Remembering Together Stirling comes to a close
The Stirling project’s artistic approach has been guided by the theme of ritual, and our connection with nature- the healing solace that this brought many during the Covid pandemic and everyday. The pandemic hugely affected our sense of time and sensory aliveness, bringing us in touch with different cycles and seasons of life and death, beginnings and endings, and new rituals were adopted.
The project has been shaped by the seasonal calendar and Celtic Wheel of the Year. This has offered a framework for creativity, nature connection and community- different ways of being together and marking time, as we moved through the timescale of the project. The focus and content of each season’s activities have unfolded organically, in conversation with people and places across Stirlingshire.
The project has worked with partners and communities in Plean, Callander and the Western Villages, Cornton and Riverside; with a residential care home, day care centre, primary schools, a nursery, youth projects, walking group, churches and community centres, libraries and the travelling library bus, gardens, orchards and streets. They approached each place and community with a listening ear- seeking to understand what has been both lost and found in each place as a result of the pandemic, and how we might help to strengthen a sense of potential and connection.
Leaning into intergenerational connection, deep sensory engagement with place and our embodied selves, regeneration and healing, have all been at the heart of the project.
The lead artist Saffy Setohy, producer Silvia Sinibaldi and the wider team have worked with the following guiding themes through each season:
Autumn- gathering in, harvesting
Winter- resting, composting, letting go, journeying inward
Spring- new life and hope, seeds sprouting, light
Summer- abundance, celebration, life affirming
The project focused on experiential activity and events, rather than making permanent objects, and the legacy is mainly around the project film that has been made with Sean Hall, the commemorative book made with Orla Stevens, and some objects and photographs made in workshops.
The book contains information, links and QR codes to lots of the projects activities and practices for people to practise in their own communities and families, as well as alone. 2000 copies of the book are being distributed for free throughout our project partners, Stirlingshire libraries and the travelling library bus service.
The film is available online here and further information from Scene Stirling is available here.