DIG 2025: GUIR! Gaelic Arts (Scotland)

Part of Tramway's Dance International Glasgow festival, 9 - 24 May

GUIR!, Glasgow Life's Gaelic Arts incubator programme, has been supporting artists to develop new Gaelic work across disciplines since 2018. See work in development from the three 2025 artists - Calum Ferguson, Mischa Macpherson and Lisa Robertson.

ACCESS
This event is open to anyone. There will be Gaelic to English translation via headsets.

Lisa Robertson is creating music, exploring intersectional stories of strength in the face of female oppression in a Gaelic-speaking context. The testimony of Màiri Camshron who was forced to leave Morvern in the clearances is central to the work which incorporates dance and explores themes of disconnection from the land, rural depopulation and environmental damage. 

Calum Ferguson, a visual artist based in North Uist, is developing a series of sculptural and multi-media works inspired by the Vatersay Raiders, who included his great-great-grandfather. In 1908, they were imprisoned for occupying the Isle of Vatersay in a case that became a pivotal moment in Scottish land reform. , Physical works and performative reoccupation of spaces focus on ‘An Taigh Mòr’ and scars of past island land struggles. 

Mischa Macpherson is researching wild places within Glasgow’s city centre, and the importance of finding moments of nature in urban environments. With a close examination of her local community in Garnethill she will compose new songs whilst collaborating with contemporary dancers to reflect people and places in permanent and transitory spaces, and what they share with island communities.

Header photo - Mischa MacPherson