‘WILDERNESS YET’

Rhodri Evans

Ceann na h-Airigh (Café & Meeting Room exhibition)

Open 10am – 3pm

Monday to Friday

16 September – 31 October 2024

Unravelling the story of string: people, plants and place

String making is one of the fundamental technologies which has allowed us as a species to develop, survive and adapt. This exhibition explores our intertwined relationship with thread, string and rope through 50,000 years of making.  String / Lines by Caroline Dear, explores the wider world of string, unravelling information from; the earliest archaeological evidence of string dated to 47,000 years ago, cultural stories, historical myth and from contemporary vestiges.

String seems to have been a medium for the transference of ideas, of holding communities together and of cultural developments. It has directly informed the development of writing, maths, building, measurement, weaving and many other things. It is also more than its physical self and has been instrumental in how we formed our conceptual and metaphysical ideas about the world and in shaping our engagement with it.

The exhibition has five sections and is a meditation and exploration of this ongoing ravelling and unravelling, binding and connecting of the past with the present through string.

String / Lines opens in Gallery 2 this September.

On Saturday 7th, Caroline Dear and Katharine MacFarlane will lead a String Cèilidh day of talks and workshops on collaborative rope-making and poetry.  Spaces for the workshops from 11am-3pm are limited so please book early.  The String Cèilidh at 3pm is open to all.

Caroline Dear is an artist based on the Isle of Skye whose work investigates our relationship with the natural world around us.  She researches old techniques, gathering strands of practical knowledge to share and keep these simple but vital skills alive.

String / Lines is free to view and suitable for all ages.  If you would like to support our continued programming and enable us to keep offering free events, please consider making a donation to Taigh Chearsabhagh.

An international celebration of printmaking and swapping!

Taigh Chearsabhagh is delighted to host the 20:20 Print Exchange exhibition on the last stop of it’s tour for 2024.  Opening in Gallery 1 on 7th September, this is the full touring exhibition of the 2023 Print Exchange, which includes a group submission from the Taigh Chearsabhagh Print Workshop & Darkroom.

Story of the Exchange

The 20:20 Print Exchange was originally set up in 2009 to link two print workshops with similar names, Hot Bed Press and Red Hot Press, which soon inspired a bigger project to link workshops around the UK and the world, and the 20:20 Print Exchange was born.

The idea behind the exchange is a simple one…

Each artist produces an edition of 25 prints. Artists submit their prints to Hot Bed Press in groups of 5 as part of a print studio, college department or collective group. After the momentous print sort at Hot Bed Press, each artist and workshop receives a random selection box of 20 prints back.

Every year the no.1 print from every edition goes on to tour nationally/internationally to print studios or galleries that participate in the exchange.

The exhibition started its journey at Hot Bed Press in Salford and then exhibited at four venues throughout 2024, each passing the exhibition on to the next venue. The final stop is here in Taigh Chearsabhagh.

2023 – The biggest year yet!

With a grand total of 16,100 prints submitted, by 644 artists and exchanged with 44 print groups and workshops, this has been the largest exchange yet. The project grows each year, fostering connections within the print community across the UK and around the world.  This 2023 exchange included submissions from Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, Denmark, Hong Kong, Iceland, Sweden, Russia, and Slovenia.

20:20 Print Exchange is free to view in Gallery 1, from 7th September.  If you would like to support TC’s continued programming and enable us to keep offering free events, please consider making a donation to Taigh Chearsabhagh.

To see more about the print facilities and opportunities available in Taigh Chearsabhagh, visit our Print Workshop and Dark Room page.

John Macdonald – born and brought up in Lochmaddy – was fascinated by the ferries from a young age. As a schoolboy he kept tickets and timetables and over the years his collection of CalMac items grew to fill his house along the road from the pier where he works – letters, flags, models – many from the days of David MacBrayne himself.

Where the Sea meets the Road presents islanders’ stories, often emotional narratives of homecomings and departures, the fun and excitement of playing at Lochmaddy pier as children, visitors’ memories of sailing to the islands, and the thoughts of business people and passengers for whom the ferries remain central to everyday life today.  You can read fascinating accounts from former skippers and crew, with tales of rough seas and challenging journeys, as well as opinions of critics commenting on the age and reliability of the current fleet.

The exhibition is open to visit in the Museum, 10am-4pm, Monday to Saturday and suitable for all ages and interests.  Entrance tickets are available from the reception desk in the shop, £3 for adults, £1.50 concession, and free for children under age 10. Booking ahead is not required.

Friday 22 March 2024 – Saturday 31 January 2026

An art quilt exhibition

Over the summer of 2023 stitchers from all over the UK attended ‘Escape to the Croft Stitching Retreats’ at Pat Archibald’s studio in Locheport, North Uist. These were ‘first timers’ to the island and they were bowled over by the views from the studio, the otters, eagles and deer that paid visits, as well as the hospitality of the islanders that they met.

All their island impressions are expressed within the art quilts on show.

The stitching and painting techniques in the quilts were taught by Pat over the course of the retreat.

More information about ‘Escape to the Croft Stitching Retreats’ can be found by visiting Pat’s website.

The Colours of The Islands art quilt exhibition is free to view in the Taigh Chearsabhagh Cafe Gallery from 30th July – 28th September, Monday to Saturday, 10am-4pm.  If you would like to support Taigh Chearsabhagh’s continued programming and enable us to keep offering free events, please consider making a donation to Taigh Chearsabhagh.

Environment Exhibition at Old Lochmaddy School

An interactive exhibition dedicated to the ongoing story of these environmentally dynamic islands on ‘the edge’ and their distinctive natural heritage.

Opening Hours

Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays

1-4pm

Wall panels and Avs introduce the many and varied parts of our magnificent natural heritage from the encircling seas and marine wildlife to the character of the land itself.

Hands-on specimens showcase our roughly 400-million-year-old geological rarities and recount the shaping of the Outer Isles across 3 billion years of Earth history.