Please note all event plans remain in development and all dates and details are subject to change
A Yarn Worth Spinning
April to June 2022
Lead event organiser: Live Borders
Venue: The Great Tapestry of Scotland, High Street, Galashiels
Local Authority: Scottish Borders
‘A Yarn Worth Spinning’ tells the story of the history and culture of textiles in the Scottish Borders, including the local industry’s links to empire and colonialism and its current role in high fashion. This multi-layered story will be told through an innovative fashion show featuring designs by fresh talent from Heriot Watt University’s School of Textiles and Design in Galashiels. An exhibition will then display the fashion show garments, as well as winning clothing designs from a local school competition, and a creative video essay which narrates the rich heritage of textiles in the Scottish Borders.
Abriachan's Stories, Seanchaidh and some Stars
January to December 2022
Lead event organiser: Abriachan Forest Trust
Venue: Abriachan Forest, Abriachan
Local Authority: Highland
Abriachan Forest, situated in the hills above Loch Ness, will play host to a storytelling event each month of 2022, delivered by a mix of local storytellers, musicians, natural historians, geologists, astronomers and a fire dancer! Some events will take place round a cosy campfire, while others will see participants on the move, exploring the forest’s path network. From star-gazing in this dark skies site to churning butter on the way up to the shieling, all events will have audience participation and stories firmly at their heart.
Auld Toon Tales
May and June 2022
Lead event organiser: The Iris Arts Ayr
Venue: Ayr town centre, various locations
Local Authority: South Ayrshire
A promenade theatre performance, delivered by young people and based on the memories of older residents, celebrating the rich history of Ayr town centre, Harbourside and Industrial Quarter. This fun intergenerational project will bring to life legendary stories of smugglers and witches, prisoners and rag-and-bone men, as well as lesser-known stories of the men and women who worked in the town’s dairy, stamping works, carpet factory and fish market. The performance will combine site-specific live storytelling and pre-recorded audio narration.
Beyond 2020: Community Reflections
January to December 2022
Lead Event Organiser: East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure
Venues: Various venues across East Renfrewshire including community halls, libraries, and Eastwood Park Theatre
Local Authority: East Renfrewshire
This project will engage people from across the East Renfrewshire community to capture and share their own lived stories of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through volunteering in an Oral History project or taking part in a professional photographic exhibition and creative writing workshops, individuals will reconnect with others, participate in library, arts and heritage activities and leave a shared community legacy.
Caroline Phillips script (working title)
June 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Garidge Theatre
Venue: Garioch Heritage Centre, Loco Works Road, Inverurie
Local Authority: Aberdeenshire
The life of Scottish suffragette and journalist Caroline Phillips is the inspiration for a brand new theatre piece. Born in 1874 in Kintore, Aberdeenshire, Caroline was a true pioneer: honorary secretary of the Aberdeen branch of the Women's Social and Political Union, and a journalist at a time when there were only 66 female journalists in the UK. Written in Doric dialect and English by award-winning writer Alan Bissett, and performed by Garidge Theatre’s cast of young people, this will be a fabulous celebration of local history and language.
Cliabh An T-Shenachais - The Story Creel
Dates TBC: Red carpet premiere- Saturday 23 July 2022; Matinee screening: Monday 3 October 2022; Online: Tuesday 4 October 2022
Lead Event Organiser: South West Mull and Iona Development
Venues: (TBC) Fionnphort beach, Isle of Mull; Matinee screening: Bunessan Hall, Isle of Mull; and online
Local Authority: Argyll and Bute
A celebration of fishing and its importance to the remote communities of South West Mull and Iona. Tall tales and true stories from fishing families, past and present, will combine with sea poems and songs created by local children, in new film 'Cliabh An T-Shenachais – The Story Creel'. There are three ways to enjoy the film: catch the red carpet premiere on Fionnphort beach, complete with food, music and taxi boats; have tea, cake and a natter at the matinee screening; or watch online from the comfort of your own home.
