Group Residency Programme Orkney

Air, Sea and Soil: MICRO-MACRO

Sat 06 – Sat 13 September 2025 
Application Deadline:
Mon 14 April 2025

The Museum of Loss and Renewal is delighted to invite applications for the Group Residency MICRO-MACRO, Orkney.

MICRO-MACRO has been devised around the relationships of ‘Air, Sea and Soil’, encompassing the Orkney Islands’ remarkable natural environment. Residents will be welcomed to the Birsay area of Orkney, where the bespoke programme will take place in Linkshouse’s excellent accommodation and studio facilities, and through visits to Neolithic Orkney’s World Heritage Sites.

The Group Residency will be lead by Tracy Mackenna (she/her), Curator of The Museum of Loss and Renewal and facilitated by Tracy. A range of multidisciplinary Orkney-based discipline experts who hold precious knowledge of archaeological sites, abandoned places, spatial, sensory and local history past and present, and collecting, archiving and presenting, will contribute to bespoke programme sessions. Their diverse skills, expertise and modes of working are activated to investigate collecting, energy, (imagined)futures, (layered)histories, (stratified)landscape, (experimental)mapping, memory(ecological, material and ruin), recording, site(responsiveness), (intersections of)material/immaterial realms, (deep)time and walking as practice.

Welcome to all creative practitioners and researchers interested in making, thinking and being in experimental ways. This Group Residency will take you out and about in Orkney, allow you to focus, introduce you to the impact of climate crisis, to vast skies, open vistas and the archipelago that has long been shaped by the sea. You will get up close to places, matter and materials and ideas, and step back to consider your position in the universe.

MICRO-MACRO is offered for practitioners and researchers working in all creative disciplines and for those who have a strong interest in the investigation of site and place. The group will comprise of approx. ten participants.

Focal Points

Creative practices
Interdisciplinarity
Technologies
Co-learning
Individual practice
Experimentation
Semi-structured programme
Expert facilitator/s and guest contributors
Collective platform for encounters
Supportive, caring, non-hierarchical environment

Fully catered
Immersive experience
Relationships to land, connections through place
Location specific, inc. Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site
Site (responsiveness)
Cultural and environmental ecologies
Memory (ecological, material, ruin)
Imagining futures
Publics; participants and audiences

Aim

The aim of the Group Residency is to develop approaches to place that are experimental, inventive in their form, and that respond to place by paying attention to the intersections and collisions between art, culture, materiality, technologies and place. Individual experience will be regarded as being not at the world’s centre, but woven into its fabric.

Opportunities are created for creative practitioners and researchers to share and establish a bank of knowledge and creative strategies, both globally interconnected and hyper local, digital and analogue, for imagining new responses to places and the multiple, layered and contested histories they hold. Bringing together residents from a range of areas of practice and research, the potential to create an international network is made possible.

Ways of Working

MICRO-MACRO will provide a partially-structured and hands-on programme of site-based ways of working that are shared to enable residents to develop their skills and understanding of how to investigate site as part of a creative practice and for public presentation to a global audience.

The programme is devised around a bespoke itinerary, with carefully crafted indoor sessions that focus on expanded approaches to discussion, presentation, making and sharing. Outdoor sessions will introduce residents to the stunning natural landscape and world-class archaeological sites. Utilising individual practices, residents from diverse cultures and creative disciplines will focus on different ways of responding to place through immersive, connected experience in site, land and weather.

Designed to be supportive, the programme will enable residents to develop their skills, and understanding of place across a range of approaches and technologies. The residency experience will stimulate new ways of thinking and experimentation through production, research, co-learning and presentation. The programme will provide a framework and act as a catalyst for deepening observation and expanding awareness of the non-human and human world.

Facilitators and residents, from diverse cultures and creative disciplines, will work together and on individual practices through collaborative place-based making processes to generate and present global and local knowledge and strategies for imagining the futures of fragile cultural and environmental ecologies.

Value will be given to the individual knowledge and experience of each resident, and over shared meals, residents and facilitators will expand the time for exchange and developing relationships and networks.

