2019/20 highlights included:
Film
The ever-popular cinema programme continued to cater for a wide range of contemporary, populist and specialist tastes. Notable examples included:
Last Breath, a documentary which tells the extraordinary story of a 2012 diving accident in the North Sea, featuring Shetlander Stuart Anderson, which audiences flocked to see, particularly one screening which was followed by a Skype Q&A with the filmmakers.
We paired a locally-made short film about Shetland-based artists, My Island My Studio by Mareel film student Roberto Getto, with Prophecy, a feature documentary about Scottish artist Peter Howson.
During Shetland Wool Week we screened The Work They Say Is Mine, Rosie Gibson's fascinating 1985 documentary on life in Shetland.
Music
- Performance artist Bill Drummond visited Unst with his fascinating show Imagine Waking Up Tomorrow And All Music Has Disappeared.
- Contemporary folk trio Lau ended their UK tour in Mareel in June
- In summer we started Jazz Sunday Lunch, a monthly free entry concert in the Mareel Café Bar featuring local Jazz musicians Girsie and the Loose Ends.
- In July 2019 we held our summer school and festival, Folk Frenzy. Around 60 participants from around the world spent the week in Mareel learning traditional music techniques from Kevin Henderson, Catriona Macdonald, Ross Couper and Antti Jarvela. In addition to this we had evening concerts, trips and tours, music and craft workshops, academic talks and a beach party.
- Bain, Moller and Molsky packed out Mareel performing a mixture of music from Scotland, Scandinavia and America.
- We took a trio of local acts - Freda Leask, Haltadans and Herkja - on the road to play in Skeld, Burravoe and Bigton.
- To finish off the year we had our regular Hogmanay event with a variety concert hosted by the Kinnaris Quintet, followed by a standing gig, DJ and a dance.
- The Saturday before Up Helly Aa 2020 saw us hosting The Hostiles, supported by local band Big Time Quell.
- Local jazz saxophonist, now resident in Glasgow, Norman Willmore recorded a live album with his band to a very enthusiastic sell-out crowd in Muckle Roe hall.
- Scottish Opera Highlights was a well-received and well-attended event. The company remarked that it was one of the best shows on their tour and were extremely impressed with the facility.
Drama
In July, theatre company Birds of Paradise were immersed in Brae working with local community members and performing their show Brae Is Where The Heart Is.
Space Ape was an excellent one-person theatre production which was performed in Unst in partnership with Unst Fest and the Shetland Space Centre and in Cunningsburgh.
In Mareel we piloted a new series of events, Soup and a Show, a monthly 40-minute performance at lunchtime, with soup and bannocks included as part of the ticket price. This proved to be a very popular series, providing an opportunity for local practitioners to develop and perform new works.
Dance
- Scottish Ballet staged Wee Hansel and Gretel in the Garrison Theatre and on the same day, contemporary dancer Elizabeth Schilling performed FELT in Mareel
- Scottish Dance Theatre presented Joan Cleville's Antigone, Interrupted to a sold-out Mareel audience, performed in the round.
Literature
- In the Mareel Café Bar we hosted a weekly Storytime for Under 5's. This is run in partnership with the Shetland Library and has been a success from the outset with 12-15 children attending each session. This has been continued during lockdown in a series of popular Facebook video readings.
- 365 Words and Music was our big literary event of 2019 with acclaimed author James Robertson and musicians Aidan O'Rourke and Kit Downes presenting their collaborative work, listening post installation and a variety of workshops. Alongside this we hosted an evening of Shetland Writing featuring local authors sharing work in an open mic setting.
- Round-the-world cyclist Mark Beaumont held a very popular talk in Mareel in early February 2020.
- The Shetland launch of Roseanne Watt's first poetry collection Moder Dy, published by Picador, was held in Mareel in 2019.
Visual Art/Craft
Beyond Bonhoga continued into its second successful year of off-site exhibitions in unusual locations around Shetland. Sixteen, a UK-wide touring photographic exhibition was shown on the temporary hoarding surrounding the Hjaltland Housing development on King Harald St. in Lerwick throughout May, asking "what it's like to be sixteen years old now".
The Beyond Bonhoga programme of off-site contemporary art exhibition moved to The Booth in Scalloway for the month of September with Stoal, a solo exhibition by poet, musician and filmmaker Roseanne Watt.
Within Mareel the schools' exhibition continued in the Upper Café Bar, and in the Feature Space we showcased the work of local artist Aimee Labourne with Plastiglomerate, her exquisite drawings of plastic beach pollution.
Lucy Woodley's Ultima Thule opened at Bonhoga in late January. Following its tour to An Tobar on Tobermory, the exhibition told a timeless story spanning centuries of migrants fleeing from war and persecution through delicate sculptural pieces