Edinburgh Festival Carnival - 'Carnival Stories'
Community Carnivals: 18 June 2022; 25 June 2022; 3 July 2022; 9 July 2022
Edinburgh Festival Carnival: 17 July 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival
Venue: Community Carnivals: Goodtrees Neighbourhood Centre, Edinburgh; Links Gardens, Edinburgh; Garden of Reflection, Tranent; Whale Arts Agency, Edinburgh;
Edinburgh Festival Carnival: Princes Street and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
Local Authority: City of Edinburgh
Edinburgh Festival Carnival will showcase the cultural heritage and migration stories of their community partners through the creation of new costumes and choreographed dances. Involving participants from four diverse ethnic communities – including those with Indian, Latin American and Caribbean heritage – these joyful and celebratory carnival stories will be performed at four local community parades and the annual city centre celebration.
Epic Art Challenge – Once Upon a Time
March to July 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Macrobert Arts Centre
Venue: Macrobert Arts Centre, University of Stirling, Stirling
Local Authority: Stirling
As part of their 50th anniversary celebrations, Macrobert Arts Centre will host a special edition of their annual Epic Art Challenge: in 2022 they will ask audiences to share their stories and memories of the Arts Centre and the Forth Valley area. Opportunities for local communities to get involved include live literature sessions held in association with Scottish Book Trust, creative storytelling workshops and meet the artist events. A final exhibition will showcase new and upcoming talent, celebrating the local area and the people within it. All activity, except the workshops, will also be made available online.
Fables at the Stables
July 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Cassiltoun Housing Association
Venue: Castlemilk Stables, Machrie Road, Glasgow and online
Local Authority: Glasgow City
The stories of Castlemilk’s multicultural community are to be captured in a new film. Stories will be told in creative ways – through storytelling, poems and visual art – and in the wealth of different languages spoken by those who call the area home. The film’s premiere will take place in the courtyard of Castlemilk Stables, a 17th Century stables block, and will be accompanied by a series of creative writing workshops for children, performances by a professional storyteller, and an exhibition of postcards which share local people’s stories. An online version of the event, featuring the film and a creative writing workshop, will be offered for those who can’t attend in person.
Family Encounters – New Stories Strand
Family Encounters will take place on 7 May 2022 as part of the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival.
Lead Event Organiser: Imaginate
Venue: National Museum of Scotland, Chamber Street, Edinburgh
Local Authority: City of Edinburgh
A unique strand – New Stories – will feature as part of Family Encounters, a free theatre and dance extravaganza for children and families at the National Museum of Scotland. Two or three emerging artists or companies will deliver new, site-specific performances for children, telling fresh stories in exciting and innovative ways. Under-represented voices and non-traditional formats will be harnessed to create relevant and inclusive work that will surprise and delight young audiences in equal measure.
Fisherfolk Storytelling & Song
27 to 29 May 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Seaboard Memorial Hall Ltd
Venue: Seaboard Centre and other locations around Balintore
Local Authority: Highland
The Fisherfolk Festival, an annual weekend celebration of the history and heritage of the Ross-shire Seaboard Villages, will have a special storytelling focus in 2022. Traditional Scottish singers and storytellers will tell tales in English, Scots and Gaelic, exploring the area’s rich Pictish and Viking heritage, as well as its fishing trade. A variety of concerts, workshops, and minibus and boat storytelling trips will take place in and around Balintore.
Gossip from the Graveyard II: Talking Heads
September or October 2022
Lead Event Organiser: The Whithorn Trust
Venue: Wigtown Book Festival, North Main Street, Wigtown and online
Local Authority: Dumfries and Galloway
In a creative writing competition, the public will be challenged to imagine the stories of two real mediaeval people, reconstructed by scientists from Whithorn burials of the late Middle Ages: a priest with a cleft palate, and an unknown woman buried on a bed of shells. The words from winning entries will animate 3D films of these reconstructed talking heads - to be premiered at Wigtown Book Festival, in person and online.
