In May the Year of Our Island celebrations move its focus to innovation and creativity, with a series of workshops and events which will showcase Manx makers, innovators and creators.

The celebrations began a little early, with the launch of the Isle of Man Art Festival last Thursday and will continue this weekend with the ’Oie Voaldyn, or ’Manx Festival of Fire’, in Peel.

Both events received funding as part of the Year of Our Island partnership initiative and will be followed up by other partner events throughout May that will celebrate Innovation and Creativity.

These will include a community art display at IsleExpo, UCM’s ’Inspiring Another Generation’ exhibition at the Sayle Gallery and a series of creativity workshops towards the end of the month which will culminate in the launch of the ’Our Island’ photography competition.

Year of Our Island is about how we all celebrate our Island as a special place to live and work, and partner events are central to the year, for those keen to get involved the May 18 is the next deadline for grant applications.

The grant awards scheme, set up as part of the 18-month initiative, can provide funding up to £6,000 for new events and £3,000 for existing projects.

Year of Our Island team member Anna Goldsmith said that ’The Year of Our Island grant funding is available during 2018 to help people who have had an idea for an event or project but need a little support to get it off the ground or to take it to the next stage.’

Ms Goldsmith said that it had been fantastic to see the variety of projects which had come forward for funding so far this year and stressed that the Year of Our Island project is about, ’celebrating the wealth of activities which are available to people across the Isle of Man and provide meaningful enhancements to those who need that little bit of extra assistance to organise activities and events during 2018.’

For more information about Year of Our Island grant funding and details of upcoming events in May go to ourisland.im

This article was produced by the 2018 Year Of Our Island

project team

by Nick Hawkes

Year of Our Island Project Coordinator

www.ourisland.co.im