Home and Belonging Exhibition

The official opening of the Home and Belonging Exhibition will take place at 8pm on Friday 18 February 2022 at Da Gadderie, Shetland Museum and Archives, as part of the Festival of Care: Tending the Light.

The exhibition is part of the larger Home and Belonging project, which is an arts-based exploration of home and belonging founded on mutual creative enquiry by care experienced young people alongside their communities. The core of Home and Belonging is the #ShetlandCrew: a group of young, care experienced people who are working to improve things for those who come after them.

The project started in2019 and is led by the University of the Highlands and Islands Centre for Island Creativity in partnership with Who Cares? Scotland. This work is supported with funding from the Life Changes Trust. The Trust is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.  

Together, the #ShetlandCrew have used creative processes to  

  • reflect on what it means to be ‘at home’ in private, public and community spaces 
  • develop a stronger sense of home and belonging through creative exploration 
  • transform how partner organisations work alongside care experienced young people, enabling them to have a different experience of their home places and communities. 

The exhibition includes work the young people have made with film maker Rozi Peters, poet Jen Hadfield, Minecraft artist Adam Clarke, theatre director Tony McBride and socially engaged artist Professor Roxane Permar.

Siún Carden (Centre for Island Creativity) says: ‘The work the #ShetlandCrew of young people have done is phenomenal and we can’t wait to share some of it with a wider audience. We’ve all learned a lot about what home and belonging mean to us over the last three years. There are parts of the exhibition that are funny, warm, inspiring and hard-hitting. Overall, we’re incredibly proud of what the #ShetlandCrew have achieved so far – and while the Home and Belonging project is coming towards its end, they’re only getting started!’

John Hunter, Art Lecturer at Shetland UHI says: It’s been a great exhibition to work on. There’s an amazing variety of expression and inventiveness within each project that adds its own dynamic to the installation. There’s a sense of solidarity and ownership which we want to put across in the exhibition. It is a very emotional, sensitive and optimistic experience that gives a shared voice that communicates to the wider community. The exhibition combines, films, animations, photographs, interventions, theatre and words into a transformative and thought-provoking experience.

 The exhibition opens on 18 February and runs until the Spring of 2022.