{"id":6222,"date":"2023-11-30T11:48:25","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T11:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"hhttps:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/?p=6222"},"modified":"2023-11-30T11:48:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T11:48:25","slug":"ceut-reflections-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/2023\/11\/30\/ceut-reflections-3\/","title":{"rendered":"CEUT Reflections 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Here\u2019s the third of our series of blogposts by Mary Morrison in which she reflects on the <a href=\"hhttps:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/aire-air-sunnd\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aire Air Sunnd<\/a>\u00a0project led by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ceut.scot\/wellbeing.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath<\/a>. As with her previous posts comments are welcome!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6221\" src=\"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/sgoil-chairinis.png\" alt=\"Sgoil Ch\u00e0irinis\" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/sgoil-chairinis.png 800w, https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/sgoil-chairinis-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/sgoil-chairinis-768x431.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Mary writes:<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Ar n-\u00e0ite. What role can CEUT\u00a0play in the current funding desert?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Latha math a h-uile duine.<\/p>\n<p>A disclaimer.\u00a0The ideas I will try to put down here are my own and are biased, so please do not take this rant as reflecting the CEUT Board\u2019s thinking in any way.<\/p>\n<p>Why are some small charities on North Uist finding it so hard\u00a0to get funding?\u00a0 Although the island has been gifted generously for the new pier and the promised ferry, our island infrastructure and offer to visitors sorely needs further support, if North Uist is not to remain a one-day wonder, to be travelled through, with visitors missing the many ways they might explore our unique heritage and environment.\u00a0 Are our several volunteer-run small, but excellent\u00a0organisations to remain the\u00a0Cinderellas at the ball? Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath, despite our recent Levelling Up and Regeneration Fund setbacks, are\u00a0more determined than ever\u00a0to refurbish Sgoil Ch\u00e0irinis and bring our collections home from Benbecula, however gradually!<\/p>\n<p>CEUT\u2019s vision for Sgoil Ch\u00e0irinis is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A welcoming space anchored in the community to meet the needs of old, young and isolated alike.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Learning from our heritage and island environment to move forward sustainably into the future using our tangible and intangible resources.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Supporting the roots of Gaelic language and expression in a community with Gaelic at its heart.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Maybe one reason for our apparent invisibility on the funding scene could be that CEUT has not featured or been included in any of the more centralised and prestigious schemes such as the Islands Fund, or the Great Place Scheme? In turn, could this invisibility also be due to the centralised perceptions so\u00a0apparent in the Scottish Government\u2019s Culture Strategy, (2020)? In this document heritage briefly appears almost as an afterthought, as an extra, a bit player, on the stage of Art? It appears to recognise \u2018<em>each community\u2019s own local culture in generating a distinct sense of place, identity and confidence<\/em>\u2019 and states, \u2018<em>place, -community, landscape, language and geography &#8211; is important and reflects the creativity of the past and provides inspiration for the cultural expression today\u2019. <\/em>This definition seems to downplay the powerful\u00a0and active connections that the unique lived experiences of the past and their representations\u00a0offer to our communal\u00a0learning, resilience and \u2018ways of being\u2019 today.<\/p>\n<p>According to more recent National Heritage Lottery Fund guidelines, their emphasis has now shifted:\u00a0<em>promote inclusion and involve a wider range of people (a mandatory outcome),<\/em>\u00a0<em>boost the local economy,\u00a0encourage skills development and job creation,\u00a0support wellbeing,\u00a0create better places to live, work and visit and\u00a0improve the resilience of organisations working in heritage.\u00a0<\/em>The economic inferences here are clear.<\/p>\n<p>Sgoil Ch\u00e0irinis is perfectly positioned on the\u00a0main road, a natural stopping off\u00a0and resting place on the Hebridean Way, close to Teampull na Tr\u00econaid, and a natural gateway to North Uist and its tangible and intangible riches. The school, familiar and treasured by so many local people, promises to be a very useful staging post, linking well with Taigh Chearsabhagh and our Museum there. (CEUT\u2019s\u00a0purchase of the school\u00a0was as a result of a planned extension beside the Museum, for which we were given Regeneration funding in 2015, being turned down at the planning stage because of the increasing flood risk.)<\/p>\n<p>We have been continuously supported through our travails by Museums Galleries Scotland as an Accredited\u00a0Museum. We are very grateful to them for keeping us afloat, especially recently with their Resilience Funding, which has helped us to hang on by our fingernails to keep Sgoil Ch\u00e0irinis.\u00a0Miraculous really. MGS have also been central in funding our digital archiving work. The Association of Independent Museums have supported our important links with Barbados Museum by funding research and our teenagers\u2019 films where Feasgar Diluain have recorded storytellers and their seanchas.<\/p>\n<p>A major funder recently has been the British Science Association and the Wellcome Trust through the Ideas Fund. This Fund\u00a0is breaking exciting new ground by encouraging researchers to work collaboratively with communities on wellbeing projects\u00a0which equally\u00a0benefit both organisations. Our aims, in looking at what research can bring to\u00a0 our practice, and analysing in what ways\u00a0heritage promotes wellbeing are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Learn how our current wellbeing activities can be improved by working with health partners through heritage \u2013 Aberdeen University<\/li>\n<li>Discover how recent research into the community use of the Gaelic language can enrich our Gaelic activities \u2013 Language Sciences Institute, UHI<\/li>\n<li>Explore how digital activities can contribute to our local sense of place, value, identity, and wellbeing. St Andrews University, (Phase 1)<\/li>\n<li>Look at how the community can use these pilot studies to shape the development of Sgoil Ch\u00e0rinis<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the New Year we are hoping to invite other small local charities to see what benefits we can all bring to each other by planning together how we can support each other, rather than by working in isolation. We are also planning to gather more evidence using the themes that emerged from our members\u2019 survey this year, by holding a series of wellbeing reminiscence workshops, short interactive\u00a0talks and open activities afternoons on Tuesdays, headed up and inspired by the very successful volunteer-led, monthly \u2018Cupan\u2019\u00a0sessions.\u00a0Through February and March we will hold our family, pop-up Gaelic caf\u00e9s on Saturday mornings, with a beginners\u2019 table and other exciting Gaelic activities.<\/p>\n<p>Ideas about who and what Museums were founded for are undergoing rapid changes \u2013 the premises on which the authoritative, \u2018traditional\u2019 museum, with its exhibits fossilised in glass cases within its walls, are\u00a0being questioned.\u00a0 Re-interpretation of\u00a0what kinds of sites these should become, how they can widen their inclusivity and operations within their local environment and beyond, becoming sites of \u2018social conscience\u2019 is foremost in these discussions. bell hooks \u2013 deliberately spelt lowercase \u2013 wrote that \u2018<em>to be truly free, we must dare to create lives of sustained, optimal wellbeing and joy\u2019<\/em>.\u00a0Let\u2019s go for it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s the third of our series of blogposts by Mary Morrison in which she reflects on the Aire Air Sunnd\u00a0project led by\u00a0Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath. As with her previous posts comments are welcome! Mary writes: Ar n-\u00e0ite. What role can CEUT\u00a0play in the current funding desert? Latha math a h-uile duine. A disclaimer.\u00a0The ideas &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/2023\/11\/30\/ceut-reflections-3\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">CEUT Reflections 3<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[9,20,40,42,45,102],"class_list":["post-6222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-research","tag-aire-air-sunnd","tag-ceut","tag-gaelic","tag-gaidhlig","tag-heritage","tag-wellbeing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northpost.co.uk\/uhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}