Nairn Book & Arts Festival

Dr Tony Pollard, Director of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at Glasgow University, has played a leading role in developing the disciplines of battlefield and conflict archaeology over the last ten years. In l999 he carried out an investigation of the Isandlwana battlefield from the Anglo-Zulu War of l879, and in 2000 he co-organised the first international conference on battlefield archaeology.  These initiatives led to the BBC television series Two Men in a Trench, about the first archaeological investigation of Culloden battlefield, which Tony co-presented with Neil Oliver.  He has also played an important role in establishing a forensic archaeology capability at Glasgow University, and has worked with British police forces on a number of crime scenes.

In 2007 the Australian Army commissioned Tony to survey ground in Northern France suspected of accommodating a series of mass graves dug by the Germans after the Battle of Fromelles in l916.  This research led ultimately to the recovery of many bodies of Australian and British troups.  He will return to the Western Front this summer, where a project on the Somme will be filmed by Channel 4 as a Timeteam special, following the success of a previous tv documentary about exploration beneath the trenches of Flanders near Ypres.

Sponsored by Nairn Literary Institute

Greta Bergman, who has worked with felt for 17 years, is still discovering new magic in the medium. 

Playing with colours and natural fibres is a great way to get in touch with your creative energy.
No drawing skills required!  You can make a Felt Picture or a small bag.

Off the Peg is the community art event in Nairn High Street.  Unframed paintings pegged inside shop windows for all to see and buy.  10% of sales will be given to the Children’s Art Club. 

The exhibition is supported by Nairn Art Society whose Summer exhibition takes place at the Court House from 2nd August.

Event Information (DOC)

Following the success of last year’s inaugural competition, instigated and run by the Nairn Book & Arts Festival, and responding to popular demand, this year’s Open will be exhibiting more art works and for a longer period.  Selected works in all media from oil to gouache, photography to sculpture will be displayed in the Court House and in the Seaman’s Hall.  These East and West exhibitions will be selected by a panel of judges from the many hundreds of entries which have been received from all over Scotland and beyond.  Good prizes have ensured huge national interest in the past and this year there is a new Highland prize for residents in the Highlands and Islands.  All works are for sale but none will be removed till the end of the exhibition on 19 June.

Download more information (PDF).
Download the application form (DOC).

Smallish paintings are always a challenge to artists but prescribed sizes (exactly 16” by 16”) make for an attractive and fascinating exhibition.  The subjects and media are not specified so our artists have been able to follow their own preferences.  We invite our audiences at the Community Centre, our main venue, to allow plenty of time to visit this exhibition which demonstrates the diversity and individuality of our chosen artists. All paintings will be for sale and the exhibition continues till 19 June.

Ruth Nicol has achieved a great deal since winning Nairn’s 2009 Open Art Competition.  She has completed her degree course at Edinburgh College of Art, and travelled frequently around the North East of Scotland.  Her solo exhibition is a pictorial record of her fascination with road travel and with the surrounding landscape as it changes throughout the seasons.  Never shy of covering large canvases, Ruth has excelled herself with this dynamic and inspiring exhibition in the Community Centre.

The tailor sews the finest clothes for the people of Inverness, but what costume is he making for himself?  The Tailor of Inverness uses storytelling, video projection, music and choreography to tell the story of a farm boy from Poland.  By forced migration, he cuts a path across war-torn Europe, the Middle East and England.  In a new country, he becomes a new man as his identity is deconstructed and then re-sewn from the pieces.  Amongst many other awards, The Tailor of Inverness won the Best Actor Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland 2009.

Peter Kerr’s award-winning Snowball Oranges was the first in a fun-filled series of books charting his family’s experiences while farming oranges in Mallorca:  when the recession of the l980s hit he gave up as a farmer of barley and beef cattle in Scotland and moved his family out to Mallorca to take on a rundown orange farm – something he knew absolutely nothing about!  Now concentrating on humour-laced fiction, Peter’s books sell worldwide and have been translated into eleven languages.  Join the best-selling Scottish author for some cheery banter, a glass of Spanish vino and some tapas!

The Nairn Camera Club will exhibit entries for their competition, which has three categories: Under 12 (or attending Primary) 12 – 18 and Over 18’s.  The competition which is free to enter and open to all allows a choice of subject and either colour or black and white for the photographs.

Download Competition Poster
Download Entry Form

Novelist and poet Lorn Macintyre hails from Argyll and spent his adolescence on the island of Mull, the inspiration for his two short story collections, Tobermory Days and Tobermory Tales.  He will talk about the influence his Highland background has had on his writing, and will read from his recent poetry collection A Snowball in Summer, which evokes his childhood at Dunstaffnage House, Connel, and Taynuuilt, Argyll, and includes poems ranging from paranormal experiences to the consequences of global warming.  ‘Outstanding and pained is the final long poem about his mother, which disturbingly communicates the experience of old age, love, and irreversible memory loss’ Robert Crawford.

An exhibition of paintings with a broad range of styles/subjects by thirteen local artists, featuring the work of:

Sally Gunn, Adam Walker-Parker, Olive Starsmore, John Wilson, Mary Wilson,
Norma Shewan, Heloise Shewan, Chris Lane, Al Knight, Rod Verity, Chris Gaunt
Alex Webster, Chloë Furze.

Opening Times: 9.00am to 5.30pm Monday to Saturday (Closed Tuesdays/Sundays)
Phone: 01667 456126