Sabhal Mòr Ostaig welcomes new Writer and Artist in Residence

We are delighted to welcome Pàdraig MacAoidh as the new Writer in Residence at Sàbhal Mòr Ostaig and Aileen Stackhouse as the Artist in Residence. Pàdraig will be with us for a year and Aileen for 4 months.

Peter Mackay is originally from the Isle of Lewis. He completed a PhD on the poetry of Seamus Heaney and William Wordsworth at Trinity College, Dublin, has lectured at Trinity on Scottish Literature, and has worked as a Research Fellow at Queen’s University, Belfast. His pamphlet of poems From Another Island was published by Clutag Press in 2010; he has also written a monograph, Sorley MacLean (RIISS, 2010) and co-edited Modern Irish and Scottish Poetry (Cambridge University Press, 2011). His poems have been widely published in Scotland, England and Ireland and he has worked as a Broadcast Journalist for BBC Alba. 

Aileen holds a BA from the Open University (1992) and a BA in Sculpture from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Scotland (1998). She also completed a Masters in Fine Art (2000) and a PhD (2006) under the title “Trahere; the sense of unease in making a mark; the practice of drawing and the practice of thinking”, and has worked as a Teaching Fellow at the School of Fine Art, Dundee. Aileen has exhibited regularly since 2000 and has presented at conferences here and abroad.

“While training in sculpture at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design I was bitten by the bug of wondering why do people make things? I continued to research through to Masters and PhD level. My work deals with how thoughts and ideas become something new and how art evolves. I believe learning new skills and ways of thinking are important for all of us. Throughout my residency I will begin to learn Gaelic and will make new works in response to my experience of being on Skye at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. As yet I do not know what form the final artwork will take.”