Strange Undoing Of Prudencia Hart is touring to village halls throughout Scotland from 10 April 2012; visiting Blair Atholl, Nethy Bridge, Edinburgh, Torry, Kippen, Crianlarich, Kilcreggan, West Kilbride, Carlops and Kelso; with an opening performance at the Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy on Wednesday 11 April.

The production will also appear at UK festivals; including the Norwich and Norfolk Festival, Mayfest, Bristol and the Brighton Festival.  The Strange Undoing Of Prudencia Hart will then tour the UK and internationally until 2013.  Full tour details to be announced.  The original cast and creative team have reunited for this year long tour.

PUTTING THE DRAM INTO DRAMA

Benromach Single Malt Whisky is delighted to announce that following their successful partnership with National Theatre of Scotland and their support of the production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, they will be back on board to sponsor the Scottish leg of the 2012 tour.  

Their sponsorship is part of Benromach’s venture into the arts and will enable each audience member in Scotland (18 years and above) to share a dram of Benromach Whisky during the show.

David Urquhart Joint Managing Director of Gordon & MacPhail, owners of the Benromach Distillery in Forres, said: “We’re excited to be continuing our sponsorship of the arts as The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart grows in popularity across Scotland and the rest of the UK. It’s a pleasure to be associated with such an individual and artistic performance, which we feel reflects many of the distinctive qualities of the various expressions of our malt whisky.”

One wintry morning Prudencia Hart, an uptight academic, sets off to attend a conference in Kelso, in the Scottish Borders. As the snow begins to fall, little does she know who or what awaits her there. Inspired by the Border Ballads – and delivered in a riotous romp of rhyming couplets, devilish encounters and wild karaoke – Prudencia’s dream-like journey of self-discovery unfolds among and around the audience.

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart takes theatre into pubs and other unlikely venues, where stories are told, re-told, sung and passed on. Audiences are invited to share a lock-in with the National Theatre of Scotland’s company of actors and musicians and to indulge in an evening of supernatural storytelling, music and theatre inspired by the Border Ballads, Robert Burns and the poems of Robert Service.

‘The bare rolling stretch of country from the North Tyne and Cheviots to the Scottish southern uplands was for a long time the territory of men who spoke English but had the outlook of Afghan tribesmen; they prized a poem almost as much as plunder, and produced such an impressive assembly of local narrative songs that some people used to label all our greater folk poems as ‘Border Ballads’. AL Lloyd, ‘Folk Song in England’

The National Theatre of Scotland sent writer David Greig, director Wils Wilson and composer Alasdair Macrae to an old pub in Kelso in the Scottish Borders for the weekend,  to research the  Border Ballads for a new piece of theatre. It was the coldest winter for many years.  Maybe it was the unique atmosphere in the pub that night, or maybe it was the knee deep snow outside, but no one wanted the evening to end, so at midnight the Landlord closed the doors and they found themselves “locked in”. Deep in the wee hours, one old man told a story about another group of people who’d come to look for songs a few years back and of how one of them, a woman, had never after been seen again. It was a story, which he said was ‘one hundred and ten percent true’ a story of love, of music and of the Devil.  This was the inspiration for The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart.

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart originally toured Scotland in February 2011 subsequently playing at Latitude Festival, Òran Mór, Glasgow, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2011.  The production has won two awards, a Critics Award for Theatre for Best Music and Sound and a Herald Angel.

Source: National Theatre of Scotland

The event takes place over the weekend 18 – 20 May 2012, from Aberdeen to Ayrshire and Skye to Stirling, there’s an ever-growing programme with more than 50 confirmed events so far Scotland-wide, and many of the events are free.

This year, visitors can enjoy some sleuthing at the Bell Pettigrew Museum in St Andrew’s; settle down to some wistful and wonderful Celtic fairy tales at the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens in Glasgow; discover Scotland’s ‘horrible history’ at the Falconer Museum in Forres, Moray; listen to Tosca in the National Galleries in Edinburgh or attend a Japanese tea ceremony at Dumfries Museum and Camera Obscura. From little ones to big kids, and young Einsteins to avid inventors – there’s something for everyone.

Festival of Museums is organised by Museums Galleries Scotland. Follow them on Twitter for the latest news: @FestofMuseums and join in using the hashtag #FoM12

Browse through the full line up at www.festivalofmuseums.com.

The programme includes a new group work Pavlova’s Dogs, specially created for SDT by Rachel Lopez de la Nieta. An experiment in watching dance, Pavlova’s Dogs is inspired by Pavlov’s theory and the choreographer’s interest in the humour you can find in the absurdity of human behaviour.

We recommend that the themes and language used in this work are only suitable for people over the age of 16 but leave it to the discretion of parents/guardians.  Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

SDT have offered an informal interval discussion for the audience during the interval to inform the audience about Pavlova’s Dogs and to discuss with the audience some of the themes and content.

Following the interval SDT present My Sweet Little Fur by Israeli choreographer, Idan Cohen, is a dialogue between a man and the hounds residing in him. An intelligent piece arousing questions about cultural behaviour opposite animalistic ones.

Audiences will also be treated to the choreographic skill and talent coming from within the company with performances of three new works created by SDT dancers: A Touch of Red, Love Games and All in the Grip.

Wednesday 28 March, 8pm.

Tickets £10 (under 18s £7).

www.sunartcentre.org

Source: Sunart Centre

The UK’s most unlikely cultural venue, the Burgh Hall in Dunoon, will present ‘Robert Mapplethorpe’, an exhibition of radical photography by one of the most iconic and controversial American artists of the twentieth century. The exhibition runs from 24^th March to 8^th July 2012.

Drawn from the ARTIST ROOMS collection of contemporary art given to the nation by Anthony d’Offay, and presented as part of the ARTIST ROOMS on tour with the Art Fund programme, the exhibition will travel on to venues in Linlithgow and Perth later this year as part of a special project to bring the work of this fascinating provocateur to parts of Scotland which seldom see contemporary art displayed in their galleries.

