Community
As is evident from the information and weblinks on this site, Ullapool is a thriving community. Start with www.ullapool.com, and you will embark on a unique and amazing journey!
Ullapool is a hub which serves as a focus for the areas of Lochbroom, Coigach and Assynt. From this small area in the remote North-west of Scotland the creative output of the last few decades has been formidable. Many of our young people, inspired perhaps by the stunning local scenery, have gone on to careers in the visual arts and music.
Our interpretation of Scotland’s year of Homecoming 2009 is to gather these people together to celebrate their contribution to the world, and to showcase their output to visitors from all over the country and the world. We are proud of what these people have achieved. After centuries of emigration and rural depression, North-west Scotland is becoming a fertile and productive environment. The area is greatly supportive of projects such as Tillidh Mi Dhachaidh, which has been welcomed and supported by local people and businesses.
Banners
Since March 2009 nearly one hundred local people have been engaged voluntarily in creating large banners to highlight and publicise Tillidh Mi Dhachaidh. Jan Kilpatrick (www.wildtiles.co.uk), local textile and ceramic artist, has led a series of workshops to guide and co-ordinate these. The results, she says, are beyond her wildest dreams! Typically, community members arrived tentatively at their first workshop, showing interest but little confidence in what they might produce. However with Jan’s encouragement and faith, these people are making banner panels of incredibly high quality.
The banners comprise an individual textile panel for each letter, interpreted by its creator/s with their personal interpretation of what homecoming, and the local area, mean to them. In order for the finished banners to have integrity and cohesion, each banner has panels of the same colour, with lettering of a standard size and colour. But other than that, the creators are free to make what they want of their panel – and they certainly have! There are boats, fish, seagulls, mountains, sunsets, trees, Highland cows, Highland dancers, a fair smattering of music notes, and even a taxi and an armchair! People from all over the community have become involved, including children from the local after school club and the Special Needs department of the High School, and some of the former UHS students who will be performing and exhibiting in Tillidh Mi Dhachaidh. Residents of Achiltibuie who meet regularly on Saturdays for “Stitch and Bitch” sessions decided to create a “Homecoming 2009” banner of their own, which will hang in Achiltibuie Village Hall in the future.
The project, says Jan, is “growing arms and legs”! At the latest session, several people suggested that it would be good to have a book to record the Banners project, with a picture of each panel accompanied by the creators comments on what inspired his or her design. So of course, that is now happening.
Tillidh Mi Dhachaidh project manager, local music teacher Valerie Bryan, commented “Its been great having Jan lead the banners project – she has given people so much inspiration and encouragement, and is so organised and thorough that we know the finished banners will look absolutely stunning. Fran Harrison and Chris Brotherston at the Macphail Centre have been co-ordinating this project, and that has also been a great help – they have worked really hard to spread the word and get community members involved. Fran has also made two terrific banner panels herself. The banners project has given local people a great opportunity to become involved with Tillidh Mi Dhachaidh. Many of them have sons and daughters who will be performing and showing work in the concerts and exhibitions and it’s been lovely for them to contribute to raising awareness of this Homecoming project.
The inspiration for the banners project really came from several previous community projects. In 1988 for Ullapool’s Bicentenary, Moira Young co-ordinated a fantastic local tapestry which involved nearly two hundred community members from ages seven to almost ninety! The tapestry now hangs in Ullapool Museum and is a wonderful reminder of the 1988 celebrations. The Macphail Centre have also run really successful community project, including “Sea to Sky” and “Passing Places”, led by Eleanor White, which has been toured all over Scotland, including the Scottish Parliament. There is no doubt that coming together to create a collaborative work of high quality is a wonderful way of creating real community spirit – and the people here are well aware of this. ”