Home Fae Home
March 2022
Lead Event Organiser: St Aloysius ESOL School
Venues: Performances will take place in Glasgow at the Ogilvie Centre, St Aloysius College and community venues
Local Authority: Glasgow City
‘Home Fae Home’ brings together refugees and asylum seekers studying ‘survival English’ at St Aloysius ESOL School with pupils from the neighbouring St Aloysius College to create a cross-cultural collaborative musical performance. The New Scots will contribute songs, poems and stories from their home countries while the pupils will research the ways Glasgow and Scotland are perceived by the outside world. Both groups’ contributions will be woven together into a script featuring dramatic scenes, storytelling and singing. The performance will tour community venues in Greater Glasgow.
If Our Trees Could Talk
Storytelling workshop for adults: 26 March 2022; Climate Cafe event: 15 April 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Cove Park
Venue: Storytelling workshop for adults: Cove Park, Helensburgh; Climate Cafe event: The Tower Digital Arts Centre, Helensburgh
Local Authority: Argyll and Bute
Digital audio artwork available online from 15 April 2022. In order to preserve Scotland’s temperate rainforests, it is important to listen to the stories of those who live and work in these unique environments. Cove Park will engage a storyteller to capture existing stories and craft new ones in response to this rare landscape. The resulting digital audio artwork will weave together stories from environmentalists, climate scientists, local communities and school children, and will be launched at a celebratory Climate Cafe event that includes a discussion group, guest speakers and the premiere of Cove Park’s Climate Beacons film.
If the islands could speak: Shetland's hidden stories
January to December 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Shetland Amenity Trust
Venue: Shetland Museum and Archives, Hay's Dock, Lerwick
Local Authority: Shetland Islands
Shetland Museum and Archives will explore the island’s stories through two themes: Overcoming Hardship and Very Superstitious. In Overcoming Hardship a series of podcasts/videos and gallery talks will explore stories of resilience from Shetland’s past, while new stories will be collected to create a permanent record of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on islanders. Very Superstitious will draw on Shetland’s rich and unusual folklore, bringing traditional tales alive for a younger generation through workshops, videos and the launch of a new annual storytelling competition.
John Muir's Stories of Survival
‘Surviving Childhood! Outdoor Escape Room’ will run 6 times between April and August 2022; ‘Glenkinchie Distillery and the story of John Muir’ will run 12 times between April and September 2022.
Lead Event Organiser: East Lothian Council
Venue: Both events start at John Muir's Birthplace, High Street, Dunbar
Local Authority: East Lothian
Two events celebrating John Muir, the Scottish founder of the modern conservationist movement. ‘Surviving Childhood! Outdoor Escape Room’ will kick off at John Muir’s Birthplace and take participants on a fun adventure around Dunbar. They will be tasked with uncovering secrets and solving puzzles about Muir’s wild boyhood escapades, gaining a fascinating insight into the formative years that shaped his passion for nature. ‘Glenkinchie Distillery and the story of John Muir’ is an enjoyable soirée of storytelling and drams that will immerse participants in the life and legacy of this remarkable man - starting at Muir’s childhood house (now a unique museum) and finishing at the nearby historic Dunbar Council Chamber.
Launch of the George Mackay Brown Trail in Stromness
Launch event: 12 April 2022; Guided walk: 16 April 2022; Trail leaflet for unguided walking available from: 18 April 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Orkney Arts Society
Venues: Launch event: Stromness Community Centre and Town Hall, Church Road, Stromness; Guided walk: Around Stromness
Local Authority: Orkney Islands
2021 is the centenary of the birth of George Mackay Brown – one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century whose subject was Orkney, its people, legends and history. Now Stromness, Mackay Brown’s beloved hometown, is developing a walking trail in celebration of his life and work. Locals and visitors will be invited to navigate a literary landscape, taking in the coastal path, cultural institutions and the poet’s burial place overlooking Hoy Sound. A launch event will feature the opportunity to hear Mackay Brown’s poetry and prose read by local people in the authentic Orcadian accent.