The Burgh Hall is the smallest and most unorthodox gallery on the Scottish Mapplethorpe tour, and this is the first exhibition by a major international contemporary artist to be presented anywhere in the West of Scotland. Funded and built by the people of Dunoon and once the centre of civic life in the small Argyllshire town, the Burgh Hall, completed in 1873, fell into disrepair in the 1960s and was only saved from demolition in 2009 by a local campaign and the intervention of the John McAslan Family Trust.

The architect John McAslan, born in the area and brought up in Dunoon, has led the redevelopment of King’s Cross Station, which opened to wide acclaim earlier this month. The practice is also renowned for its imaginative renovation of cultural buildings, including London’s Roundhouse and Bexhill’s De La Warr Pavilion. John McAslan and his wife Dava Sagenkahn have spear-headed the project to restore the Burgh Hall and establish it as the heart of the town’s public and cultural life, redeveloping it as both a cross-disciplinary arts venue and a multi-purpose community centre.

“Critical to the success of the project has been the unstinting commitment and energy of the people of Dunoon, in particular the work of the Burgh Hall Project Group under the leadership of Chairman Colin Macpherson”, said John McAslan.

Dava Sagenkahn of the John McAslan Family Trust said: “We could not be more thrilled to welcome the sometimes dark, often dangerous but always beautiful art of Robert Mapplethorpe into the programme at the Burgh Hall. Thanks to ARTIST ROOMS and the support of the Art Fund in touring the collection, we can now bring some of the most famous and challenging photographs of the twentieth century directly to the people of Dunoon and the wider community in Argyll, allowing an audience keen to explore and discover the best contemporary art to encounter this work personally and intimately.”

“Whilst to date the project has raised significant funding from national bodies and private fundraising initiatives, much work is needed”, said McAslan, “with funding applications due later this year to raise funds to complete the project by 2014.”

Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund, said: “Bringing the challenging yet seductive art of Robert Mapplethorpe to this distinguished Scottish seaside town is precisely the kind of bold exhibition we wanted to make possible when we sponsored the ARTIST ROOMS tour. There is an appetite for art everywhere in this country, not just in the big cities, and we’re really proud to be able to bring such important work directly to galleries that rarely have access to such work.”

EXHIBITION INFORMATION

ADDRESS: Burgh Hall, 195 Argyll Street, Dunoon, PA23 7DD, Scotland 
TELEPHONE:  01369 703302

EMAIL: info@burghhalldunoon.com

OPENING HOURS: Tue – Sat 12 – 5pm, Sunday 12 – 3pm, open Easter weekend

EXHIBITION DATES:  24 March – 8 July 2012

Antony D’Offay will be in conversation with John Leighton, Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, on Saturday 24. March at 1.30pm

Source: The Art Fund

Caroline Winn is currently General Manager of Hebrides Ensemble and a former Youth Music Officer for what is now Creative Scotland.

Formed from a partnership between An Tobar and Mull Theatre, Comar will be a creative hub for Argyll and Bute and will produce and deliver high quality professional theatre, music, dance and visual arts activities locally, regionally and nationally, as well as developing a wide-ranging community participation and education programme.

Comar aims to have an impact on the growth of the local economy, community development, skills, training and employment opportunities. Comar will work with a wide range of funding and creative partners, and will develop work across Argyll, as well as nationally.

Norman Quirk, Chair of Comar said: “We are delighted that Caroline will be joining Comar as Chief Executive. She brings a wealth of experience of the Scottish arts scene and is the ideal person to take Comar forward.”

Caroline Winn said: “It is a privilege to be appointed the first Chief Executive for Comar, a very exciting role to fulfil for this significant new organisation. I am looking forward enormously to building and developing this new creative hub on the Island of Mull, bringing together two established and highly respected organisations, An Tobar and Mull Theatre. With the creation of this important and unique resource for arts in Scotland, comes an artistic vision and a commitment to the community which I am sure will reach far and wide.”

Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive of Creative Scotland said: “Comar is an exciting new initiative for the Isle of Mull and the arts community in Argyll. Bringing together two already skilled and experienced organisations, the new organisation is a great opportunity for Argyll and has chosen a good leader in Caroline for its first Chief Executive.’

Source: Comar

Saturday 31 March, 10.30 to 4.30pm

The day will consist of an introduction to the exhibition with a talk looking at the work in depth, discussing the residency and approaches to making work from a specific place. This will be followed by a practical workshop where there will be chance to put into practice some of the ideas leading from the exhibition INCH KENNETH. Providing a step by step guide to how you look and generate creative research from the landscape of an historic site we will look at An Tobar itself and its origins as a school with materials from Mull Museum.

Everyone, including beginners welcome.

Cost – £25 with discount for members.

Includes all materials.

Please call us on 01688 302211

Source: An Tobar

Kosmos has received fantastic critical acclaim and Richard Morrison of the Times praises: “I’ve heard Kosmos several times now and love not just their unique mixing of Middle Eastern, East European and Western classical traditions but also their telepathic rapport, dazzling virtuosity, serious scholarship, intellectual curiosity and impeccable musicianship. I defy you not to be mesmerised.” Richard Morrison, The Times.

8th March, 8pm – Skye Arts Guild, St Columba’s, Portree, Isle of Skye

9th March, 8pm – Bute Arts Trust, Rothesay Academy, Rothesay, Isle of Bute

10th March, 8pm – Mid Argyll Arts Association, Ardrishaig Public Hall

11th March, 8pm – Cowal Music Club, St. John’s Church Halls, Hanover St., Dunoon

13th March, 8pm – Kintyre Music Club, Lorne and Lowland Church Hall, Long Row, Campbeltown

Source: Ikon Arts Management

The new release from legendary Dundee singer and songwriter Michael Marra performing with the backing band of his dreams – The Hazey Janes.

The Hazey Janes include Michael’s daughter Alice and son Matthew, with Andrew Mitchell and Liam Brennan. The family element makes this record, and the shows to promote it, a particularly special occasion.

Houseroom was recorded in An Tobar, The Tobermory Arts Centre by Gordon Maclean, and the 6 song ep will be released on March 19th on Tob Records.

