Culture Fund: Ness of Brodgar Trust

Ness of Brodgar Finds Exhibition

1 Exhibition. c4,125 visitors. 12 participants. 6 volunteers.

The exhibition clearly attracted visitors who engaged with a display detailing much about the Ness of Brodgar and its people.

The exhibition extended the reach of the Ness of Brodgar as a tourist attraction in Orkney, sustaining the value of tourism to the local economy. The Ness has inspired many creative practitioners in Orkney and any opportunity to let a wider group see wider materials from the Ness, makes for more pieces and end-products.

The display was carefully created and beautifully set up by the Ness team and by Katy Firth and Norna Sinclair who do much work for Stromness Museum.  Setting up gave one NVQ student excellent experience over several days.

We have learned a great deal from the experience of setting up and dismantling the 2022 exhibition. We fulfilled our ambition of bringing the finds from the Ness to the public, which we haven’t been able to do extensively previously. We have a new relationship with the team who designed and set up the exhibition and with the HES team in Orkney.

The overall excavations at the Ness is all about learning and participation, including an Open Day (attended by 1000 people), 2 artists in residence and audience discussion and outreach by them, the sale of books and craft items by Orkney craftspeople, visit by all of the Stenness school, field schools for UHI Archaeology and US Willamette University students and 88265 visits to www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk