ARTISTS from several Scottish islands have launched a campaign to highlight island-based creators and their contribution to the country’s cultural landscape.
Artists from Shetland, Orkney and the Outer Hebrides have launched "Even Here, Even Now", a campaign to platform island artists and protest over arts funding cuts.
It comes ahead of a review by the Scottish Government of Creative Scotland. The review, which will be the first since the public body’s establishment in 2010, will examine Creative Scotland’s remit and functions as a funding body.
It comes after Culture Secretary Angus Robertson said the Scottish Government wants to “substantially increase” funding for the arts – but could not confirm how much cash will be provided without “clarity” from the UK Government.
The campaign will platform artists who are often marginalised in a debate dominated by voices from the central belt, and build on the work of a 2024 manifesto of the same name which was supported by Shetland Arts and jointly created by a group of artists living and working in Shetland, Orkney, Uist, and the Isle of Lewis.
The manifesto brings together several issues, including; how the work of island-based artists is vital to the wellbeing and social cohesion of the rural communities in which they live; islanders’ heightened awareness of, and engagement with, the climate crisis; the additional challenges of limited public transport, severe weather, higher energy costs, a lack of digital connectivity, and the expense of connecting to mainland Scotland.
The campaign is set to host a series of in-person and online events designed by four Artist Advocates, Bronwyn Mackenzie (Isle of Lewis), AJ Stockwell (Uist), Jane Matthews (Shetland), and Aine King (Orkney), that will provide island-based artists with further opportunities for their voices to be heard.
Andrew Eaton-Lewis, communications and advocacy lead for "Even Here, Even Now", said: “Surviving as an artist anywhere in Scotland is increasingly precarious. With this campaign we are highlighting the additional challenges facing artists living in rural island communities through the stories of artists living in the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland.
“It is a call for recognition of the value of culture in parts of Scotland that are often left out of the national conversation, but where artists are often deeply embedded in the communities they live in, making a vital contribution to those communities – even here, even now - in a way that deserves wider recognition and support.”
The project was made possible through funding from Culture Collective, a network of 26 participatory arts projects shaped by local communities alongside artists and creative organisations.
The campaign hopes to expand the scope of the manifesto to advocate for island-based artists on a bigger scale, both on the islands themselves and across Scotland.
