ARCHIPELAGIC | BUILDING CULTURAL MOMENTUM

Aim

Help bring selected projects from Scottish Islands Explorer, Volume I, to life through new commissions, publications, and exhibitions.

FROM THE PRINTED PAGE TO NEW CULTURAL POSSIBILITIES

What if a publication could become the starting point for an evolving programme of cultural activity, connecting artists, writers, musicians, makers and communities across Scotland’s islands and beyond?

This is the idea behind ARCHIPELAGIC.

Conceived by artist, designer and cultural producer Allison Regan and developed by the Islands Book Trust, ARCHIPELAGIC is an interdisciplinary cultural programme emerging from Scottish Islands Explorer Annual Book. Rather than allowing the relationships and ideas established through each volume to end with publication, it creates a framework for their continued development. A piece of writing might become a performance; a photograph might inspire a collaboration; research might develop into a publication and public conversation.

The publication becomes a beginning rather than an end.

THE PUBLICATION BEHIND THE PROGRAMME

The Islands Book Trust (Urras Leabhraichean nan Eilean) has reimagined Scottish Islands Explorer from a regular magazine into a substantial annual cultural publication. Volume I brings together 64 contributors across 368 full-colour pages and approximately 90,000 words of essays, oral histories, memoir, photography, poetry and visual art.

Structured around Inheritance and Continuity and Islands in Transmission, it considers language, labour, migration, memory, landscape and creative practice across Scotland’s islands, with connections to Ireland, Iceland and the wider North Atlantic.

Contributions include Kevin MacNeil’s Stillness & Other Weather; an oral history with Malcolm Maclean about the origins of An Lanntair; Stone, Fire and Tide, featuring artist Julie Brook; Frances Scott’s cover essay on coastlines and memory; Harris Tweed Hebrides; Dr Enda Ó Flaherty on Irish–Scottish connections; and Lewis Lines writer-in-residence Aoife Casby on language and identity.

Under Editor-in-Chief Allison Regan’s editorial and creative direction, the publication has been transformed in content, design and format. Volume I is planned for publication in November–December 2026, priced at £20; pre-orders can be arranged via [email protected].

HOW ARCHIPELAGIC WORKS

Each volume introduces contributors, ideas, subjects and places. Selected opportunities may then develop into new creative work and public activity across publishing, visual art, poetry, photography, music, storytelling, archaeology, craft, performance, language and participatory practice.

ARCHIPELAGIC is not a conventional festival with a predetermined annual programme. Its content grows from the people, places and creative work represented in successive publications.

WHAT THIS CROWDFUNDER WILL SUPPORT

This appeal is specifically for selected pilot projects inspired by Volume I. It does not seek to finance the full ARCHIPELAGIC programme or its proposed five-year development framework for 2027–2031.

The pilots and taster nights will decipher how editorial relationships and creative ideas can develop into paid commissions, publications, exhibitions, performances and community engagement. Final activities and scale will depend on funds raised, contributor agreements, partnerships and delivery costs.

Possible pilot activities:

• New writing, collaborative poetry publications and readings
• Collaborative partnerships and exchanges
• Visual-art commissions, photography exhibitions and publications
• Artist and writer collaborations responding to island places
• Research-led heritage and archaeological activity
• Storytelling, music, language and oral-culture events
• Workshops, talks, island encounters and participatory activities
• Temporary pop-up events combining creative practices

These are proposals, not confirmed events or commissioned participants.

WHY YOUR SUPPORT MATTERS

Scotland’s islands contain extraordinary creative knowledge, talent and cultural diversity. Yet geography, travel, production and coordination can make sustained collaboration difficult. ARCHIPELAGIC aims to create continuing opportunities rather than isolated encounters.

Your contribution can help pay practitioners fairly for substantive work, support new creative production, connect people across islands and disciplines, bring activity into public settings and build relationships that continue beyond individual projects.

HOW CONTRIBUTIONS WILL BE USED

• Contributor fees for writing, artistic commissions, performances, research, talks and workshops
• Materials, editing, design, printing and exhibition production
• Travel, accommodation and coordination for island-based activity
• Accessible public readings, exhibitions, conversations and workshops
• Planning, administration, permissions and delivery support

Funds will support a realistic selection of pilot activities. If the campaign raises less than its target, the scope will be reduced to match available resources rather than committing to unfunded projects.

A LONGER-TERM VISION AND DIGITAL LEGACY

ARCHIPELAGIC has a separate five-year development framework for 2027–2031, intended to expand progressively around successive Scottish Islands Explorer volumes. That vision requires separate future funding, partnerships and delivery agreements. This campaign supports only the Volume I pilots.

With appropriate permissions, selected records of pilot activity could contribute to Islands Server, a separate Islands Book Trust digital initiative supported by SSEN Transmission, intended to widen access to island literature, culture and heritage. Islands Server is a potential legacy connection, not a funding source for ARCHIPELAGIC. Neither ARCHIPELAGIC nor Scottish Islands Explorer is SSEN-funded.

HELP BUILD CULTURAL MOMENTUM

Your contribution can help turn the creative relationships and ideas established through Volume I into new commissions, publications, exhibitions, performances and opportunities for participation.

You can also assist in a second print run for VOL. I of Scottish Islands Explorer

Support the ARCHIPELAGIC pilot. Help turn Volume I into new cultural activity.

INDICATIVE PILOT PROJECT ALLOWANCES

Pilots Taster Night £3,000

Additional Staffing Fund £3,000

Potential project Planning allowance

Two poetry readings and conversations £3,000

Collaborative poetry booklet £5,000

Photographer/writer pairing £7,000

Collective photography publication and presentation £10,000

Second print run of Scottish Islands Explorer Volume I £5,000

These are illustrative planning allowances, not confirmed targets or cumulative milestones. Reconcile contributor fees, shared costs, travel, printing, platform fees and in-kind support before publication.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 30th December 2026 at 10:48am