A Winter Festival of Orkney Artists (24 November 2007- 26 January 2008)

A Winter Festival of Orkney Artists celebrates the diversity of art produced in Orkney today and reflects the large number of artists who live and work in the County.

The exhibition showcases a broad cross section of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and crafts and includes artists with professional backgrounds and others who, without the benefits of formal study, have discovered the pleasures and challenges that are the rewards of creative activity.  For the viewer, and the artist, the exhibition allows an unparalleled opportunity to revel in the breadth and joy of Orkney’s artistic expression.

Consequences: Christil Trumpet

Christil Trumpet is an artistic collaboration formed in 2003 by Stromness artists Christopher Prendergast and Matilda Tumim.

Working with children’s artwork is at the heart of Christil Trumpet’s work.  The artists have recently completed a highly successful year-long residency based at Papdale Primary School in Kirkwall.  The residency aimed to give shape to the creative potential of the school’s 500 pupils within the refurbishment and expansion of the school’s facilities.  The Scottish Arts Council’s partners programme and Orkney Islands Council co-funded the partnership between artists and school.

The residency also provided an opportunity for the artistic collaboration of Christil Trumpet to develop their own work more fully. The work in this exhibition finds its roots in this period and continues Christil Trumpet’s use of children’s art to provide a means to explore lateral connections and the inherent conflict that lies between expression and convention.

Rebecca Marr: Art and Agriculture Artist-in-Residence

Since January 2007, artist and photographer Rebecca Marr has immersed herself in the day to day working lives of Orkney’s farmers, either on their farms or at Orkney Auction Mart.

This digital presentation offers a glimpse into the calendar and routine of farm life, and through the perceptive lens of the photographer, details the strong bond between farmer, land, livestock and crop. 

The residency represents a year long partnership between the Pier Arts Centre, Orkney Auction Mart and Orkney’s farming community and has been funded through the Scottish Arts Councils partners programme with support from HIE Orkney through the Highland 2007 Community Programme and Leader+.

Ferry Loupers: Edinburgh College of Art - Art, Space & Nature

This exhibition is the result of a field trip made in early October by 10 post-graduate students from Edinburgh College of Art’s Art, Space & Nature programme.  The show represents the beginning of a new long-term study of Orkney, which will be developed in partnership by the Pier Arts Centre and Edinburgh College of Art.

Art, Space & Nature is a post-graduate programme established in 2003 by the College’s departments of Drawing and Painting and Landscape Architecture. The course encourages designers, architects, landscape architects and artists to explore the intersections and relationships between art, architecture and environment.

A previous field study group from Edinburgh College of Art focused on the town of Stromness and how its future development might be shaped.  That study resulted in the exhibition, a future in the past, which was displayed in the gallery in 2003.