A series of FREE creative, outdoor workshops exploring temperate rainforest environments of Arran, led by Saffy Setohy with Joanna Young
Connect with the rainforest environments of Arran through sensory and mindful activities. Explore our relationship with these fascinating and life-giving ecologies in the past and present, and learn about the work of local groups to preserve and regenerate them for the future. Workshops include gentle creative movement, walking, citizen science, drawing, writing, archaeology and conversation.
Each workshop includes a 1-3 hour walk and ends with an indoor activity and refreshments.
Each workshop will have a slightly different emphasis relating to the place where it is happening- come to one, two or all three of the sessions.
- Monday 12th October – ‘An Archaeology of Trees’
10am – 3pm, Drumadoon Estate, Blackwaterfoot
This workshop will include a walk length of approx. 5 km / 3 miles (Drumadoon Farm to rainforest fragment near ‘Dinosaur’ footprint and back)
Approx. duration (including activities & pauses): 3 hours
Terrain: field, track, steep path and uneven rocky/slippery shoreline.
>> Register at EventBrite - Tuesday 13th October – ‘Sensing the rainforest: from micro to macro’
10am – 2pm, Merkland Wood, Brodick
This workshop will include a walk length of approx. 2 km / 1.2 miles
Approx. duration (including activities and pauses): 2 hours
Terrain: path & forestry track with small sections of steepness/incline- some walking poles will be available.
>> Register at EventBrite - Wednesday 14th October – ‘Exploring Lichens and Symbiotic Relationships’
10am – 2pm, Lagg Wood, Kilmory
This workshop will include a walk length of approx. 1 km / 0.6 miles
Approx. duration (including activities and pauses): 1.5 hours
Terrain: woodland path with minimal incline, some uneven surfaces.
>> Register at EventBrite
Workshops are facilitated by dance & multidisciplinary artists Saffy Setohy and Joanna Young, with artist Rosamund McCormack, Drumadoon Estate, Arran Archaeology Group, Arran Rainforest CIC, and National Trust for Scotland. An Independent Arts Projects (IAP) project supported by Creative Scotland.
About the workshops
- Open to adults and young people aged 8 years old and over
- Young people aged under 16 must be accompanied by a parent, guardian or responsible adult
- No arts or ecology experience is required- though you’re very welcome if you do have some!
- No dogs please, apart from registered Assistance dogs- please tell us on booking if you plan to bring an assistance dog
- A contribution towards travel costs are available for those for whom this would be a barrier to participating – please contact the organisers for more info.
- Please be aware that all three workshops will be photographed. Short film and voice recordings may also be taken. Full information is available on request- please get in touch with the organisers if you have any concerns
- Toilets & parking will be available at workshop meeting points (further info given after registration)
- Each workshop will end with an indoor activity and free refreshments
About the Artists
Glasgow-based Saffy and Joanna have around 40 years of artistic facilitation experience between them. They have worked in many different community, education and health contexts in rural and urban environments. Saffy and Joanna both trained in dance, and have an interest in developing our embodied relationship with the world around us through regenerative practices of care.
Saffy Setohy is currently Associate Artist with Independent Arts Projects (IAP) and has also collaborated on and co-facilitated the Sensory Workshops for Elders programme that Joanna Young has led at Dixon Community in Govanhill, Glasgow.
Saffy Setohy (she/her) is a socially-engaged dance artist of mixed British-Egyptian heritage, living in Glasgow, Scotland. She has been practicing for 19 years across performance, choreography, research, participatory practices and facilitation. Saffy’s practice is interdisciplinary, centres on embodied practices of resonance and listening, and is informed by somatic influences and improvisation. Collaboration is at the heart of her work- with other humans, species & living entities, materials, practices and places. Her sensory choreographic practice explores connections between ecology, wellbeing, regeneration and soft activism to deepen the connection with ourselves, each other and the rest of nature. Saffy has worked in varied forms and urban and rural contexts, most recently researching our relationship with plant life and communities surrounding it in Gartnavel Royal Hospital and garden, Glasgow, and working with archaeologists, communities and land stewards on the Isle of Arran through the Clyde Bioregion Residency Programme.
Joanna Young (she/her) is an independent choreographer currently practicing in Govanhill. Her work often involves a meditative and sensorial tone, intricate crafting and time to tune into the movements between people, places, and things. Interdisciplinary collaboration is at the core of Joanna’s work. Projects and practices emerge by listening and responding, which facilitates an inclusive, co-authored and participatory process. Joanna works in both rural and urban contexts, which have resulted in outdoor, gallery and site-specific installations; stage productions; film; and audio walks. Joanna regularly facilitates inclusive workshops in a range of education, community and health contexts. She is a visiting university lecturer specialising in expanded choreographic practices and theory.
Top photo: Saffy Setohy
All other photography: Pippa Downing