Mining seams and drawing wells: a living archive for Easterhouse
Exhibition and launch event, March 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Glasgow East Arts Company
Venue: Platform, The Bridge, Westerhouse Road, Glasgow
Local Authority: Glasgow City
A new living archive will share the distinctive story of Easterhouse. Created by residents from local housing associations through a series of participative creative writing, archiving and arts workshops, the archive will be a space to collect stories old and new, and will trace the long tradition of resilience and resistance associated with the area. An exhibition of the archive will display archive material, poetry, writing and video, and a launch event will feature performances by professional storytellers, local writers and project participants.
Open Book's Stories Across Scotland
June to September 2022
Lead Events Organiser: Open Book Twelve community events:
Venues: Twelve community events - locations TBC; Gala event: location TBC
Local Authority: Multiple Areas
Inspired by Hannah Lavery’s poem 'Scotland You’re No Mine', 28 creative writing groups from Shetland to Stranraer will create new work about their experience of life in Scotland. These groups – who include LGBTQ+ and BAME participants, refugee women, the elderly and rurally isolated people – will produce work in English, Scots, Gaelic and Arabic. Their diverse stories and voices will be showcased in a pamphlet, and at live performances in twelve communities across Scotland, before a Gala event brings everyone together for a final celebration of their work.
Our Stories: Traditional Gaelic Storytelling
In-person events: January to March 2022 and also available online
Lead Event Organiser: Auchindrain Trust
Venue: Urras Achadh an Droighinn Martin’s House, Auchindrain Township, Inveraray and online
Local Authority: Argyll and Bute
Storytelling was a crucial element of the winter months in rural Scotland, when the harvest was safely in and people had time to gather and share traditional songs and stories, reinforcing culture, identity and friendships. Three storytelling sessions held at Auchindrain, the best-preserved example of a Scottish Highland farm township, will aim to recreate this tradition. Each session, delivered in Argyll Gaelic and English, will take place on a date significant to the old pre-Gregorian calendar. Although these sessions will have a small in-person audience, they will also be filmed and made available online.
Our Woodland Stories - Evanton Community Wood
March to December 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Evanton Wood Community Company
Venue: Evanton Wood, Dingwall
Local Authority: Highland
Evanton Community Wood will celebrate their 10th anniversary by involving their regular users and new visitors in creating, enjoying and being inspired by stories relating to the wood, the wider local area and participant's imaginations. Storytelling events will take place throughout the year exploring themes of midsummer, environmental champions, stories from other cultures, Samhain and midwinter. The programme will finish with a mini festival of storytelling, artwork and music.
Preserving and Celebrating Edinburgh's Deaf Heritage
August 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Deaf Action
Venue: Deaf Action, Albany Street, Edinburgh
Local Authority: City of Edinburgh
Deaf Action was the first formally constituted deaf organisation in the world and is now, sadly, the last remaining deaf centre in Scotland. As part of their new Deaf Festival, the unique centre will screen a series of new film clips that capture their relationship with the deaf community: from older members’ childhood memories to young people’s vision for the future. Screenings will be held in historically significant rooms around Deaf Action’s building, as well as online. All stories will be presented in British Sign Language, with captions and voiceover.
Rekindling the ceilidh: storytelling through the Scottish seasons
Four public events will be delivered between May and October 2022
Lead Event Organiser: The Three Hares Woodland CIC
Venue: The Three Hares Community Woodland, Auchendinny, Midlothian
Local Authority: Midlothian
This project will bring young people and the local community together to share traditional stories, and create new ones, inspired by their natural environment. A group of young people (aged 8 to 13) will create stories about the natural world during a series of outdoor storytelling sessions. They will then help to develop and participate in four public events tailored to the seasons, weaving together storytelling, crafts and nature exercises which mirror each season. Stories will also be recorded and made available digitally.
