Owning Our Future: Coigach Community Trust 

Coigach Community Trust around Ullapool in the western Highlands also created an enormous map the size of the village hall floor curated by Susan Christie. The community owned project owns a 500 kW wind turbine which generates not just power but also revenue for the area  (projecting profits of £4.4million over the next 20 years).  They were able to use income from their wind turbine to provide hardship grants during Covid to help those suffering loss of income to survive.

The playful and visually appealing nature of the work attracted people in to see, and large-scale was important – the map was designed to be accurate and to scale.  A sense of curiosity was generated by the painting which helped to hook people.  Objects – animals, cars, trucks, wind turbine – were all added to expand the sense of Coigach’s narrative and to accurately reflect the community’s many facets. The process was designed to be flexible – the map can be taken to other locations and laid outside. The material has many potential uses and ideas from participants and partners were flying about this over the course of the weekend. Development of the map was well documented on film and in photos – different parts of the process were captured and shared.