March Argyll Tour:

Iona Hall – 22nd March (01688 302211)

An Tobar, Tobermory – 23rd March (01688 302211)

Easdale Hall – 24th March www.easdaleislandhall.org

Dunoon Burgh Hall – 25th March (01369 703302)

Source: An Tobar

‘A major force to be reckoned with’ Folk & Roots

‘Real rhythmic bite’ Living Tradition

‘Young Scottish Highland fiddler delivers uninterrupted quicksilver playing to leave you breathless and eager for more ****’ Songlines

Date: Friday 16th March

Time: 8.30pm

Tickets: £10/ £8 (members & under 18).

Please call 01688 302211 to book

Source: An Tobar

Meantime in the northern isles, there’s “A Time to Keep”. Musicians Lise Sinclair and Ástvaldur Traustasson perform a very special work in Lise’s home of Fair Isle and at stunning venues including Lerwick’s Town Hall (Shetland) and St Magnus Cathedral on Orkney.

So, that’s music on Skye and Orkney. There’s more on Lewis and Eigg. And then on Lewis and Skye there’s dance and theatre, on Arran those hardy bikers are still pedalling for all they’re worth and someone’s bringing the biscuits to market on Barra. Some bright spark has put Pop-Up Theatre on tour with two great comedy shorts showing at all kinds of venues including Mull and Iona.

March is going to be another great month on Scotland’s Islands. Don’t miss out, get in the car, get a train, get a bus, catch a ferry, take the plane….

Dennis Coutts, Sixties Exposure Exhibition

21 Jan 2012 – 4 Mar 2012, Shetland Mainland

There’s just time to catch this fascinating photographic exhibition. Dennis Coutts has been photographing Shetland’s society for over 60 years and his work is a fascinating catalogue of life throughout the Isles.

Work has been selected from the 1960′s and represents the pre-oil era. While life was very difficult then, these stunning photographs reflect a character of life in Shetland which is timeless and remains in many ways unchanged today.

Pop-Up Tour

1, 2, 17 Mar 2012, Mull, Iona and Skye (and many others)

Two comedy dramas about guys, friendship and camping…’Waterproof’ by Andy Duffy and ‘From Paisley to Paulo’ by Martin McCardie

Stornoway Amenity Trust Presents – Meeting of the Bands

2 – 3 Mar 2012, Lewis

This fantastic event is based around music, piping, singing and dancing! The St. Laurence O’ Toole Pipe Band will play in concert with the Lewis, Skye and Uist Pipe Bands, plus there’s lots more!

A Time to Keep

8, 9, 11, 15, 17 Mar 2012, Orkney, Fair Isle, Shetland & other locations

Lise Sinclair is a singer, songwriter and poet of Fair Isle, Britain’s most remote inhabited island, half way between Orkney and Shetland. Lise has written a series of new songs that dramatically bring out the stories and landscape of George Mackay Brown’s book ‘A Time to Keep’ and connect the past with the present and the Northern Isles with Iceland.

Breabach in Concert

16 Mar 2012, Skye

One of the most celebrated and successful Scottish folk bands in recent times, Breabach command the stage with flare, charisma and a sound that is as expansive as it is distinct.

Nominated as ‘ Best Group’ at both the 2011 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and the Scots Trad Music Awards simultaneously, it is little wonder that this band have a fast growing international reputation.

Barra’s Fair Trade Island Market

17 Mar 2012, Barra

If it weren’t for this great local market, why would you want to visit the only place in the UK with an “airport” on the beach? Oh yes, to meet the stars of BBC2’s “An Island Parish” of course. Held in Fair Trade Week, the headline competition at the market is all about biscuits and flapjacks. Yum!

Celtic Connections (Big Top)

23 – 24 Mar 2012, Skye

Celtic Connections – Glasgow’s internationally renowned folk, roots and world music festival – will stage a first-of-its-kind, two-day music festival on the Isle of Skye as a finale to the year of celebration. Taking place on Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th March 2012 at the Broadford Airfield, the Big Top will feature a line-up of traditional music, show-stopping arts experiences and action-packed workshops on a local and international scale, showcasing local talent alongside top international artists.

Source: Scotland’s Islands

Waterproof by Andy Duffy

On the bank of a river somewhere in the Highlands, friends Alex and Gordon are trying to enjoy a weekend fishing trip. Alex is mouthy, talkative and thrilled with himself, a student whose mobile phone, so he says, contains the number of every good-looking woman in Dundee; so when Gordon throws Alex’s mobile phone into the river, things seem about to get nasty.

From Paisley to Paolo by Martin McCardie

Jack was born on the same day, in the same hospital as Paolo Nutini and he is a huge fan. When reality and fantasy combine to become the truth for him, he has to choose between the life he wishes he had, and the one he really has. He goes to a music festival in a stolen hearse to see Paolo with his two best friends, and nothing will ever be the same for them again.

Both plays were first shown at Oran Mor in Glasgow’s West End. We are delighted to work with the original producers in bringing these very funny plays to a wider audience throughout the country. Oran Mor’s ground-breaking lunchtime theatre programme a Play, a Pie and a Pint began in 2004 and now commissions 37 new plays a year. It produces the work of some of the UK’s most well-known writers as well as profiling the work of new and exciting theatrical voices. This is the first time Mull Theatre has worked in association with Oran Mor and we hope this will be just the start of a long association.

What is “Pop-up Theatre”

If the venue doesn’t usually have comfortable raked seating, it will have with the Mull Theatre Pop-Up Theatre tour where we bring the show, the set – and the seating too! Everyone can enjoy the full theatre experience with perfect views from anywhere in the audience.

Source: Mull Theatre

In the first edition of 2012, an ‘Industry Insight’ article was focused on getting the right price point for your goods. A handful of suppliers and retailers were interviewed about the current climate and it became quite apparent that there has been an insurgence in the £10 category in recent months. Customers will not hesitate in spending £10 as these are more likely to be impulse buys.

