CONFERENCE REPORT
State of The Art: Visual Tradition And Innovation In The Highlands And Islands of Scotland
Staid Na h-Ealain: Leanailteachd Agus Ùrachadh Lèirsinneach Air Gàidhealtachd na h-Alba.
National Galleries of Scotland, 24-26 June 2010.
[Image: 'Crannghal' by Arthur Watson and Will Maclean. Installed at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Isle of Skye, in November 2006.]
Programme
Staid Na h-Ealain: Leanailteachd Agus Ùrachadh Lèirsinneach Air Gàidhealtachd Na H-Alba / State of the Art: Visual Tradition and Innovation and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Thursday 24th to Saturday 26th June, 2010, Hawthornden Lecture Theatre, National Gallery of Scotland, The Mound, Edinburgh
Thursday 24th June
5.45–7.00 Murdo Macdonald, Professor of History of Scottish Art, University of Dundee: A Highland Art: Reclaiming the Visual for the Gàidhealtachd.
Friday 25th June
10.00–10.15 Murdo Macdonald, conference chair: Introduction.
10.15–10.45 Michael Russell MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning in the Scottish Government: Werner Kissling: from Ethnographer to Photographer.
10.45–11.15 Hugh Cheape, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig: An Art of Narratives: Walter Blaikie’s Hebridean photographs, 1898-99.
11.45–12.15 Lesley Lindsay, University of Dundee: ‘A Mind [always] on the drawing’: Artists of the Gaidhealtachd, Finlay Mackinnon and Sketches of War.
12.15–12.45 Joanna Soden, Royal Scottish Academy: Sculpture and Industry in the Highlands, Reinforcing Celtic Roots.
1.45–2.15 Mike Cormack, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig: The Highlands and Islands in the Popular Mass Media:Photography, Film and Television.
2.15-2.45 Meg Bateman, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig: Ìomhaigh Bhuan na Craoibhe ann an Dualchas nan Gàidheal / The Abiding Image of the Tree in Gaelic Culture.
2.45-3.15 John Purser, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig: Emblems and Totems of the Clans—the language of tourism,or imagery that goes deeper than is comfortable?
3.45-4.15 Malcolm Maclean, Director, Pròiseact Nan Ealan: Building from the Rain and the Stones.
4.15-4.45 Arthur Watson, Senior Lecturer, University of Dundee, and Will Maclean, Professor Emeritus, University of Dundee: Collaborative Works in Highland Landscape and Language.
5.00 RECEPTION hosted by the Royal Scottish Academy.
Saturday 26th June
10.00–10.30 Georgina Coburn, Independent Art Historian and Critic, Boundaries of Perception – A New Highland Territory.
10.30-11.00 Alastair Noble, Artist & Fellow of New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU: Mapping Arcadia: Isle Martin and the Topography of Place.
11.30-12.00 Antonia Thomas, Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology: Monumental Visions: Art and Archaeology in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney.
12.00-12.30 Coinneach MacLean, Tourism and Heritage Consultant, specialising in Gaelic Scotland: Highland Art: An Icon for Gaelic tourism.
12.30-12.45 Murdo Macdonald, conference chair: Closing Remarks.
State of The Art: Visual Tradition And Innovation In The Highlands And Islands of Scotland
Staid Na h-Ealain: Leanailteachd Agus Ùrachadh Lèirsinneach Air Gàidhealtachd na h-Alba.
National Galleries of Scotland, 24-26 June 2010.
[Image: 'Crannghal' by Arthur Watson and Will Maclean. Installed at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Isle of Skye, in November 2006.]
- The conference was part of a process of building Gàidhealtachd cultural capacity by engaging with visual art.
- The tone was set by Michael Russell MSP, Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning in the Scottish Government. He noted the importance of a unity of cultural vision, capable of reflecting not just language but visual and other aspects of culture.
- The conference was a call to action to restore a history of art and wider visual culture to the Scottish Gàidhealtachd, as essential to the sustainability of the Gàidhealtachd.
- There were 15 speakers. A balance to historical, literary and archaeological approaches was provided by the insights of practicing artists.
- The importance of the SAC-funded Artist-in-Residence scheme at Sabal Mòr Ostaig was noted as an example of building cultural capacity in both Gàidhealtachd art and in Gaelic language.
- Two papers were delivered in Gaelic thus building cultural capacity in the discussion of visual material.
- The conference was held at a key venue for the promotion of visual art in Scotland, the Hawthornden Lecture Theatre at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh.
- The support both of the National Galleries of Scotland and of the Royal Scottish Academy was essential to the success of the conference.
- The conference was an outcome of the work of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project, Window to the West: Towards a Redefinition of the Visual within Gaelic Scotland (Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, University of the Highlands and Islands; Principal Investigator: Murdo Macdonald).
- The issues discussed have relevance to any institution engaged in developing or reviewing a Gaelic Language Plan.
Programme
Staid Na h-Ealain: Leanailteachd Agus Ùrachadh Lèirsinneach Air Gàidhealtachd Na H-Alba / State of the Art: Visual Tradition and Innovation and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Thursday 24th to Saturday 26th June, 2010, Hawthornden Lecture Theatre, National Gallery of Scotland, The Mound, Edinburgh
Thursday 24th June
5.45–7.00 Murdo Macdonald, Professor of History of Scottish Art, University of Dundee: A Highland Art: Reclaiming the Visual for the Gàidhealtachd.
Friday 25th June
10.00–10.15 Murdo Macdonald, conference chair: Introduction.
10.15–10.45 Michael Russell MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning in the Scottish Government: Werner Kissling: from Ethnographer to Photographer.
10.45–11.15 Hugh Cheape, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig: An Art of Narratives: Walter Blaikie’s Hebridean photographs, 1898-99.
11.45–12.15 Lesley Lindsay, University of Dundee: ‘A Mind [always] on the drawing’: Artists of the Gaidhealtachd, Finlay Mackinnon and Sketches of War.
12.15–12.45 Joanna Soden, Royal Scottish Academy: Sculpture and Industry in the Highlands, Reinforcing Celtic Roots.
1.45–2.15 Mike Cormack, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig: The Highlands and Islands in the Popular Mass Media:Photography, Film and Television.
2.15-2.45 Meg Bateman, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig: Ìomhaigh Bhuan na Craoibhe ann an Dualchas nan Gàidheal / The Abiding Image of the Tree in Gaelic Culture.
2.45-3.15 John Purser, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig: Emblems and Totems of the Clans—the language of tourism,or imagery that goes deeper than is comfortable?
3.45-4.15 Malcolm Maclean, Director, Pròiseact Nan Ealan: Building from the Rain and the Stones.
4.15-4.45 Arthur Watson, Senior Lecturer, University of Dundee, and Will Maclean, Professor Emeritus, University of Dundee: Collaborative Works in Highland Landscape and Language.
5.00 RECEPTION hosted by the Royal Scottish Academy.
Saturday 26th June
10.00–10.30 Georgina Coburn, Independent Art Historian and Critic, Boundaries of Perception – A New Highland Territory.
10.30-11.00 Alastair Noble, Artist & Fellow of New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU: Mapping Arcadia: Isle Martin and the Topography of Place.
11.30-12.00 Antonia Thomas, Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology: Monumental Visions: Art and Archaeology in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney.
12.00-12.30 Coinneach MacLean, Tourism and Heritage Consultant, specialising in Gaelic Scotland: Highland Art: An Icon for Gaelic tourism.
12.30-12.45 Murdo Macdonald, conference chair: Closing Remarks.