Scotland's Year of Stories Short Film Award and Tour
Glasgow Short Film Festival: 23 to 27 March 2022; Touring programme: April to December 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Glasgow Short Film Festival
Venues: various venues across Glasgow; Touring programme: various venues across Scotland
Local Authority: Glasgow City and multiple areas
The Festival’s popular Scottish competition will focus on innovative storytelling in 2022, showcasing the diversity of voices, landscapes and languages represented by Scotland's film talent and their works. During the Glasgow festival in March, an expanded programme of Scottish competition screenings will feature filmmaker Q&As and BSL interpretation, plus a series of free live and streamed discussions, and a programme of archive films, will explore aspects of Scottish cinematic storytelling. Following the festival, the competition films will be shared with audiences across Scotland at cinema and film society screenings.
Sgeulaichean Siarach
Two live storytelling performances: June 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Urras Coimhearsnachd Bhràdhagair agus Àrnoil
Venues: Grinneabhat, North Bragar, Isle of Lewis; Raebhat House, North Shawbost, Isle of Lewis
Local Authority: Eilean Siar
Sgeulaichean Siarach is a celebration of stories and myths associated with the west side of Lewis. Elders will pass on their rich cultural and linguistic heritage to local children during environmental walks to three local sites. The children will then create their own Gaelic language response to the traditional stories in creative workshops, bringing them into the modern age. The children's stories will be shared with the local community through two live performances. In addition, the project will be filmed and the resulting three films – one for each story – will be used as storytelling resources within the community and more widely.
Sharing Stories: Treasuring our Past, Inspiring our Future
February to July 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Highland Museum of Childhood Trust
Venue: Highland Museum of Childhood, The Old Station, Strathpeffer
Local Authority: Highland
A rich programme of events will offer local audiences of all generations the chance to connect and share their stories of growing up in the Highlands. Memories and tales of Highland childhood will be explored through a mix of informal story sharing sessions, events on creative writing and identity led by Barbara Henderson, author of 'Scottish by Inclination', and a children’s storytelling and craft workshop. The diverse stories captured through these events will go on to enrich the Highland Museum of Childhood’s displays for future audiences.
Short Sharp Stories – from a whisper to a cacophony
April to August 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Hospitalfield Trust
Venue: Arbroath Abbey or elsewhere within the town
Local Authority: Angus
As part of the wider Arbroath 2000+2 festival, the social, political and cultural histories of Arbroath Abbey, and the intertwined, complex story of the written word, will be celebrated. Taking these subjects as starting points, four writers – two established and two local and emerging – will be commissioned to write short stories, using the newly designed New Scriptorium as a writing studio. Readings of the new works will be hosted outdoors at the Abbey and made available online. In addition, the results of a series of schools’ picture book workshops, which use medieval illuminated manuscripts as inspiration, will be shared through public display of the books and online readings.
Silent Cinema: Telling Old Stories, Singing Songs
The Loves of Mary Queen of Scots, 17 March 2022; Cuppa Talk: Representations of Mary Queen of Scots, 17 March 2022; Telling Old Stories and Singing Songs Commission, 16 March 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Falkirk Community Trust
Venue: Hippodrome Festival of Silent Cinema, Hippodrome Cinema, Hope Street, Bo'ness
Local Authority: Falkirk
There will be three exciting new events at Scotland’s only festival of silent cinema: the world premiere of the new restoration of 'The Loves of Mary Queen of Scots' (unseen since the 1920s) with live narration from ‘Film Explainer’ Andy Cannon; a talk by Donald Smith, Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, on the cultural representations of Mary in film, novels and other media; and the live performance of a new commission from a Scottish artist responding to a curated selection of archive film that explores Scotland’s pride in its people and places.