With forecasts still gloomy, the retail climate continues to be a tough one, it is important as a maker to offer retailers what customer are demanding, and at the moment it is gifts valued around £10. As a maker myself, it is increasingly difficult to create and offer such goods when the cost of raw materials continues to rise. Also taking in to account the retailers mark-up as well as your own! With this in mind, a maker has to sell an item for £4 in order for the retailer to sell at £10. Not only difficult, but also having to compete the foreign, mass produced goods!

The article has been an interesting read and one which I am now taking into account. It has made me think about reducing my costs i.e., buying in cheaper/alternative materials, without compromising the end product. The key being to create fun and unusual items that customers still believe to be good value for money. It’s not easy having to be one step ahead, but the beauty of handcrafted products, is that they are unique and will often stand out against the mass produced. Keep creating!!

Kathryn, Lazy Daisy Glass

Thank you to Kathryn of Lazy Daisy Glass for her thought-provoking blog – This is the first of a series of guest blogs by craft makers and retailers which will be hosted by Northings Crafts Blogs in 2012. If you are interested in contributing to our blog site, please feel free to contact Avril on avril@hi-arts.co.uk

There’s plenty who will not need reminding of the hug party on Shetland this week – Up Helly Aa is the annual street festival supported by all kinds of activities running through to the end of the week. But this month is bursting with entertainment across all Scotland’s Islands – and if you’ve been keeping up with the likes of the Pulse, The Daily Record and The Sunday Times in the last week or so you’ll have seen confirmation of just how well people do entertainment on the islands.

Up Helly Aa
31 Jan 2012, Shetland Mainland

This is just the big day itself. It involves a series of marches and visitations, culminating in torch lit procession and Galley burning. There’s stand-up comedy, folk music and hours of performing acts and dancing in halls throughout the evening and early morning. This truly is a day you will never forget!

‘Auto Portraits’ and ‘Traces, Elements, Atmosphere’
7 Jan 2012 – 5 Feb 2012, Shetland Mainland

Once you’ve recovered, things to do include this striking exhibition of work by two artists at Lerwick’s stunning modern Museum and Archives.

Stand Up Comedy with Josie Long
4 Feb 2012, Mull

Just a short ferry hop across the sound. “Josie Long’s new show couldn’t be any better. It’s honest, intelligent, funny, and it’s exactly what Britain needs right now… Josie Long is poised to become the most important voice in British comedy” The Skinny*****

Papay Gyro Nights 2012 Art Festival
6 – 13 Feb 2012, Papa Westray, Orkney

An international contemporary art festival, originating from the ancient Papay tradition of the Night of The Gyros. An extraordinary week-long programme begins with a fire lit procession and includes theatre, video, film, workshops and a book launch.

Concert with Mike McGoldrick, John McCusker and John Doyle
14 Feb 2012, Skye

Michael McGoldrick, John McCusker and John Doyle are three members of the acclaimed Transatlantic Sessions. With Mike and John McCusker having just finished a tour with Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler, it’s a rare chance to see three of the world’s finest musicians share a stage together.

Sally Magnusson’s Talk – ‘From Harris Tweed to Electric Cars – The Extraordinary History of Pee’
21 Feb 2012, Lewis

We’ll let broadcaster and journalist Sally Magnusson tell the stories that explain this, ahem, interesting title.

Rachel Sermanni with Special Guests
24 Feb 2012, Skye and 25 Feb 2012, Lewis

After months of anticipation, 20-year-old singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni unleashes her debut ‘Black Currents’ EP on January 30th. Check-out the track “Breath Easy” on Joe Whiley’s January 24th Radio 2 show. A concert NOT to be missed!

Arran Bike Club Night Rides
2, 9, 16, 23 Feb 2012, Arran

Mountain Bike runs are off-road as much as possible, using forest tracks and single-track. Anyone is welcome to join, young or old, fit or not so fit – nobody gets left behind! This is a whole other way to see and sense the island landscape. Rides finish at around 8.30 or 9.00 pm. Just visiting? Hire your bikes locally…

Contact:
Scotland’s Islands,c/o Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Development Department, Sandwick Road, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, HS1 2BW
Tel: 01851 822693
Email: info@scotlandsislands.com
Web: http://www.scotlandsislands.com/

26th January 2012 (1.30pm to 3.00pm)
Have you ever thought about doing some voluntary work but been unsure about what’s involved? Go along to the cafe on Thursday 26th January between 1.30 pm and 3.00 pm for free tea and cakes and an opportunity to chat about volunteer opportunities at the Museum, in the Glen and on the National Nature Reserves at Moine Mhor and Taynish. If you’re interested but unable to attend on that date please get in touch and Kilmartin House Museum will send you more information about the opportunities available which include walk guide, working in the garden and office work.

25th & 26th February 2012 (10am to 4pm) – a weekend of Aboriginal Art with Jan Hendry. Jan will help you draw inspiration from the Glen to produce your own piece of aboriginal style art. The weekend will include a walk in the Glen for inspiration, making your own aboriginal style paints and producing a piece of finished work. No previous drawing experience is necessary. This workshop is suitable for adults and accompanied teenagers and costs £55 per person which includes all materials. Booking essential.

Dates for your Diary:

• March 3rd – Seed Swap in Kilmartin Museum cafe
• March 7th – Exploring the Bryophytes of Argyll’s Ravines
• March 17th and 18th – Basketmaking with Jane Allan

Full details of all these and other 1st quarter events are available from the Kilmartin House Museum website:  www.kilmartin.org.

Source: Kilmartin House Museum

There are only 30 places available so pre-booking is essential, tickets are £10 (including a glass of wine & cheese & biscuits). Tickets are available by emailing admin@kilmartin.org or calling 01546 510278.

Linsey Aitken:  A highly regarded cellist and vocalist crossing genres from classical to folk. Trained on cello and piano at the RSAMD, she has performed professionally all over the UK from The Royal Alber Hall, to the sands of Calgary Bay in Mull. Collaborating regularly with composer Alan Craig, flautist/composer Louise Burnet, member of classical trio “Trois Femmes” and various quartets,he has taught at Edinburgh University, teaches Kodaly singing methodology working with young musicians from 3 years through to RSAMD. Founding member of folk band “The Cross Border band” she played and sang her way round Scotland, the Edinburgh Festival and other International festivals before joining The Ideal Band.

