Festival blog

Taking place on the far north coast of Scotland between 1 and 7 November, Loved and Gone Before is a series of one-to-one sessions allowing people to capture a memory and claim space in the present for someone they have lost.

In collaboration with multidisciplinary artist, Alex Patience, participants will be photographed with an object or a photograph of the person who is Loved and Gone Before. Recordings will also be made of them talking about this person, and remembering. This project is about creating tangible objects to hold memories, which can be shared or held privately by the person being recorded.

The project will reach out to individuals in a number of groups in the isolated rural community in the far north of Scotland. The first group will be those with limited access to transportation, and therefore little opportunity for socializing or to talkabout those they have lost. The second will be local care homes and those dealing with Alzheimer's care. The third area to be approached will be those dealing with mental health support and still-birth, neonatal death and miscarriage.

The project is an outreach of The Portskerra Storytelling Festival and is supported by Norc-Celt of Skerray, an organisation which provides services for the local community including premises for the post office, shop, sorting office, archive room and office facilities.

For contact details see Portskerra International Storytelling Festival website.