By thinking and doing through the lens of MICRO and MACRO approaches, and analogue-digital relationships, we will explore layered histories whilst inhabiting a stratified landscape that is 400 million years old. Residents will be enabled to activate dynamic haptic, sensory and experiential articulations of place, and to express the psychogeography of space, experimenting with what it means to transpose and transcribe, inventing while sifting through the multiple histories and geographies of carefully chosen locations in the Orkney Islands.

Facilitators and residents will together explore site-responsive and reflective approaches to experiment with the intersection of material and immaterial realms of knowledge and knowing. Residents will be encouraged to traverse internal and external worlds, thinking about deep time, while embracing weather’s sensory and cyclical rhythms.

Sessions will prompt reflection on ruin memory, material memory and ecological memory, life cycles and reclamation, rehabilitation and regeneration. To navigate questions of presence and absence, and the known and unknown, the contradictory dynamics that flow beneath surfaces will be embraced.

Guided walks, visits and readings will take place in lost, renewed or fragile places. The residency programme includes time for residents’ to work in Linkshouse’s work spaces and outdoors, applying developing knowledge and content gained during the Group Residency to individual practices.

Facilitators and Contributors

FACILITATOR

TRACY MACKENNA (she/her)

Tracy (RSA, Professor Emerita; SCO-IT) is the Curator of The Museum of Loss and Renewal. She is an artist, curator, educator and publisher. Her art practice is a creative and discursive site where production, presentation, exchange, co-learning and research meet.

Tracy’s focus on place(making), (un)belonging, memory, (personal)narratives and imaginary futures can be seen in projects exhibited and published internationally e.g. Micromegas (scale, philosophical and scientific thought and human foible), War as Ever! (conflict, looking and art), Rock and Dust | Roccia e Polvere (activating archival material, harmonies and tensions between place, people and time), Ash, Chalk and Charcoal (violence in spatial mark making, private and public spaces), Friendly Invasions 2034 (exhibition as process; interplay between audience, place, cultural legacy).

She is a highly experienced, award winning educator who has devised and lead multiple group learning projects situated within the international museum and gallery sector, and higher education.

PROGRAMME CONTRIBUTORS

ANNE BEVAN (she/her)

Through her research and artwork Anne explores relationships to place and environmental change. This has led to working collaboratively with experts from other disciplines, particularly archaeologists, anthropologists, marine scientists and geologists. An ongoing project is as Artist in Residence looking at Deep Time in the context of Orkney.

Working primarily with sculpture and installation, her interdisciplinary collaborations also involve working closely with writers, such as Janice Galloway, Alan Spence and George Mackay Brown; with composers and musicians including Gemma MacGregor and Pete Stollery; and film makers and photographers Mark Jenkins and Michael Wolchover.

MARK EDMONDS (he/him)

Prof Mark Edmonds is an archaeologist and internationally respected and highly influential prehistorian and the author of more than 20 books and dozens of articles, among them Ancestral Geographies; The Langdales, and Orcadia. An abiding interest in arts-based approaches to the interpretation of archaeological material has led Mark to experiment with poetry, print-making, music and sound collage across a number of projects.

While at the University of Sheffield, he developed an MA in Landscape Archaeology, which has had a wide and lasting influence on landscape-based research and teaching. In Orkney, Mark has an on-going involvement in work at the Ness of Brodgar. He was also the director of Working Stone; Making Communities, exploring the biographies of stone tools found in Orkney over the past two centuries.

DAN LEE (he/him)

Dan is a contemporary archaeologist whose current research includes energy archaeology, industrial heritage, participatory and collaborative mapping, community archaeology, knowledge exchange and education across the Highlands and Islands. His creative heritage outputs include films, audio podcasts, digital maps, artist books, and collaborative residencies.

Current projects include TRANSECTS that uses interdisciplinary place-and-time-based approaches to encompass the voices, emotions, memories and identities that are impacted by marine energy transitions – ‘re-peopling’ the past for the present and future. Orkney Energy Landscapes has developed a citizen science approach to recording and exploring energy heritage, while the Orkney Energy Heritage Strategy works with industry and stakeholders to audit, prioritise and manage energy heritage, developing a climate change responsive method for archaeology in the Cateran Ecomuseum.

Facilities

The residency programme will take place in Linkshouse which is situated on the St Magnus Way pilgrimage route on the Atlantic Ocean and amidst farmlands, and at sites of archaeological, historical and social importance in Orkney, accessible by foot and vehicle.

