Throughout a packed 2018, Year of Our Island celebrated all that makes our island a special place to live and work.

From looking at our dark skies in January to our celebration of artisans and producers in December, each month has been a showcase of the very best that our island has to offer.

In our final article of 2018 we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the last 12 months and look ahead to some of what Our Island has planned for 2019.

We partnered with the Isle of Man Astronomical Society to introduce people to our awe-inspiring dark skies, worked with Manx-born Id-IOM to create community artwork, broke records alongside Beach Buddies with our Big Beach clean, took a trip through time with the Vintage Mobile Cinema, and tested our green thumbs alongside Manx schools at the Blein yn Ellan Ain garden in St John’s.

We’re proud to say that, over the past 12 months, we’ve supported over 40 projects and provided £75,000 in funding to events and initiatives across the Isle of Man.

From festivals such as Our Island: Our World, the Great Manx Shindig and Mindful Mann, workshops and lectures with the likes of ISB Skateboarding, the Manx Whale and Dolphin Watch and Manx BirdLife, through to improvement projects including Isle of Play’s fantastic Adventure Playground, the Cathedral Gardens Regeneration Project and the Creative Network’s Land Art trail, in the south of the island.

The team feel honoured to have worked with so many committed members of our community.

But the celebration of our island isn’t over yet.

In the first months of 2019, Our Island will be working on a number of projects and initiatives that have been developed during 2018 as legacies for the project.

Year of Our Island chair Chris Thomas MHK was excited to share a little about what we have planned.

’Whilst 2018 is almost over, 2019 will see many of the long-term projects which have been initiated and supported by Year of Our Island come to fruition,’ said Chris.

’The team have been working closely with a number of partners to keep you busy well into the New Year and we hope to see you at our fantastic closing event in March.’

From the entire team, we wish you a happy new year and we look forward to sharing more of what we’ve got planned for 2019 in the coming weeks and months.

To find out more about what Year of Our Island has been up to over the last 12 months, go online to ourisland.im, email [email protected] or call 687007.

by the Year of OUr Island Project team

www.ourisland.im