Artist Support Update
Artists Support has been continuing as much as possible throughout the lockdown. The main activity has been focused on mentoring opportunities and peer reviews.
We are growing our number of mentors and mentees steadily.
With the new phase in lockdown easing we hope to have our musician mentees back to recording in the Wee Studios and Black Bay Studios as soon as is possible.
The mentoring that continued throughout lockdown happened to be focused on writing, especially poetry. To reflect this growing interest we are inviting our Western Isles poets to submit recordings of themselves doing readings. We are very grateful to Pauline Prior Pitt for making very beautiful recordings to start us off with.
Please get in touch if you would like to make recordings- Gaelic or/and English.
Our peer reviews have been a special time for artists to get together to reflect in depth on a piece of work. Artists who have participated in the peer reviews have been encouraged, challenged and strengthened. I would encourage any artist of any discipline to make use of this opportunity. If you want to have your work reviewed or to respond to another artists work please get in touch. The reviews can be either in Gaelic or English.
Here is some feedback from artist who have taken part in peer reviews. If you are interested or would like more information please email sandra@lanntair.com
Ron Coleman
Recently I was struggling with a section of the play I was writing mainly because it was difficult for me to identify fully with the character....
The piece was read out to a small group of invited people who then explored the piece in a frank and honest manner (the Critical friend) The process was really helpful and the feedback allowed me to decide to use the piece as it was written, it is definitely a process I would and will use again as it quickly helps you to resolve conflicts within ones self quickly and allows you to come to a conclusion
Mairi Gilles
I have found both peer reviews so helpful! In my past I have had crtiques of my work which have not been helpful and at worst have been hurtful or damaging to my creative process which made me feel a bit wary. However these peer reviews have been so refreshing and engaging.
The format means that there is little explaination of the artwork prior to intial feedback. Normally when I am introducing the work I have made, I would spend time explaining meanings, materials and contexts to the work and then people would experience the work and I imagine think 'ok, yeah, I see that'. However when someone is giving you their intial feedback with no explainations it gives me an insight to the work with fresh eyes, it tells me what others bring to it and ultimately whether it successfully visually conveys the themes and ideas I have had without language. Very interestingly in both peer reviews people have seen the intended meanings and themes, but also have observed other points which has brought about new meaning making for me within the works.
The peer review has felt like a supported environment both encouraging whilst neutral and has intorduced me to other artists working in different disiplines but with similar interests to me.
I have also found being involved in a peer review of someone elses work really benificial - it's been stimulating to be part of a group of artists and to be approaching the same subject and hearing what other people have to say - it brings on my own thinking and ways of seeing.
Lastly, having a peer review in Gaelic has been really quite moving. It was a joy to hear the words, phrases and meaning in Gaidhlig when a lot of my work is made within a Gaelic context - a really special experience that no other arts body or organisation would be able to facilitate. Mile taing.
Ellis O’Connor
‘The structure of the peer review was brilliant and offered a great opportunity to ask questions, reflect and gain the feedback that I really needed for my practise! The timing between each section worked really well as it meant we all got the best out of the review and it flowed together well’.
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