Residents will be accommodated at Linkshouse, The Pier Arts Centre’s accessible residency facility with studio provision, that is a bequest from Barbara and Edgar Williamson, whose son artist Erlend Williamson drew inspiration from Orkney’s landscape and environment.

Twin and double en-suite bedrooms are available. One room is partly accessible. Single rooms are available based on access needs. Work spaces include ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ spaces.

Fee

The Residency Programme is operated on a non-commercial cost-covering basis, and is financially supported by The Museum of Loss and Renewal in order to keep fees low. The residency fee is £1500 GBP, paid by the resident. It includes the residency programme, accommodation, full board, collection/return to nearest airport/ferry point, accommodation in en-suite rooms, work spaces. Catering (3 meals each day) includes locally sourced Orkney ingredients, and meals prepared by our excellent cook. Vegan and vegetarian diets can be catered for. 

A 50% deposit is payable within two weeks of accepting a place on the Group Residency. The remaining 50% is payable six weeks in advance of the start of the Group Residency.

You will be responsible for funding and organising your own travel, your own insurances and any visa requirements particular to your country of origin. Travel information will be supplied (Kirkwall Airport and Orkney Ferries), and collection/drop-off at the beginning and end of the Group Residency will be arranged.

We do not have external funding for this project, so regret that we are unable to offer assistance with fees, travel, production costs or other subsistence. Typically, successful applicants source funding by applying to their national arts funding bodies, personal fundraising, or through academic institutional support. Formal Letters of Invitation can be provided to assist in this process.

Schedule Outline

Day 01

Arrival (collection on arrival in Orkney), orientation, introductions, dinner, readings

Days 02-07

Subject-specific sessions by facilitators
Presentations and exercises by programme contributors
Collective and individual (mentored) working sessions
Working sessions at archaeological sites
Museum / gallery / Orkney International Science Festival visit
Readings of alternative theories and texts
Catered discursive meals
Collective critical evaluation and forecasting

Day 08

Departure (transport to Orkney departure points)

A detailed programme will be provided to residents before arrival.

Eligibility

You can be at any stage of your (creative) career
The programme may best suit (creative) practitioners who are seeking to develop their knowledge and skills within an environment of learning and discussion
More experienced applicants are very welcome to apply
Open to (creative) practitioners based in any country but applicants should have a good working knowledge of English
Applications from duos and partnerships are welcomed

APPLY

The Museum of Loss and Renewal
Residency Programmes

Testimonials

The residency has had a profound impact on my practice and research.

Having the space to share ideas with others in such a beautiful place was invaluable – Tracy and the team, as well as the visiting speakers, created such a supportive and inspiring environment.

The sessions and trips were all absolutely brilliant. I would love to repeat any and all of them again and again! The house was comfortable, the food delicious, and the location phenomenal.
Rebecca Bell, 2024
My time in residence was the highlight of my year; it really changed my life and mindset for the better.
Stine Danielle, Canada, 2024
The residency programme that just keeps giving.
Maree Hensey, Ireland, 2024
The MICRO-MACRO Group Residency (Orkney) was transformational, both creatively and personally.
The programme of inspirational and multi-disciplinary contributors, combined with deep immersion in, and exploration of Orkney’s many layered natural and human histories provided a perfect balance for the investigation of site as part of creative practice.
Our diverse cohort of contributors, artists, writers and poets quickly developed a strong rapport, generously supporting each other and sharing diverse practices, perspectives and ideas. We were looked after all week with care, kindness and delicious food! Thank you.
Mary Muir, Orkney-England, 2024
A high-point in the cycle of my year as a composer, researcher, and educator.
Multiple residencies with The Museum of Loss and Renewal continue to provide both time and space in which to incubate my ideas and fuel ongoing research, and allow me to be in an enriching environment wherein I feel that I am able to return to my most true ‘self’ as a human, as a creator.
The fact that my great-grandparents came from a mountain village near Collemacchia has extra meaning for me: it brings my work beyond the purely academic, beyond the purely creative – it is personal, it is familial, and it continues to shape my identity, strengthening my feeling of connection to the inner and outer landscape.
Antonio Forte, USA, 2024
The DRAWING WITH PLACE (Orkney) Group Residency was a gentle boost to my confidence; being in a new environment and having precious, reflective space.
The programme was extraordinary, and the selection of artists who delivered was beyond what I had imagined.