Skylark Journeys
4 June 2022
Lead Event Organiser: The Skylark IX Recovery Trust
Venue: Scottish Maritime Museum, Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank, Castle Street, Dumbarton
Local Authority: West Dunbartonshire
The Skylark IX Dunkirk Little Ship, now housed in Dumbarton, has contributed so much to communities over her lifetime, from wartime service to Remembrance Day commemorations and pleasure cruises. Now her story is to be told through the creation of the ‘Skylark Tapestry’. Woven together with the little ship’s story will be Scotland’s wider maritime history and the personal stories of the tapestry makers. A celebratory event will launch the tapestry – it will include expert talks, a film sharing an oral history project, a storytelling performance by local people and an illustration workshop for young people.
Stories from the Kist
Stories from the Kist event: 7 May 2022; Learning from the Kist workshop: 7 May 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Sabhal Mòr Ostaig
Venue: Both in-person events: Scottish Storytelling Centre, High Street, Edinburgh; In addition, Stories from the Kist will be broadcast live for a virtual audience
Local Authority: City of Edinburgh
Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, an online audio resource featuring over 7,000 stories from Scotland’s rich oral heritage, will provide inspiration for two live storytelling events. In ‘Stories from the Kist’ three professional storytellers will perform new versions of stories relating to Scotland’s people, places and nature in Scots and Doric, with a special focus on tales from Scottish Traveller communities. While ‘Learning from the Kist’, a storytelling workshop, will enable participants to develop their own technique through re-telling stories from the Kist.
Stories of our People, Place and Planet
Programme takes place from March to September 2022; Spring Open Day: 26 March 2022; Harvest Festival: 24 September 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Concrete Garden
Venue: The Concrete Garden or The Back Garden, Possilpark, Glasgow
Local Authority: Glasgow City
This year-long programme will capture and celebrate stories about Possilpark’s unique heritage and multicultural communities. Launching at Spring Open Day, storyteller and community artist Daniel Serridge will tell stories and riddles round the campfire. Over spring and summer, Daniel will work with local children and their families, and Possilpark’s Community Gardeners, plot holders and volunteers, to explore their stories in creative ways. The programme will climax at the Harvest Festival where participants can tell their own stories as part of the celebrations. The stories will also be shared in audio format on an open-source community map.
Story Ceilidh
Story Ceilidh event: 18 June 2022; Online launch of illustrated book and audio recordings of stories: 20 June 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Magic Torch Comics CIC
Venue: Beacon Arts Centre, Custom House Quay, Greenock
Local Authority: Inverclyde
This unique cross-cultural collaboration will bring together stories related to Inverclyde with the stories of New Scots families who have settled there, sharing traditional tales, ballads and poems in Arabic, Scots and Gaelic. Young people and families from Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan will be invited to take part in workshops to gather and retell these traditional stories – their creative outputs will be transformed into an illustrated book and performed at a celebratory ‘Story Ceilidh’ during Refugee Week.
Striking Herstories
The trail will launch in June 2022 (TBC)
Lead Event Organiser: Scottish Football Association Museum Trust
Venue: Scottish Football Museum, Hampden Park, Glasgow
Local Authority: Glasgow City
A brand-new trail at Europe’s first national football museum will shine a spotlight on the fascinating history of women’s football in Scotland. New artworks and text panels will bring to life the stories of iconic female footballers. Stories may include those of Ayrshire’s Rose Reilly, voted the world’s best female footballer in 1983, and Scotland's most prolific goal scorer, Julie Fleeting, who has over 100 goals to her name. By showcasing the tenacity and talent of these trailblazing women, this vital new trail will provide inspiration for future female players of the beautiful game.
