ASTAR Glen Tolsta

An Lanntair's new exhibition, ASTAR Glen Tolsta, runs from Saturday 11 February until Saturday 24 March.

‘Ulaidh 1: Treasure 1’ by Ishbel Murray. Oil on willow pattern plate. One of a series of 12 from ASTAR: GleannTholstaidh - Glen Tolsta 

ASTAR (distance, journey) explores the concept of journeying through time, to retrace the history of five families who in 1843 left their homes in the Park district of Lewis and settled in the uninhabited Glen Tolsta.

Although the glen subsequently became home to a thriving community it virtually disappeared in the period after the Second World War, only a few generations later. A search for the origins of the Glen Tolsta community and a wider examination of who we belong to and where we come from was the genesis of this exhibition. The location acts as a fulcrum for the work of the three artists, Anne Campbell, Mairi Morrison and Ishbel Murray, who collaborated on the project and their individual responses reveal the complex interweaving of island family histories.

A publication of the same name is being released as part of the exhibition. It contains an essay by the Gaelic writer and broadcaster Catriona Murray, along with reproductions of the work in the exhibition. It will be available from Saturday 11th February.

We are also running workshops with Mairi and Anne, which relate to their work on ASTAR.