With the uncertainty of the times and a lack of gallery space available, the Isle of Man Arts Council are offering artists another way for them to display their work.

In a project created alongside UNESCO Biosphere Isle of Man, the arts council are to put together a collaborative artists book and are urging local artists and creatives to put themselves and their work forward to be included.

The title of the book is ’Ellyn: A Tale of Contemporary Art’, with ’Ellyn’ being the Manx word for ’art’, and is the brainchild of Olivia Savage, an arts graduate who is currently working as an intern with the Isle of Man Arts Council.

It is envisaged that ’Ellyn’ will contain the work of artists living and working in the Isle of Man and that the final, published work will provide a contemporary view of the fine arts community.

’As there aren’t many galleries on the island at the moment, I really wanted to reach out to students and young professionals, who have not been able to get their work out there and who don’t want to go down the route of producing commercially,’ said Olivia.

’I wanted to give them a chance to show off their work professionally or if they are up-and-coming and haven’t had the chance to show their work off yet.

’We are looking for 50 artists in total to be part of the project.

’We are inviting 30 artists who are recognised as contributing to the arts community on the island in their years of work.

’Also we are opening the process up for the last 20 places to the public.

’Absolutely anyone can submit work and there are no restrictions to putting you and your work forward, as long as you are either Manx or have a pretty strong connection with the island.

’It will create something that is like a snapshot of what the arts are like today, from the people who are involved in creating large exhibitions right down to students, at whatever level they are studying, and seeing how they develop through the future.’

Olivia developed the project from a similar project she was involved in during her final year, studying art at Leeds University.

’We published a student-led book, made off our own backs, as obviously we couldn’t have an end-of-year degree-show exhibition.

’We curated it and raised the money for it ourselves, and it looked really cool.

’We played with the layout and the design, and the page placement and that was something I thought I could bring to this project, the idea that we could break with the tradition of a creating a typical story book and make the book like a piece of art itself.’

Details on how to take part in the ’Ellyn’ project can be found at iomarts.com

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers