An Lanntair, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, until 24 March 2013
AN ANNUAL installation by the students on the Art, Space and Nature masters course at Edinburgh University has now become part of the An Lanntair […]

An Lanntair, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, until 9 March 2013
THE NAME ‘six degrees west’ fixes a group to a measured distance from the prime meridium which goes right through Greenwich but it gives you quite a bit […]

An Lanntair, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, until 20 January 2013
THE title really does say what this bright, light, winter-solstice show in an Lanntair’s main gallery is about – “the sea that’s within me”.

THE […]

THE RE-CREATION of a whole group of schools in the Western Isles, in rural, semi-rural and semi-urban locations, presented huge opportunities for a programme of public art.
AS ALL the commissions were advertised […]

The Lights from Ouessant
IAN STEPHEN reports on a gathering of Scottish island writers in Brittany that will have ongoing repercussions
MORE THAN a few summers back, I had a gig, telling stories at Dingwall Folk […]

A PERSONAL response from Ian Stephen to the John Cage centenary celebration Silence and Transmission at An Lanntair.
YOU KNOW the story of the emperor who paraded through the streets in his new invisible […]

Village Hall, Balallan, Isle of Lewis, 6 September 2012
THE memory of a march through the village of Ballalan to mark the opening of a memorial, built in celebration of the Pairc Deer Raid is etched in the minds […]

An Lanntair, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, until 29 September 2012
AN LANNTAIR have just installed a summer exhibition which presents images of Scottish landscapes along with a complex, puzzling series of allusions […]

Sand and Barley
IAN STEPHEN looks at the work of two very different writers from the Highlands
THOSE WHO know the work of both Angus Dunn and George Gunn might think they’d make strange bedfellows. I own up that […]

Transit Station is a concept
IAN STEPHEN reflects on his experience with Dagmar Glausnitzer-Smith and Charles Ryder’s Transit Station
 
THE STRUCTURE of the event that contains it is simple. Get a building – […]

It’s hot by Scottish standards. The yachts navigating the sound of Mull and the Firth of Lorne have been looking listless. Some have mainsail only up so it’s likely that the diesel-driven horses are pushing the […]

In case you didn’t see it on Western Isles Libraries Facebook page – heres’ a new poem made in response to invitation from Kathleen Milne, team leader Western isles Libraries

Bookmarks

Dinny Smith […]

A strong theme is becoming defined in this Western Isles Libraries Residency.
At our first meeting in Stornoway, the logs of voyages, historical or imagined, led to a range of references to different quests. The […]

When I set off across The Meadows for George Square, I didn’t realize I was on a voyage back through stages of life and tiers of friendship. There was the Edinburgh Review and former Polygon office. I was mentally […]

It was a dirty day outside. I could see line squalls pacing across the harbour. A rope parted on my own moored vessel but no damage was done. I heard the ferry held off for hours till a lull let her dock safely. I […]

I phoned to make a bank transfer and the person on the other end was chatty, while the numbers were chuntering. Where exactly do you live? she asked. I described the Hebrides as being about 3 hours out, by ferry […]

I’ve a bit of driftwood that’s built into bookshelves on the upper floor of my house at the harbour. My eldest son, Sean, gave me it. He knows I like to sense the stories behind found timber.

He picked this up […]

An Lanntair, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, until 28 April 2012
NO, I didn’t know what the word meant, either.

BUT now that I’ve looked it up, it seems to me a very appropriate title for Gestalt – It’s what’s in […]

Isle of Jura, 8-9 April 2012
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 […]

For the last month, I’ve been surfing on stories. Part of my working week has been working intensively on a novel-in-progress and part has been spent in navigating my way through the Morrison Manuscript – […]