The Mackay Country Trust and Strathnaver Museum are embarking on an exciting art project to raise the profile of renowned Gaelic bard Rob Donn. The project will engage 9 diverse artists working in a range of media to celebrate the life and times of this talented poet.
The artists involved are ceramicist Lotte Glob, artist-blacksmith Sam Barlow, master printmaker Ian Westacott, sculptor and potter Jenny Mackenzie Ross, illustrator Mark Edwards, visual artist Jana Emburey, artist Elliot Rudie, artist Wendy Sutherland and fibre artist Joanne B Kaar.
Rob Donn is an extremely important figure in the history of Gaelic literature and might arguably be as important to Gaelic poetry as his contemporary Robert Burns is to poetry in Scots. Born at Alltnacaillich, Strathmore in 1714 Donn lived through a chaotic period in Highland history as the Jacobite Risings resulted in lasting changes throughout the Highlands. Donn’s work represents an important document of a world both expanding and contracting as the British state made its presence felt in the day-to-day life inhabited by Donn and his contemporaries.
The Strathnaver Museum and the Mackay Country Trust are developing an ambitious series of projects to raise the profile of Rob Donn over the next two years. The results of all the projects will be displayed in the Strathnaver Museum before going on tour.