Ken Campbell:  Scottish singer/songwriter with a well established pedigree over 25 years, with five albums to date, festivals, concerts, TV and radio throughout Europe and beyond. Starting with Glasgow band “Molindinar”, then a much commended duo with Chris Miller [“Pipers Maggott” - Topic Records, London] he then established the highly successful “Ideal Band” following in the footsteps of Glasgow’s “Bob Smith’s Ideal Band” of the 1930’s. He subsequently toured with Cauld Wind Piper Hamish Moore, recorded two solo albums [“Going Solo” - Fellside & “Hand Pict” - Watercolour] whilst also working with cellist, singer, Wendy Weatherby, Stevie Lawrence [Rallion/Red Hot Chilli Pipers/Iron Horse] and Blair Cowan [Lloyd Cole and the Commotions] before reforming The Ideal Band in 2009.

Find out more by visiting: www.theidealbandscotland.co.uk

Kilmartin House
Kilmartin
Argyll
PA31 8RQ
Tel:  01546 510278
Email: museum@kilmartin.org
Web: www.kilmartin.org

Sarah is 19-years old and comes from Maidstone, Kent.  She has spent the past three years at Ballet West studying for her BA in Classical Ballet and Dance Performance. She has toured with the Ballet West performing company in Scotland and in China, dancing the role of the Snow Queen through the tour of The Nutcracker in 2010 and Juliet in Cumbernauld and Whenzhou in 2011.

The Scottish tour of Swan Lake begins on 20 January in nearby Oban, and travels to Stirling, Musselburgh, Cumbernauld, Giffnock, Pitlochry, finishing in Greenock on 3 March.  The production will be on tour in China in early summer.

Source: Ballet West

Our opening times are: Tuesday 20th to Sat 24th & Weds 28th to Sat 31st December, open as usual (10-4pm) during this festive period.

The cafe will be serving lunches, soups and toasties everyday from 12-3pm.

On Wednesday the 21st we have our last Cafe Curry of 2011! Come along and spice up your holidays! Served 12-3pm.

Also on the 21st is the last Woolly Wednesdays, 7-9pm, and only £2. Everyone is welcome.

On Friday the 23rd we have Mull Film Club showing ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ at 4pm. Join us for Mulled Wine and Nibbles at 3.30pm, £7 entry, £5 MFC members, Students & Children.

We wish everyone a fantastic Christmas and all the best for 2012 and we would especially like to thank everyone for their support,

from all the staff at An Tobar.

An Tobar, Tobermory, Isle of Mull PA75 6PB, United Kingdom

Source: An Tobar

Highlights include:

• A major 4-day conference at Balallan, Lewis, next September on ‘Recovering from the Clearances – Land Struggle, Re-settlement, and Community Land Ownership in the Hebrides’ to mark the 125^th anniversary of the Pairc Deer Raid
• A 2-day event in Barra to mark the centenary of the abandonment of Mingulay, including a boat trip to the island
• Evening talks by Sally Magnusson and Hugh Dan Maclennan
• A boat trip to the island of Stroma in Caithness, about which the Book Trust published a best-selling book in 2011
• Two guided walks (with commentary in Gaelic and English) to historic locations in Skye
• A special 1-day event to mark the 150^th anniversary of the Butt of Lewis lighthouse
• Other boat trips to Soay (Skye), Scarp (Harris), Wiay and Ronay (Uist), and historic islands in Loch Roag and deserted settlements in  Pairc (Lewis)
• Talks about Martin Martin in Mull, Islay, and Gigha, the first time the Book Trust have visited these islands

John Randall, chairman of the Book Trust, said: “2012 is the 10^th anniversary of the Book Trust, and I hope everyone – local people and visitors – will find something of interest. The events are open to all, although Book Trust members receive discounts for most events and new publications. Please come along, and indeed consider joining the Book Trust to take advantage of the increased range of benefits.”

For the complete programme of 2012 events, please see the attached list. For more details of other activities of the Book Trust, and membership, see www.theislandsbooktrust.com or phone Alayne Barton on 01851 820946 or John Randall on 01851 880365.

Source: Islands Book Trust

They have two Christmas Fayres taking place in December at the Victory Hall in Benderloch. There will be a delicious range of fresh locally produced food and unique hand crafted creativity available for all your Christmas presents.

The first Fayre is on Thursday 1st December 2011 and there are two sessions: 10 am. to 3 pm. and 5.30 pm. to 8 pm.

The second Fayre is Thursday 15th December 2011 which will be open from 10 am. to 7 pm with the bar open with a ceilidh for the rest of the evening.

The LORN producers (based in North Argyll) use the following portal: http://lorncommunity.ning.com/  to share what they are going to be doing for each market, as well as their other produce and services. You can get hold of them at any time, to order things outside market days.

LORN also have an active Facebook and Twitter presence and welcome you to join in : http://www.facebook.com/lornargyll and http://twitter.com/lorntweets

LORN website: www.lorn.org.uk
Email: admin@lorn.org.uk

Source: LORN

All the islands are hosting activities right through to the New Year (and beyond). There are night bike rides, internationally renowned musicians, food and dance, history and shooting, art and, of course, the Ba’. Scotland’s Islands has picked out a handful in their latest newsletter, but take a look on their website for other events: http://www.scotlandsislands.com/.  Scattered across the month there’s also all kinds of specially festive occasions such as the Christmas Fair at Mount Stuart on Bute, the Victorian Christmas at Arran’s Brodick Castle and Bookbug sessions all over the western and northern isles.

Read the newsletter in full by clicking on the following link: Scotlands Islands Newsletter – Christmans is coming to Scotland’s Islands

Source: Scotlands Islands

Kilmartin House Museum Jan-March 2012 programme

Drawing A Thread Workshop – Friday 4th November, 10am – 4pm

Experiment with drawing and mark making in hand and machine stitch. Combining traditional fabrics with paper, plastic, garden fleece, dishcloths and other recycled materials. You will have the opportunity to create several small works inspired by your drawings and doodles.

