@timespanhelmsdale
Cultural organisation in Helmsdale, locally rooted in the Scottish Highlands but with global resonance. We use culture as a catalyst for change through a holistic arts and heritage programme. https://timespan.org.uk/
kar by Alex Sarkisian is on until March 1st!
Catch this exhibition that traces the delicate survival of Western Armenian ancestral places.
📍 Timespan, Helmsdale
🕒 Open Saturdays & Sundays
💷 Free entry
Timespan turns 40 in 2026 🎉
Celebrate with us following our programme exploring land, labour, colonial histories & climate in the Highlands and beyond.
Highlights: As Long As It Yields, Decolonising the Highlands, & the Summer Solstice Festival.
Full programme timespan.org.uk/programme/ev...
Today’s the day! ✨ As the @museumsassociation.org Museums Change Lives Awards 2025 begin, we’re celebrating the volunteers of the People’s Mobile Archive whose work builds resilience, skills & connection across the Highlands. 💛
Good luck to all the brilliant museums nominated! 💫
We’re inviting craftspeople from Sutherland & Caithness to:
🔹 Host a free stall (Sat 1 & Sun 2 Nov)
🔹 Join the Focus Group (Sat 1 Nov) + networking dinner
Support available: free stalls, 10 bursaries (£50 travel + £150 participation fee), and 2 Digital Practice bursaries (£150 from St Andrews).
📢 Calling all makers in Sutherland & Caithness!
Join Rural Spot (31 Oct–2 Nov, Helmsdale): a 3-day gathering on the Politics of Craft.
✅ Free stalls (Sat 1 & Sun 2 Nov)
✅ Focus group + networking dinner (1 Nov)
✅ Bursaries available
Apply by 9 Oct 👉 docs.google.com/forms/d/1RaP...
"The title also plays on the idiom, meaning distraction from the truth"
@joannecoates.bsky.social's exhibition RED HERRING, at @timespanhelmsdale.bsky.social until 30 Sep, amplifies the overlooked story of the Herring Girls through photography and sculpture
and fourth up a storming talk by Guilia Gregnanin, Director of @timespanhelmsdale.bsky.social , about “redefining the museum as a shared resource“ #museumideas
Excited to be at @museumid.bsky.social conference with our director Giulia Gregnanin presenting Timespan vision of becoming an Institution of the Commons. A brilliant panel with representatives from @beamishmuseum.bsky.social Glasgow Museums, Museo Egizio and chaired by @profdanhicks.bsky.social
We are grateful to @museumsassociation.org for spotlighting the PMA's work through such a prestigious naional award. We thank our incredible volunteers, and community members who contribute and support our heritage work with their rich knowledge, enthusiasm and motivation.
We're thrilled to share that the People's Mobile Archive, Timespan’s outreach programme, has been shortlisted for the Best Small Museum Project Award at the @museumsassociation.org Museums Change Lives Awards 2025!✨️
Congratulations to all the other nominees!
#Museums2025
Three women wearing long aprons pose for a formal photograph. All have their hair pulled back tight. ‘Three women herring gutters July 1884’, Wick Society, Johnston Photographic Collection.
This is a portrait of a woman worker in the herring industry. She smiles but her mouth holds a wire she is pulling as she tightens a bandage on her fingers. ‘Portrait of a woman with bandaged fingers’, courtesy Waterlines Lybster
This wall construction is at the heart of the exhibition at Timespan. It is freestanding, with wooden frame visible. It has been covered on the outer side in a thick red plastic. Archival photographs and images are pinned to the interior surface of the framework
This is a black and white photograph by Joanne Coates of a figure in a dark dress making her way through the landscape. It is a close up, with the composition cutting off the head, to show the figure in movement. ‘Trajicere’, 2024, Joanne Coates
Very glad to have seen Joanne Coates exhibition ‘Red Herring’ at Timespan in Helmsdale, Scotland, the result of a 6 month residency. The work focuses on the migrant female workforce in the herring fishing industry from 18th-20th centuries, linking back to Helmsdale, with its ties to the industry.
We cannot wait to have @yvettetaylor.bsky.social, @jenniferjaswhite.bsky.social Hussein Mitha and Fadzai Mwakutuya chaired by @joannecoates.bsky.social & Giulia Gregnanin discussing contemporary working class experiences in Britain
It was great having @amberhuff.bsky.social leading a workshop about Commons and Commoning to envision together what it means for Timespan to become an Institution of the Commons
We are thrilled to invite you to #Salt&Silver a solstice festival on the legacy of the Herring Girls, labour, class, and solidarity. Part of @joannecoates.bsky.social Red Herring programme of events, join us for a weekend of talks, performances, and events.
Visit timespan.org.uk/programme/ev...
Timespan’s redevelopment project has been featured by @museumid.bsky.social !
Giulia, our Director & Curator, speaks about the radical redevelopment of Timespan led by ASSEMBLE & Office Corr Higgins and our ambition of re-shaping cultural spaces collectively.
museum-id.com/redefining-t...
In Involvo (2024) @joannecoates.bsky.social disrupts the aestheticisation of working-class women in archives. She reenacts the Herring Girls' practice of bandaging their hands to soothe the cuts caused by handling cutag knives at high speed.
📍Visit Red Herring
Open daily 10-5, free
@joannecoates.bsky.social "Triangulation" (2025) captures these themes overlaying images referring to the imperial networks of extraction to evoke the scale of the fishing industry tied to the West Indies. Yet the bandaged hand foregrounds the physical realities of the gutting labour.
Many local families trace their lineage to the #GuttingGirls who passed through #Helmsdale, making the #exhibition Red Herring by @joannecoates.bsky.social both a reflection on global histories and an account of lived local experiences.
📍Red Herring open everyday 10-5
Free entry
@joannecoates.bsky.social gave an interview at BBC woman's hour about her new exhibition "Red Herring" at Timespan & the Herring Girls.
Check it out minute 49 podcasts.apple.com/mn/podcast/w...
Visit Timespan to discover more about a fascinating exhibition about women's labour & class solidarity
New Exhibition: Red Herring by @joannecoates.bsky.social opens March 29th
The show explores women's labour & class solidarity through the legacy of the Herring Girls.
Travel & accomodation bursaries available for the opening: apply by March 14th docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
We are thrilled to announce we were awarded @creativescots.bsky.social Multi Year Funding!
We were recognised for our holistic approach, that through our cultural programme tackles local issues with a global perspective!
Thank you for believing in our vision: stay tuned for exciting news ahead!✨️
Green landscape of a hill
Join us & Glasgow Zine Library to explore #Gaelic language, place names & #climate crisis. The talk will touch upon land use, colonialism, Gaelic folklore & community actions through #Zine making
Pay what you can, book here www.glasgowzinelibrary.com/events/2025/...
Artist in residence: @joannecoates.bsky.social is exploring the history of the #HerringGirls and the contemporary issues faced by Highlands #women: #labour, health, strike movements, and class.
Stay tuned for updates & save the date for Jo's #collaborative show "Red Herring" coming in March 2025!
Announcement: Assemble & Office Corr Higgins will lead our building redevelopment project!
They will reimagine Timespan as an #accessible & #sustainable museum through an engagement-led & ecologically responsible feasibility study, prioritising community involvement.
Find out more shorturl.at/z8t4E