Tales o' the Toon
June and July 2022
Lead Event Organiser: St Andrews Preservation Trust
Venue: St Andrews Heritage Museum & Garden, North Street, St Andrews
Local Authority: Fife
As part of their 40th birthday celebrations, St Andrews Heritage Museum & Garden teams up with St Andrews Play Club to present a new comedy exploring the town's history – taking in golf, the University and religion. This fun, historically inaccurate play will be performed live in the museum garden, with short sketches also available online. In addition, the museum will collaborate with The Byre Writers to host a 'Skills for Storytelling' workshop, followed by readings of new creative stories inspired by Fife folklore.
Tales of a Travelling Scotland
26 August 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Ando Glaso SCIO
Venue: Centre for Contemporary Art, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
Local Authority: Glasgow City
This event, as part of the first Roma Cultural Festival, will bring together native Scottish Roma, Gypsy and Traveller communities with newly settled East-European Roma communities to celebrate their shared cultural heritage. A new commissioned programme of songs, music and storytelling will showcase the Roma community’s traditional ways of sharing and preserving their stories and history.
The Disappeared Village
Launch event: 19 February 2022; Exhibition: 19 February to 16 March 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Robert Gordon University
Venue: Launch event and exhibition: Elgin Library, Cooper Park, Elgin
Local Authority: Moray
The often-untold story of Culbin, a village on the Moray Firth which disappeared in the Great Sand Drift of 1694, will feature in a new live and digital exhibition. Over the years, myths and legends have shrouded Culbin in mystery. This exhibition will seek to uncover this mystery by exploring the environmental, maritime and coastal aspects of the village’s story, in addition to its history and heritage. A special launch event will include storytelling sessions, children’s creative activities and a talk on local history.
The Legend of Kinnoull Dragon
1 May 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Adventure Circus SCIO
Venue: Norrie Millar Walk, Perth
Local Authority: Perth and Kinross
Back in the 6th century, the slaying of the Kinnoull dragon was celebrated on 1 May with fire, marching, drums and bagpipes. Adventure Circus are going to revive this tradition by sharing the long-forgotten local legend with modern audiences at a spectacular new circus arts show presented at the foot of Kinnoull Hill. Puppetry, fire breathing, knife juggling and aerial acrobatics will animate the story, with the audience getting the chance to learn some of the (safer!) circus arts. Beyond the event, a QR code on a permanent sign will allow future visitors to Kinnoull Hill to access the show’s narration in-situ.
The Phone Box – East Linton voices shared down the line
Live performance and installation: August 2022; Available online from September 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Catherine Wheels Theatre Company
Venue: The Phone Box, High Street, East Linton
Local Authority: East Lothian
The recently refurbished red phone box which sits at the heart of East Linton will reverberate with a rich soundscape of stories, memories and music in August. This cross generational project will celebrate the village and its community, including the stories of those who have called East Linton home their whole lives and those who are newly settled. A live performance of the finished work will launch the month-long installation and a recording of the audio soundscape will be available online from September.
The Pink Triangle Podcast
Five pre-recorded podcasts will be released throughout February 2022; Two live events: 12 & 19 February 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Pink Saltire SCIO
Venue: Two live events: The Hive LGBT+ Centre, Whytescauseway, Kirkcaldy
Local Authority: Fife
Pink Saltire will deliver a new podcast series during LGBT History Month in February 2022, showcasing some of the untold stories of the diverse LGBTQ+ community in Scotland. Five pre-recorded episodes and two live storytelling events will share stories from the trans community, LGBTQ+ people who are over 50, and queer people of colour, with the intention of highlighting injustices and celebrating individuals who have overcome adversity to be their authentic selves.
Traditional Tales for Tiny People
Events will be held in Edinburgh and Glasgow on the first Sunday of the month in April, May, June, September, October and November 2022.