For beginners and advanced students, maximum of 8 places

All materials provided but if you have any interesting materials you would like to experiment with please bring them along. Bring your own sewing machine or contact us if you do not have your own. £50 (£45 members) including lunch in the Café.

Weaving Your World Workshop – Saturday 5th November, 10am – 4pm

A one-day workshop to create a small tapestry, inspired by your environment – sea/landscape of Mull. Exploring colour, surface and texture that can be achieved by using a wide range of materials, from recycled paper and plastic to traditional cotton, linen and wool.

For beginners and advanced students, maximum of 10 places

All materials provided but if you have any interesting materials you would like to experiment with please bring them along.

Inspirational references – If you have any photographs, objects, plants, stones, shells, flotsam jetsam that you would like to use as a reference please bring them along. £50 (£45 members) including lunch in the Café.

The exhibition opening is on Friday 4th of November, from 6-8pm. Everyone is welcome to come and meet Fiona, she will be giving a brief explanation into her fascinating work.

Our Woolly Wednesdays exhibition in Gallery II will also be opening tonight, refreshments will be served.

An Tobar, The Tobermory Arts Centre. Argyll Terrace, Tobermory, Isle of Mull. PA75 6PB  Tel:01688 302211.

www.antobar.co.uk www.fionarhutchison.me.uk

Source: An Tobar

Here’s just ten events being staged across the islands in November. These are great clues to the tremendous welcome and pleasure you’ll get if you take a trip to our islands this autumn. This is a truly splendid time to visit, with the great outdoors in the day and warm fires, good food, fine words and stirring music in the evening.

The islands are not far, and these top-class events will make short trips all the more rewarding. Our selection spreads across the month and entices with easy hops to Arran, Skye and Raasay, Mull and Islay and short flights to Lewis and North Uist, Shetland and Orkney.

Gents Arran Golf Challenge

21 Oct – 6 Nov 2011, Arran

Come and take part in the Arran Challenge. Held at the Shiskine Golf Course, this small competition allows people of all abilities to take part to discover who is the overall champion! Play 3 rounds on the days of your choosing (provided they’re between now and 6th November). The best 2 count. Great value and superb prizes. Accommodation providers are offering great packages including entry to the competition, 3 rounds of golf and green fees. Some include Ferry travel to and from the Island.

The Shoogle Project: ‘Shooglenifty’ and ‘PlanB dance’

3-4 Nov, Skye

WARNING! May cause unrestrained movement of the body! Highly acclaimed dance company, plan B, invite you to join them for an explosive, toe-tapping, foot stomping night out! Featuring the highly infectious and energetic live music of Shooglenifty, the evening brings together these two dynamic forces in a meeting of music, dance, performance and a joint passion for really getting people moving.

Shetland Food Festival

5 – 13 Nov 2011, Busta, Shetland Mainland, Unst and Yell

Shetland produces some wonderful food: exceptional lamb, fine beef, sumptuous cheeses, superbly fresh fish and shellfish and some more unusual specialities such as seawater oatcakes, Shetland Black potatoes and more-ish fudge! This festival has events and participating eateries across the Shetland islands and is timed to tempt your palate while you enjoy the treasures of the Shetland Arts and Crafts Fair and the fabulous music of the Thomas Fraser Memorial Festival.

The Hunted – Visible Fictions

11 Nov 2011, Mull

There are paths you should not leave. There are dreams you should not dream. There are beasts in the forest that know your name. A lone girl dares to be something nobody has been – in a place nobody dares to go. The path is long, there will be trouble ahead and there are things out to get her . . . Take a deep breath, step into the unknown, and be prepared for your world to turn upside down. Join the hunt. This fantastic new theatre production is directed by Douglas Irvine, from the company that previously delighted audiences with The Curse of The Demeter and How To Steal A Diamond.

Buisneachd: Witchcraft, Sorcery, Enchantment (An Exhibition by Moira Maclean)

3 Oct 2011 – 19 Nov 2011, Lewis

The Outer Hebrides are saturated in tradition, custom and folklore. The talented Moira Maclean is from Lewis. She has immersed herself in the past by ‘raiding’ the abandoned croft houses on the Islands to explore issues of dereliction, decay, transience and diaspora, notably from a female, domestic perspective. Buisneachd focuses and assembles these ideas. Rescued domestic detritus, mirrors, bibles, maternal paraphernalia, accretions of wallpaper and images of abandoned spaces insinuate unseen forces and malign influences.

The Islay Sessions

11 – 13 Nov 2011, Islay

A brand new mini festival of live music, workshops, sessions and a grand concert ceilidh. There’s a stellar line-up of musicians from all across Scotland, including Anarkali, The Maverick Angels, Lori Watson & the Rule of Three, Eilidh Shaw & Ross Martin and Darren Maclean. It’s guaranteed to be a lively weekend of traditional and folk music and Islay’s finest traditional musicians will be joining the sessions throughout the weekend too. There’s accommodation still remaining so book soon!

Harris Tweed – Past, Present and Future (celebrating the centenary of the Orb 1911-2011)

This one-day event, arranged by the Island Book Trust in conjunction with the Harris Tweed Authority, will mark the centenary of the Orb, the Harris Tweed registration symbol. Involving talks, poetry, film, story-telling and discussion sessions, the day’s programme reviews the history of this vitally important and distinctive island industry, celebrates its successes and achievements and reflects on the current and future challenges it faces.

Island Song Weekend

19 – 20 Nov 2011, Orkney Mainland

Artists from Shetland, the Western Isles, Highland and Aberdeenshire visit Orkney to entertain and teach participants about their native song tradition. The weekend is built around day-time workshops and topped off by two great concerts, the first in Kirkwall on Saturday 19th November, the second in Stromness on Sunday 20th.

An Evening with Meg Bateman

24 Nov 2011, North Uist

Fresh from her appearance at the Aldeburgh Festival at the beginning of the month, Meg Bateman will entertain and inform with an evening of enchanting poetry. Meg is one of the nation’s leading Gaelic poets. She teaches at the Gaelic college Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on the Isle of Skye and is an honorary senior lecturer at the University of St Andrews. She has brought out three collections of Gaelic poetry with English translations and has co-edited and translated three anthologies of medieval, 17th century and religious verse.

