CELEBRATING SCOTLAND'S CRAFTS
A Travelling Exhibition supplied by the National Museums of Scotland
5th November - 21st December
Basket Making, Angus Morrison, Ardvourlie, Harris, c1950
This exhibition highlights a range of crafts distinctive to Scotland. The exhibition was mounted by the National Museums of Scotland with support from the Scottish Arts Council and Jean Muir Ltd. These crafts were once part of the ordinary pattern of everyday life. Using skills handed down over the generations and natural materials locally obtained, they provided for the day to day needs of the community - in the home, at work on land or sea. Often the products of Scotland's traditional craftspeople were distinctive to particular places and regions.
Practical crafts, knitting as we go! Lewis, c1900
The world which supported these crafts has largely gone, but many have found a new place and a new role in a changed world. Some as pastimes and as recreations in a desire to keep old skills alive; others flourish to provide prestige products for a new market.
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 Dyed wool. Photograph Shannon Tofts |
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Photograph |
The exhibition celebrates Scotland's traditional crafts in their contemporary setting, against their historical background. Amongst the crafts featured are knitting, with examples from Shetland and Eriskay; tweed and highland dress, including examples of Hebridean natural dyes; basket making and crafts relating to the land and to sport, crooks and sticks, golf, shinty and curling. To accompany the exhibition, examples of local craftwork from the Museum's own collections will be displayed. Following its showing in Stornoway, the exhibition
will go on tour to other venues in the Western Isles. Venues will
include Seallam!, Northton, Harris, from 6 January 2003; Museum
nan Eilean, Sgoil Lionacleit, from 31 January 2003 and the Barra
Heritage Centre, Castlebay, from 6 March 2003. |
