2021 – 2022 – Osprey Eye

Artful Migration

2021 – 2022 – Osprey Eye

Artful Migration was an artist-in-residence programme that supported artists to create work informed by wildlife, the natural world, the environment and climate change.

The programme was developed by Upland in partnership with Ginnie Wollaston and Nicholas Parton Philip of Moving Souls Dance. It was also supported by Creative Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland, who owned and managed Threave Nature Reserve.

For Artful Migration 2021-2022, environmental video artist and filmmaker John Wallace created work based on the behaviour of the ospreys at Kelton Mains, Threave Nature Reserve (part of NTS Threave Garden & Estate). Based in Annandale, in the east of the region, he explored the lives of these rare birds of prey while also looking at the wider ecosystem that supported them, as well as their impact on people.

The 2020 residency built on a successful pilot that had taken place at WWT Caerlaverock in 2017–18, when Angela Alexander-Lloyd created work inspired by the annual migration of whooper swans from Iceland to the Solway Firth.

Artful Migration was established to honour the legacy of Ginnie Wollaston’s uncle George Clark and his brother John Clark, a keen artist who lived for many years in Gatehouse of Fleet. Ginnie wanted to give this legacy to Dumfries and Galloway in memory of both uncles, enabling artists to create work inspired by the unique environment and migratory birds associated with the region.