The variety of input from the invited speakers continues to resonate and was held so beautifully by Tracy; I benefited from her gentle, clear input.
I would and have recommended the residency to many fellow artists/creatives.
Sarah Goudie, England, 2024
The Museum of Loss and Renewal has been a very special place for me to start the writing of a book. The history of Collemacchia, the company of other creatives, and the studio facilities made for a great environment that provided me with both the comfort and the inspiration I needed.
Joris Melman, the Netherlands, 2024
Spending the week with the MICRO-MACRO (Orkney) group helped me realise that collaborative making and thinking can be more spontaneous, playful and generous than I’ve ever experienced or imagined.
The selection of participants was very well considered, and I really appreciated being in the Orkney landscape with incredibly open people of different ages, nationalities and with diverse arts practices.
Tracy provided a strong structure for the residency, offering critical thinking when needed without disrupting the group dynamic in any way – a skilful balance well-maintained.
Jac Cambell, England, 2024
The MICRO-MACRO (Italy) Group Residency has had such a positive impact on my practice and research.
Learning from Tracy and Amanda through open conversation, presentations and practical activities was a wonderful experience. I am very grateful for their support and for my time in Collemacchia.
Alongside the residency programme I was able to connect to the area, which is very important to me personally and for my practice.
Carla Smith, Scotland, 2024
The individual residency, Taking Time / Prendendo Tempo offered me the unique opportunity to do just that — take time to experience Molise — one of my ancestral lands.
Each day provided new opportunities to connect and learn from the other residents and engage in self-reflection of my own artist practice; all under the guidance of the extraordinary Tracy Mackenna.
Kate Colabella, USA, 2024
The MICRO-MACRO (Italy) Group Residency provided me with a great sense of inspiration and space to reflect on my practice, both past and regarding possible futures.
The beautifully-designed and maintained living and working spaces, structured by home-cooked meals prepared with love and attention, cast a special light on residents’ everyday life: they give space to breathe.
Fred Landau-Donnelly, Germany, 2024
Tracy is a fantastic mentor and guide, and I surprised myself by how easily I was able to settle and start making and thinking.
Excellent studios, accommodation and library.