Calum’s Road

25 Nov, Raasay

A National Theatre of Scotland and Communicado Theatre Company co-production, Calum’s Road is an inspirational story – the stuff of modern folklore. It is the remarkable true story of one man’s single-minded determination to challenge the powers-that-be. It’s hardly believable that one man carved almost two miles of road out of the rocks and trees of north Raasay and here, now, is his story staged in the fresh new surroundings of Raasay’s Community Centre on the island where it all happened.

Scotland’s Islands website

Source: Scotland’s Islands

Julia Donaldson is the author of over 150 books for children and besides writing well – known books with Axel Scheffler including The Gruffalo, The Snail and the Whale and most recently Zog, she has collaborated with many other illustrators. Julia is also Patron of Artlink Central, a charity which puts artists, musicians and storytellers into schools, hospitals, prisons and community spaces to work with children and adults and help them develop their talent and creativity.

This exhibition aims to highlight the diverse range of approaches to illustration and focuses on the following artists who have worked with Julia over the years:

Jonathan Allen, Deborah Allwright, Debbie Boon, Anna Currey, Thomas Docherty, Karen George, Emily Gravett, Paul Hess, Sam McCullen, Lydia Monks, David Robert, Axel Scheffler, Nick Sharratt, Pam Smy, Joel Stewart and Charlotte Voake.

Source: Argyll & Bute Council

IN June 2011, the four artists who comprise the collective 6 ° West – Anne Devine, David Faithfull, Mhairi Killin and Veronica Slater – completed a week-long residency on Inch Kenneth (Innis Choinnich), a small island in private ownership a few miles north-east of Iona at the mouth of Loch na Keal.

Curated by Alicia Hendrick (the fifth member of the collective), the current show, which is open to visitors for one week only, is an essential response to the island, consisting of a one print each by Devine, Killin and Slater, and two by Faithfull.

Inch Kenneth installation (photo Jane Griffiths)

Although the response by each artist to the geology, history, landscape and genus loci of the island is unique, there are a number of striking threads of continuity to be found in the artists’ prints.

A wider understanding of both the residency process and the individual approaches of each artist to the challenges and opportunities of the isolated island environment has been provided in a remarkably fine collection of photographs by Shannon Tofts. Tofts’s work is both technically accomplished and artistically motivated, so that he achieves a rare combination of record and response.  Tofts is in a very real sense a collaborator, in that his vision derives from a sympathetic and emphatic response to the individuality of each artist.

Working in a recognisable personal idiom, Faithfull (working at Edinburgh Print Studios) has created a three-part image focussing on the relationship between the island’s geology, landscape and fragments of text from William Golding’s novel, Pincher Martin, in an approach which might be termed ‘geopoetic’. Faithfull’s approach is predominantly stylised and graphical; and although it’s clear that he is a gifted draughtsman and designer, his work can seem devoid of feeling.

Here, however, the central image, derived from a photograph, shows a cave on the shore of the island which might be read as a metaphor for a mouth and all the associations of noise, language and song which that connotes. In an allied work, more technological than geological, the image is of Inch Kenneth as plotted by a GPS system.

The central image of Devine’s print (made with print-maker Elspeth Lamb), is, somewhat coincidentally, Agnus Dei, ‘the Lamb of God’ and Devine is the only one of the artists to have acknowledged the religious context of the Island’s history in an explicit manner (Inch Kenneth houses a 13th century chapel of similar age to the 12^th century St Oran’s on Iona, and like St Oran’s has a collection of ‘Celtic’ cross-slabs). In a complex image, Devine has conflated religious vision with a geological perspective, suggesting, perhaps, that both views have a validity and a mystery.

Mhairi Killin’s ancestors were silversmiths on Iona, and she combines this ancient art with her contemporary artistic practice; each feeds into and complements the other. Here, various images such a stone markings, inscriptions and objects are woven together by silver wire suggesting a continuity between past and present.

Underpinning these images is a faint reproduction of a shipping chart, allowing for the introduction of idea of visual, historical and cultural ‘plotting’ and the contemporary metaphor of ‘mapping a territory’. A piece of text in the form of a silver tag describes a ‘grass covered cairn 550m North East of Inch Kenneth House’, suggesting a much older, Neolithic context to the island’s history.  Killin’s work is at once delicate and strong, tentative and forceful.

Continuing the cartographical trope, Veronica Slater has chosen to create an emotional and experiential map of her time on Inch Kenneth, concentrating on the dilapidated interior of the house itself as well as referring to aspects of the island’s history and landscape.

The house belonged at one point to the Mitford family, and it was here that Unity Mitford, a Nazi sympathiser, lived on following an attempted suicide; she died in Oban in 1948. Such strange and traumatic histories inform Slater’s image, which seems like the visual representation of layered memory where suggested synaptic events trigger series upon series of recollection.

In a similar way, Slater has created a series of twenty four works under the title Transit 24 Hour Tor Mor, which are on show at An Roth Community Enterprise Centre in Craignure on the east of Mull (until 31 March 2012). Some of these images link to the Inch Kenneth residency, while others range more freely in their diversity and scope.

However, central to Slater’s approach is an over-layering of imagery which suggests that seeing and the process of perception is complex, involving various stages. One work which might stand as a useful tool in deconstructing Slater’s approach is her representation of the head of a golden eagle.

This is what she describes as “an image of an image”, in that it is derived from an ubiquitous postcard on sale on the island. But Slater’s eagle suggests a new way of looking, as if an ‘icon’ had somehow become “de-iconized”, allowing for a fresh approach to seeing the reality of things, despite the fact that most people will never see a real golden eagle.

The Inch Kenneth exhibition will tour next year.

© Giles Sutherland, 2011

Links

• 6 ° West
• Giles Sutherland

Fred, although born and raised near Glasgow, became renowned for his mastery of the Gaelic piping tradition of South Uist. While his first – love instrument is the great Highland bagpipes his prowess has extended over the years to whistles, Scottish smallpipes (or reelpipes) and Irish uilleann pipes. He is also an outstanding composer and has taken the prestigious Macallan trophy at Brittany’s Festival Interceltique de Lorient seven times.