Lead Event Organiser: Live Music Now Scotland
Venue: Holy Cross Church, Quality Street, Davidson's Mains, Edinburgh; Partickhill Bowling and Community Club, Partickhill Road, Glasgow
Local Authority: Multiple areas
Early years children and families in Edinburgh and Glasgow will be treated to participatory storytelling and live music events, featuring some of Scotland's finest emerging talent. Edinburgh city children will be invited to engage with spoken word and instrumental music from the rich folk heritage of Orkney: stories of the land and sea passed down through myth and legend. Their Glasgow counterparts will hear traditional tales from the Western Isles that explore people and places, told in a combination of Gaelic, English and Scots.
Up the Middle Road: Crichton Stories of Recovery and Resilience
Two live performances: 24 & 25 June 2022; The performance on 25 June will be filmed and made available online.
Lead Event Organiser: The Crichton Trust
Venue: The Crichton, Bankhead Road, Dumfries
Local Authority: Dumfries and Galloway
Founded in 1838 as a mental asylum, the Crichton Royal Institution has recently been developed into a visitor attraction and leisure location. A dynamic storytelling and musical performance seeks to share lived experiences of mental health, resilience and recovery with the community, and in the place, where they happened. Powerful, authentic and inspiring stories from former patients and employees will form the basis for this compassionate outdoor performance, giving a voice to those who were once marginalised.
View Points: Sharing Stories through Art and Poetry
April to July 2022
Lead Event Organiser: Art in Healthcare
Venue: Four Scottish healthcare settings, TBC
Local Authority: Multiple areas
Art in Healthcare and the Scottish Poetry Library team up to treat the patients, staff and visitors at four healthcare venues to a series of accessible poetry events celebrating Scotland's nature and landscape. At each venue, a professional poet will deliver a programme of poems and stories inspired by nature – including a specially commissioned new poem – against the backdrop of a landscape artwork from the Art in Healthcare Collection. Participants will also get the chance to develop their own stories at mark-making workshops led by local artists. In total there will be twelve poetry events and six artist workshops, held across four venues.
Voices from the Garden (working title)
March to December 2022
Lead Event Organiser: House for an Art Lover
Venue: Studio Pavilion, House for an Art Lover, Dumbreck Road, Glasgow
Local Authority: Glasgow City
Throughout 2022 the gardens of Charles Rennie Macintosh’s House for an Art Lover will play host to a series of free public performance-art events which link the natural world with the Scottish heritage of oral culture. Twelve artists, from multiple Scottish geographies and language traditions, will each give a live performance incorporating storytelling or poetry, responding to the seasonal changes which take place in the garden and the wider area of Bellahouston and Ibrox. This exciting opportunity for audiences to engage with biological processes, ecological communities and local landscapes will also be live-streamed on a local radio station.
Weaving with words: the magic of Highland Storytelling at Hugh Miller's Birthplace Museum
Storytelling walks: April to October 2022; Online storytelling resources available from: April 2022
Lead Event Organiser: National Trust for Scotland
Venue: Storytelling walks: various locations around Cromarty
Local Authority: Highland
Self-taught geologist, folklorist and social justice campaigner – Hugh Miller was one of the great Scots of the 19th century. Taking inspiration from Miller’s life and work, a series of guided storytelling walks will focus on Cromarty’s links to slavery and colonialism, women’s lives in Cromarty during the Victorian era, and the town’s links to warfare and defence in the First and Second World Wars. In addition, Highland storyteller Lizzie McDougall will record three short stories based on Miller’s work. These will be shared online as inclusive storytelling resources for children and adults.
Young Writers, Young Voices - a celebration of youth writing in Scotland
19 May 2022
Lead Event Organiser: The Super Power Agency
Venue: Venue TBC, Edinburgh
Local Authority: City of Edinburgh
A special storytelling event to celebrate the writing of young people in Scotland, aged 8 to 18, who have recently worked with the Super Power Agency to develop stories, poems and plays on themes including reframing masculinity, anti-racism and well-being. This exciting new writing will be read by a mix of volunteers from the local community, acting, literary and art worlds, and there will an opportunity for the performers and audience to meet and mingle with the young writers and to buy their books.