Collemacchia is a unique place which continues to resonate with me – I hope to return!
Marion Harrison, England, 2024
My Taking Time / Prendendo Tempo residency was an incredible experience.
It was really special to allow myself to fully follow my intuition and my body, instead of overthinking my energy, my time, my tasks. Being able to freely wander, write, read, photograph, draw, talk, cook, feel, walk, and create often with a cappuccino and cornetto pushed my practice and research into unexpected directions.
I am so grateful to have shared this rollercoaster with incredible people, who each had beautiful stories and touching motivations for being there.
Marieke Folkers, the Netherlands, 2024
The experience of a temporary artistic community was the primary contribution to my practice/research: constructive and mutually supportive. The framing of the Taking Time / Prendendo Tempo residency was linked to the immediate social, cultural and natural environment.
There was an excellent balance between the communal living spaces, which were very conducive to communication and support.
Tracy’s curatorship, mentorship and guidance was crucial to grounding residents in the environment. Her knowledge and experience of the area’s history and contemporary society provided contextualisation and connection; and she was very generous with her time and availability: an excellent balance.
Duncan Ross, Ireland, 2024
The residency exposed me to a stimulating coupling of natural, historical, material and community phenomena that percolated new, exciting projects that I’m now processing.
The library was an excellent resource that stimulated new ideas and refreshed concepts that had become dormant, especially those devoted to art writing and photo books.
Tracy offered guidance and critique that created context for many of my ideas; she was also generous in delivering a session about the ‘photo book’ that has seeded further personal investigation into the process.
David D’Agostino, USA, 2024
My time in Collemacchia was packed full of opportunities to share ideas and experiences, to create new works both on my own and with input from others and to pause in the mad rush of our modern lives to think and allow the experience to wash over me. I felt at one with the place, intrigued as much by its history and mood.
I was encouraged by Tracy and her approach to pass on her knowledge and experience while at the same time allowing me space. I have learned much and grown in confidence and experience and have a long list of things to research in more depth and creative works I want to explore. Thank you.
Richard Dalgleish, Scotland, 2024
My residency offered me a wonderful opportunity to go deeper into my practice and to be open to developing my artistic expression and voice. Immersing myself fully allowed me time and space to take risks, to experiment with compositional elements, to innovate and to learn, which was an extraordinary gift.
The freedom to work in this way has had a profound impact on my practice and works I created while in residence are providing rich and exciting starting points for a new body of work.
Tracy’s mentorship was so valuable and I am already taking steps to incorporate her advice into my creative practice. Her curatorship of the residency, her care, enthusiasm and passion ensured that this residency was an outstanding experience and I am forever grateful to her for providing this opportunity to me and all of the other creatives that I met during my time at Collemacchia.
I would really love to return and to spend more time in the future.
Marie Salinger, Australia, 2024
My time in residence was the highlight of my year; it really changed my life and mindset for the better.
Stine Danielle, Canada, 2024
The residency programme that just keeps giving.
Maree Hensey, Ireland, 2024
My time in Collemacchia was marked by wonderful discoveries, in natural and archeological landscapes, as well as in my creative practice. You created an inspiring environment, very well suited for reflection and experimentation, which was what I needed to stir my work in a new direction. I also enjoyed our conversations about art, your intellectual perspective, book recommendations, and feedback about my production.
Rodrigo de Toledo, Brazil and USA, 2024
Taking Time at The Museum of Loss and Renewal is an artistic retreat experience like no other. As soon as I arrived I knew I had stepped into an extraordinary environment, both in terms of landscape and community: a space to breathe, form new relationships and renew my creative practice, my sense of purpose.

What I did not anticipate then was how Tracy’s deep connection to Collemacchia, her practical attention to detail and inspirational mentorship would lead me into new unexpected places and help facilitate for me an entirely new body of work.
Cathy Stonehouse, Canada, 2024
My experience at The Museum of Loss and Renewal in Collemacchia, Italy was astounding; I have never enjoyed the balance of solitude together with a generous, nurturing community more than I have here.

The landscape revealed itself to me slowly and kindly – as I walked and listened, it held me tenderly, coaxing me to explore, challenge myself and take time to create work. The studios are professionally appointed, well equipped spaces.
I am humbled by and immensely appreciative of Tracy’s ongoing mentorship, academic and personal support while so far from home. Her skill in connecting my work with the diverse library resources on site and key ideas have assisted to significantly advance the conceptual basis of my practice.
For this and all her gifts, I am grateful.
Melinda Giblett, Australia, 2024
Being part of the Individual Residency Program was truly life-changing.
Tracy is a wonderful mentor and working artist. Her genuine interest in each artist’s work fostered a sense of community, enriching not only my creative process but also nurturing meaningful connections with fellow artists.
This residency provided the ideal balance of structure and freedom, enabling me to explore new artistic depths, leaving an indelible mark on my art making process.
The experience has left such a warm mark on my artistic journey; I’ll cherish it forever.
Cynthia Ludlam, USA, 2023
My residency was a transformative experience in a warm and supportive environment.
Beautiful facilities were provided, and I was welcomed with genuine hospitality, a wealth of knowledge and inspiration.
Dedicated time for reflection allowed me to set a clear direction for my artistic practice, and the proactive guidance given exceeded my expectations.
Deborah Scott, USA, 2023
I am immensely grateful for the enriching experience of participating in the Drawing with Place Group Residency in Orkney, that was lead by Tracy. The profound connection to the character of the land was evident in every aspect, fostering a deep sense of place. This residency served as a poignant reminder that my creative practice is not just an act of creation but a continuous practice of listening and cultivating a relationship with my surroundings.
Justin McIntosh, USA, 2023
I’ve been doing a lot of reflection lately and thinking about all of the nourishing experiences I’ve had that have made a difference in my life and career and one of them is the wonderful time I spent in Collemacchia and your very generous support and guidance. And again when we came as a group a positive ripple manifested in different ways!
Laura McSorley, Scotland, 2023