During the 1990s Fred was a member of Scottish super-group Clan Alba and also of Capercaillie, featuring with the latter in the United Artists film Rob Roy. In 2004 he wrote a large scale work with composer Mark Sheridan entitled Paracas which premiered as the opening concert at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival in January 2005. His most recent album Outlands was released in 2009 and received a four star review in The Scotsman.

Opening support at the Cairnbaan Hotel comes from Argyll pipers Chris Coates and David Provan, who will be performing their own crafted sets along with a special appearance of rising star vocalist Kim Carnie from Oban, all of whom are members of the cast of MOVE. Tickets for the concert are priced £10 and available from The Square Peg and Argyll Book Centre in Lochgilphead.

For further information Email: talk@wildbiscuit.com

Source: Wild Biscuit

Royal National Mod
Lewis
14-22 October 2011

Scotland’s premier Gaelic festival returns to the Outer Hebrides in 2011, providing opportunities for people of all ages to celebrate Gaelic linguistic and cultural heritage, including Gaelic music and song, dance, instrumental, drama and literature.

Although the focus of the Royal National Mod is on competition, the event also offers a wide and comprehensive programme of non-competitive events which include performances from some of Scotland’s top traditional musicians and Gaelic singers.

http://www.scotlandsislands.com/festivals-events/info/64/royal-national-mod

Scottish International Storytelling Festival (Summary of Island-Based Events)

21-30 October 2011

An ideal place to discover Scotland’s treasure-trove of stories in a lively celebration of storytelling performance exploring the links between Scotland’s rich storytelling heritage and other cultures. These island-based events take place on Bute, Fair Isle, Iona, Cumbrae, Mull, Skye, Orkney, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides.

This year the Festival is all about exploring and pursuing the island experience through story, myth, music, song and dance. Greek and Roman myths mix with sagas of the Celts in this ten day festival. Enjoy the traditions of Scotland’s Islands alongside Mediterranean tale spinners and musicians from Corsica, Sardinia, Malta, Greece and Cyprus.

http://www.scotlandsislands.com/festivals-events/info/502/scottish-international-storytelling-festival-(summary-of-island-based-events)

Comedian Ed Byrne
Shetland mainland (24 October 2011 )
Orkney mainland (25 October)

As an observational stand up Ed Byrne, has played in major comedy venues across the UK and Ireland, including the Vaudeville, Riverside, and New Ambassadors theatres in London, and the Gaiety, Olympia, Ambassador, and Vicar St. theatres in Dublin. His UK tours and regular TV appearances are always hugely popular and well received by the critics.

http://www.scotlandsislands.com/festivals-events/info/447/comedian-ed-byrne

Night Time Tour of the Spectacular
Mount Stuart
Bute
27 October 2011

Mount Stuart is claimed to be Britain’s most astounding Victorian gothic mansion. An opportunity to experience the house at its most peaceful. By candlelight and torchlight, your guide will lead you through the house on a specially devised route, taking in many private areas of the house.

http://www.scotlandsislands.com/festivals-events/info/507/night-time-tour-of-the-spectacular-mount-stuart

Shetland Food Festival
Shetland Mainland
5-13 November 2011

A celebration of mouth-watering Shetland produce, including some more unusual specialities such as seawater oatcakes, Shetland Black potatoes and more-ish fudge!

Food lovers’ events include cookery demonstrations, producers’ markets and Christmas craft fair. There’s also a ‘Ready, Steady, Shetland’ cook-off, where Shetlanders present their take on the popular TV programme, Ready, Steady, Cook.

http://www.scotlandsislands.com/festivals-events/info/440/shetland-food-festival
Harris Tweed – Past, Present and Future (celebrating the centenary of the Orb 1911-2011)
Lewis
18 November 2011

This one-day event marks the centenary of the orb by reviewing the history of this vitally important and distinctive island industry with a variety of engaging talks, poetry, film, story-telling and discussion sessions.

Arranged by the Island Book Trust in conjunction with the Harris Tweed Authority, the event will bring together people from different backgrounds to celebrate the island’s successes and achievements and reflecting on the current and future challenges it faces.

http://www.scotlandsislands.com/festivals-events/info/536/harris-tweed—past-present-and-future-(celebrating-the-centenary-of-the-orb-1911-2011)

The Ba
Kirkwall, Orkney mainland
25 December 2011 and 01 January 2012 

Forget about running with the bulls in Pamplona, for a truly fierce street sport, visitors should head to Orkney on either Christmas morning or New Year’s Day to watch in the annual Ba’ competition. Starting outside the majestic St Magnus Cathedral before raging through the streets of Kirkwall, The Ba’ is a traditional game of street rugby with participants from the opposing teams, The Uppies and The Doonies fight over the much prizes locally handmade leather Ba’ (ball). Spectators are welcome but be careful!

www.scotlandsislands.com/festivals-events/info/491/the-ba

Up Helly Aa
Shetland mainland
31 January 2012

Shetland’s biggest fire festival, Up Helly Aa, celebrates Shetland’s history with a series of re-enactments, culminating in a torch lit procession and Viking Galley burning.  Considering it’s held in mid-winter on the same latitude as southern Greenland, Up Helly Aa has never been cancelled

http://www.scotlandsislands.com/festivals-events/info/434/up-helly-aa

Papay Gyro Nights 2012 Art Festival
Pap Westray, Orkney
6-13 February 2012

Papay Gyro Nights is an international film and video art, contemporary art, music and architecture festival based on folklore and tradition of Orkney. The Festival takes place in unique and remote settings on the island of Papa Westray. The idea of the festival has originated from the ancient Papay tradition of the Night of The Gyros. The Festival is also a reflection the island’s landscape and heritage as well as interpretation of tradition and ritual.

http://www.scotlandsislands.com/festivals-events/info/274/papay-gyro-nights-2012-art-festival

For more information on the Scotland’s Islands initiative visit: www.scotlandsislands.com

Source: Profile Plus