The Erk Skip Exhibition
Erk Skip is a word from the language of Fryslân, which translates into Cymraeg as ‘Cynefin’ and into English as ‘Our Heritage’
Erfskip in Shetland.
- The exhibition has been displayed at Shetland Museum and Archives since 16 September and will remain until mid-November 2023.
- A new Shetland translation of the interpretive texts accompanying the exhibition was added, made by poet Christine de Luca and Shetland Amenity Trust’s Cultural Heritage Officer Eileen Brooke-Freeman, as members of local language group Shetland ForWirds (Shetland ForWirds – Promoting and Celebrating the Shetland Dialect).
- Shetland’s academic conference Woolly Thinking: Threads of Change, highlighted the exhibition with a launch event on 18 September. Delegates enjoyed traditional music by performers from the Shetland Fiddlers’ Society. The warm response to the exhibition included requests for more information – visitors wanted to know about the individual knitters who had created each Frieslan jumper.
- Shetland Wool Week, 23 September – 1 October, welcomed well over 600 visitors to Shetland Museum and Archives, where the exhibition could be seen from outside the building and offered an inviting welcome to the main Wool Week Hub space in the museum auditorium. The exhibition was also part of the ‘Art Highlights’ tours run throughout Wool Week. Knitting-fanatic visitors were intrigued by the display and Shetland Wool Week has added its iconic annual Fair Isle hat pattern, 2023’s Buggiflooer Beanie by Alison Rendall, to the exhibition as it moves on to Ireland’s Aran Islands.
- The total numbers of recorded visitors to the museum during the period Monday 18th September to Monday 16th October was 4954, and all have experienced Erf Skip. The exhibition has been very well received. As well as Wool Week visitors, it has been visited by passengers from cruise liners from various countries as well as school visits and specific interest group visits.
The core of this travelling exhibition was created & then shown, with great success, in Fryslân in 2021. It showcases the work of a rural co-operative there, creating a small modern rural industry by reviving the traditional patterns & methods of village knitters in the nineteenth century & creating a market for high-quality hand-crafted artefacts. The exhibition grew out of a shepherding & fishing community on the North Sea coast, & the exhibition contextualises this initiative in terms of the community, its history & working practices, its culture & language practices & includes photographs & written accounts as well as a wide range of traditional & contemporary craft work.
We are touring this exhibition in galleries, community halls & other centres in marginalised highland & island European communities & will support those communities in adding to it as it travels, so it becomes a living meeting-place for the skills, products, issues & aspirations these communities share. We will see each national exhibition develop a pattern of contributions, discussions & events that will reflect what is being brought, & what will be taken away.
We are determined that the project will enhance & strengthen the cultures & languages of all communities taking part. Above all, we hope that sustainable dialogues & shared initiatives will grow up as it travels, & it will help heal some current disjunctures between the producers of wool, craftspeople & artists, & the end users.
We are asking interested exhibitors in each country, instead of paying a fee, to take responsibility for curation, translation & the development of events around the common theme. If they can afford it, we’d be grateful if they could support the cost of onward transport to its next destination, perhaps raising support from local & national agencies.
However, we are creating a safety-net budget to deal with costs beyond the reach of individual centres – we will allow no culture to be excluded because of financial difficulties. Culture in our commubities is about sharing.
Erfskip exhibition opens in Grimsay Boat Museum, South Uist, Outer Hebrides
After two very successful exhibitions in Wales and one in Fryslan, the exhibition – growing as it goes – is now showing in the Grimsay Boat Museum, South Uist.
From Grimsay it will move on the Shetland Museum and Archive next month, then to the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. After a brief winter rest it will return to Wales, showing in the village of Dinas Mawddwy in Gwynedd before continuing its travela in Larraun and Iparralde in the Basque Country and finally back home to Fryslan in the Netherlands.
The Erk Skip exhibition
Erk Skip is a word from the language of Fryslân, which translates into Cymraeg as ‘Cynefin’ & into English as ‘Our Heritage’
The core of this travelling exhibition was created & then shown, with great success, in Fryslân in 2021. It showcases the work of a rural co-operative there, creating a small modern rural industry by reviving the traditional patterns & methods of village knitters in the nineteenth century & creating a market for high-quality hand-crafted artefacts. The exhibition grew out of a shepherding & fishing community on the North Sea coast, & the exhibition contextualises this initiative in terms of the community, its history & working practices, its culture & language practices & includes photographs & written accounts as well as a wide range of traditional & contemporary craft work.
We are tour ing this exhibition in galleries, community halls & other centres in marginalised highland & island European communities & will support those communities in adding to it as it travels, so it becomes a living meeting-place for the skills, products, issues & aspirations these communities share.
We will see each national exhibition develop a pattern of contributions, discussions & events that will reflect what is being brought, & what will be taken away. We are determined that the project will enhance & strengthen the cultures & languages of all communities taking part. Above all, we hope that sustainable dialogues & shared initiatives will grow up as it travels, & it will help heal some current disjunctures between the producers of wool, craftspeople & artists, & the end users.
We are asking interested exhibitors in each country, instead of paying a fee, to take responsibility for curation, translation & the development of events around the common theme. If they can afford it, we’d be grateful if they could support the cost of onward transport to its next destination, perhaps raising support from local & national agencies. However, we are creating a safety-net budget to deal with costs beyond the reach of individual centres – we will allow no culture to be excluded because of financial difficulties. Culture in our commubities is about sharing.
Erk Skip Cynefin Our Heritage
Final Draft Schedule
| April – May 2023 | Yr Ysgwrn | Trawsfynydd, Cymru |
| June – July 2023 | Oriel Plas Glyn y Weddw | Llanbedrog, Cymru |
| July – August 2023 | Grimsay Community Centre | Benbecula, Alba |
| September – October 2023 | Shetland Museum and Archive | Shetland, Alba |
| October – November 2023 | Inis Mor/ Aran | Aran Islands, Eire |
| February – March 2024 | Dinas Mawddwy | Cymru |
| May – June 2024 | Larraun Town Hall | Larraun, Euskal Herria |
| June – October 2024 | Amland Island Museum | Fryslan, Netherlands |
| October – December 2024 | Moddergat Museum | Fryslan, Netherlands |
Our new compilation CD ‘Can y Bugail’ gathers together 11 songs from seven different nations in seven languages. It celebrates the culture and creativity of people in highland and island communities across Europe – from Scotland to Serbia, from Cymru to the Basque Country. It’s eclectic, exciting and effervescent. Every track has been donated by the artists concerned and we’ve experienced immense generosity as the CD has gone through the design and production process. It is on sale in every venue the Erfskip travelling exhibition is visiting over its 2-year tour of Europe, and will shortly be available online. If you can’t wait, consult meic.tycerrig@gmail.com and our magic fairies may be able to send you a copy.
© 2023 [Cân y Bugail]