4 October 2005
Opening a 'Window to the West'
The University of Dundee and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic College in the Isle of Skye, are embarking on a major five-year project which will unite experts in contemporary art, Gaelic language and culture, and art history.
The 'Window To The West' project - a title which refers to Sorley MacLean’s poem Hallaig - will explore the inter-relations of visual art and Gaelic language and culture, creating new opportunities for the understanding of Gaelic culture as a key to understanding Scotland.
This unique collaboration is funded by a grant of almost £550,000 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, one of the largest awards they have ever made to the visual arts. It has been awarded to Professor Murdo Macdonald of the Visual Research Centre at the University of Dundee and Professor Norman Gillies of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.
To date the culture of the Highlands and Islands has usually been approached from the perspective of history or language. However in the last two decades there has been a shift toward serious visual arts engagement with these linguistic and historical issues. This new project aims to take this trend further.
Professor Macdonald said: 'This is a wonderful opportunity to rethink imagery of the Highlands and Islands. It is high time we moved on from Landseer-type stereotypes.'
Professor Gillies said: 'I am delighted that this project has won through and I look forward to building on our ongoing relationship with colleagues at the University of Dundee. This award for research funding comes at an opportune time as we go about bringing plans for a visual arts facility to fruition in developing our new Creative and Cultural Industries building, Fàs. The building will be opened in 2007 to chime with and celebrate Scotland's Highland Year of Culture.'
Strong support for the project came from the Development Director of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Donnie Munro, whose experience in the music industry provides insight into how wider cultural approaches can be used in the interests of Gaelic language and culture.
Donnie said: 'Since it’s inception SMO has been at the heart of the process of the rationalisation and regeneration of the Gaelic language and culture.
'In seeking to fulfil its mission SMO recognised the importance of working holistically to create a supporting framework through education, economic development, the arts and cultural heritage.
'The Window To The West visual arts research project brings a synergy and academic rationale to the placing of the visual art within the wider context of the language and material culture.'
The AHRC grant will fund a full-time post-doctoral researcher to be appointed in the near future. It will also fund the research costs of a multi-disciplinary team drawn from the staff of the University of Dundee and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.
This project could not be more timely. The Gaelic Language Act became law in April this year, recognising Gaelic as an official language of Scotland, and giving a legal basis for its development. The five-year span of the project also covers the Year of the Highlands in 2007.
An advisor to the project is the artist Professor Will Maclean, whose work has drawn consistent attention to the importance of Gaelic culture. The project will generate an array of new art complemented and informed by linguistic insights into the expression of the visual in Gaelic. A further dimension will be a written companion to imagery of the Highlands and Islands.
There will be a series of annual seminars culminating in a conference in the final year of the programme. This will also involve exhibitions and performances arising from the project.
Outcomes of the project - whether works of art or academic papers - will have relevance internationally wherever loss of language, culture and skills is an issue./ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
The Dundee University team is drawn from the faculty of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. It is led by Murdo Macdonald, Professor of History of Scottish Art, who has consistently emphasised the significance of Highland, and Highland-related art in his work. Key researchers are Professor Will Maclean of the Visual Research Centre, whose career as an artist has at its heart a reflection on Gaelic and Highland culture, and Dr Norman Shaw, lecturer in the School of Fine Art, one of the first academics at Dundee to gain a PhD which included art practice. A crucial member of the Dundee team is Jane Cumberlidge, manager of the Visual Research Centre.
The Skye-based team is led by Professor Norman Gillies, director of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, who is widely respected as an advocate of Gaelic language and culture. Key researchers are Dr John Purser, renowned for his Gaelic and wider Scottish cultural studies and Dr Meg Bateman, outstanding both as an academic and a Gaelic poet.
Our title refers to the words of Sorley MacLean's poem Hallaig: 'Tha bùird is tàirnean air an uinneig / troimh ’m faca mi an Aird an Iar' or, in his own translation: 'The window is nailed and boarded / through which I saw the West'. This is our window to the west. Our project is a perspective on that Highland culture which has helped to define Scotland in the eyes of the world, but has, at the same time, as MacLean’s words make very clear, been itself under pressure from emigration and wider policies of cultural denial.
Investigation of visual thinking in general and visual art in particular, with respect to the Gaidhealtachd, still lacks definition, recent years have seen a growth of purpose-built art centres in the Highlands and Islands. Further impetus has been given by the current development, at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, of Fàs - the Centre for Creative and Cultural Industries, which will included a custom built studio, archive and study facility for visual arts.
The project will enhance the understanding of the place of visual art with respect to the Gaidhealtachd. At the same time it will make a direct contribution to that visual art.
We will employ a full-time post-doctoral research assistant, ideally a Gaelic-speaker, engaged in relevant research, skilled in project administration.
Professor Murdo Macdonald can be contacted via e-mail at m.j.s.macdonald@dundee.ac.uk
Professor Norman Gillies and Donnie Munro can be contacted via Sabhal Mòr Ostaig - 01471 888000
For more information contact:
Roddy Isles,
Head of Press
Tel: 01382 344910,
out of hours: 07968298585,
Email: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk | 
