Safeland: Summer Programme

As part of our 2021/22 Visual Art Programme, Safeland, we are excited to announce a series of Summer Walks, Talks + Workshops.

These events explore the margins of place and community, making space for the unrecorded and undervalued histories in Shetland.

All Safeland events will take place in Gaada’s community of Burra and are open to everyone.

If you have any questions about the programme, please contact Gaada via info@gaada.org or 01595 859 539.

Mutualistic Marbling: walk + workshop

Gaada Workshop, Burra, Shetland
Sunday 1 May 2022
10am - 2pm

A walk and workshop exploring mutualistic relationships through Moss, Lichens and Paper Marbling.

We will meet at the Gaada Workshop before collectively exploring lichen landscapes during a walk in the surrounding area. Back in the workshop, marbling techniques will be used to cultivate our own experimental lichen-inspired structures on paper.

Access: Please note the walking aspect of this workshop will take us over uneven landscapes, inclines, and soft terrain.

Open Ramble: conversation with artist Ian Giles

Held on Zoom
Saturday 7 May 2022
10 - 11:30am

Artist Ian Giles (he/him) will join us for a wandering conversation centring around walking practices, with a focus on his 2019 project Open Ramble East.

We will consider themes of reclaiming, readdressing and rewriting local and historical narratives from a queer and inclusive perspective.

If you are in Shetland, we will collectively respond to this conversation during the Re-Mapping: walk + workshop on Sunday 8 May - see below.

Re-mapping: walk + workshop

Gaada Workshop, Burra, Shetland
Sunday 8 May 2022
10am - 2pm

Together the group will take a short walk through the beach, quartz and peat of Burra, and explore notions of representation and identity within the landscape. After returning to the workshop the group will use risograph printing to map our experience and conversations, before attempting the beautiful but tricky turkish map-fold! Your maps will be yours to take home, with the option of donating a copy to Gaada’s Island Zine Library and hopefully inspiring some future cartographers.

These informal discussions will be guided by the earlier ‘Open Ramble’ conversation with artist Ian Giles (on Saturday 7 May) which although not required, you are welcome + encouraged to attend.

Access: A minibus will be provided taking us from the workshop, to the walk site and back. Please note the walk will take us over uneven landscapes, inclines, and soft terrain.

Formations: walk + workshop

Bridge End Outdoor Centre, Burra
Sunday 29 May 2022
1pm - 4pm

Drawing enterprise Aert will guide you on an experimental drawing journey to discover new ways of looking through line, shape and gesture. The Outdoor Centre, a former school, is sited on the islet of Mid-Isle, which provides a bustling Marina, beaches, and headland, all within easy reach. We will use drawing as a tool to zoom in on aspects of the surrounding environment, and develop ideas during playful activities to explore how marks, forms and composition can capture, conjur, and reveal the unseen.

Access: This workshop will involve being outdoors for a short time but will focus on flat areas. The main building is fully wheelchair accessible, including accessible bathrooms, however a moderate gravelled incline is present outside the main building. Gaada staff will be on hand to provide assistance if required.

Coastal Collecting: walk + workshop

Gaada Workshop, Bridge End, Burra
Sunday 5th June 2022
10am - 2pm

Writer, artist, and avid collector Sally Huband (she/her) will lead us on a beachcomb where we will forage for artifacts of the natural and human world which will form the basis of a new coastal collection. Reflecting on our collective findings back in the workshop, we will use printmaking and book-making equipment to catalogue and create mini-museum-like publications to document and disseminate this new collection.

Access: A minibus will be provided, taking us from the workshop, to a nearby beach and back. Please note the walking aspect of this workshop will take us over uneven landscapes and soft terrain.

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Safeland is a multifaceted one year programme of visual art and community-led activities that will generate meaningful creative outcomes and lasting local resources by extending the safe space of Gaada’s visual art workshop, out into the Shetland landscape (and back again).