Shift is an exchange residency project that was developed by Pamela Conacher and Emergents. In the project’s initial phase, from 2015-2018, makers and designers from the Scottish Highlands & Islands and Iceland collaborated. Since, Shift ‘shifted’ to Canada.
Iceland
An initial scoping visit made to Iceland in 2015 resulted in a partnership with the craft organisation Handverk og hönnun, continued with an exhibition of Scottish and Icelandic makers existing work in 2017 and culminated in an exhibition of new work by Scottish and Icelandic participants as part of both Design March in Reykjavik and XpoNorth 2018 at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery. Over the course of the project, eight Scottish makers took part. Eileen Gatt (jewellery and silversmithing) and Hilary Grant (knitted textiles) exhibited existing work. Diggory Brown (kiltmaker), Julia Smith (ceramics), Yellow Broom (lighting and products), Jen Deschenes (textiles) and Lucy Woodley all developed new work for 2018.
This film details the project in 2018 as makers and designers were preparing works for the final exhibition.
Two years on, the benefits to the Highland makers who participated in Shift are still accruing.
- Yellow Broom’s ‘Reykjavic’ lighting, inspired by the architecture of Iceland’s capital, was selected for the Visual Arts Scotland 2019 exhibition in which they won the prestigious Inches Carr Mentoring Award.
- Lucy Woodley’s new work was exhibited throughout the Highlands and Islands in 2021.
- Netty Sopata of Diggory Brown was invited to join the Circumpolar Crafters Network travelling to work with the Sami people in north Norway, and the Crafting Futures Mexico project to meet makers in Oaxaca.
Canada
Shift entered a new phase as an AAS project in 2019, managed by Pamela as an AAS Board member. Read more about SHIFT Canada and the exhibition of the same name at Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design in 2026.
The Canadian iteration of Shift brought together five Scottish and five Canadian makers together for a residency at three points:
- Residencies in Nova Scotia, Canada – October 2019
These took place over 10 days in Halifax - Residencies in the Scottish Highlands – spring 2020
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the exchange residencies had to be cancelled. However, the makers embraced the challenge and moved their contact online with very positive results - At Identity, Collaboration Sustainability: an online, international festival of craft and Meet Make Collaborate touring exhibition
The participating Scottish makers were artist Louise Barrington (Orkney), weaver Cally Booker (Dundee), ceramicist Susan O’Byrne (Glasgow), basketmaker Sarah Paramor and ceramic artist Carol Sinclair (Angus). They collaborated respectively with Canadian makers from Nova Scotia jeweller Kiersten Holden-Ada, visual artist Andrea Tsang Jackson, jeweller Mengnan Qu, weaver Jennifer Green and jeweller Rebecca Hannon.
We worked with a new partner in Scotland, Dr Juliette MacDonald, Professor of Craft History and Theory at the University of Edinburgh and Distinguished Research Fellow at Nova Scotia College of Art & Design (NSCAD). Juliette lead on the academic strand of the project and brokered the relationship with NSCAD, our Canadian project partners. This iteration of the project was possible with the support of Creative Scotland. Other funders and supporters were Highlands and Islands Enterprise, High Life Highland and Museums Galleries Scotland.
