What Do Artists Do All Year? Gaada in 2025
It’s our final working week of 2025(!!!), so in keeping with a Toogs tradition, we’re taking a moment to reflect on everything Gaada has been part of this year. It has been an incredible year, full of inspiration, experimentation and generosity, shaped by the amazing creative community surrounding Gaada…..
A lightsome start and deepening roots
We began the year on a joyful note. In January, Gaada was successful in our bid for Multi-Year Funding from Creative Scotland, officially joining the Portfolio in April 2025. This milestone has given us stability, confidence and space to think long-term, allowing us to deepen our work, strengthen access and dream a little bigger about what Gaada can be.
Supporting artists to Make. It. Happen.
Throughout the year we delivered 13 Public Workshops, supporting 74 artists to learn and develop skills in processes including risography, screen printing and Tetra Pak printing. We also introduced letterpress, etching and aquatint to our public workshop menu, all of which have proven hugely popular and are now firmly part of the Gaada offering.
Alongside this, Gaada ran 363 Weekly One-to-One Workshops, providing a mighty 545 hours of bespoke support and workshop access for artists living with a disability. These sessions remain central to how we work, offering space for care, experimentation and sustained creative development at an individual pace.
We also hosted 40 Open Access sessions for Shetland Artist Members and visiting artists, and began trialling new Saturday Sessions to help more people fit creative time into their weekends!
Thinking through making….. and eating, together
We facilitated a number of private workshops for community groups, welcoming folk from The Bop Shop, SLIPPIT (Shetland’s new Women-Powered Rock Festival), Shetland Young Promoters Group (SYPG) and the Shetland Recovery Hub. Together we explored risograph gig poster-making, screen printed t-shirts and monoprinting, with plenty of ink on the tables and conversations unfolding as the work took shape.
This year we hosted four Work Share + Artist Lunch events, each led by artists and shaped around shared activity. These ranged from giant outdoor cyanotype printing and fiery lino carving, to midsommar-esque storytelling, mandala making and spring ritual cleansing. These sessions created space to experiment with new ways of working together, while giving artists time to reflect on and move their own practice forward.
Exhibitions, talks and artists out in the world
Gaada presented five exhibitions in our Outdoor Display space, celebrating the work of seven artists:
Should Have Stayed Home by Chloe Tallack
The Land and Ice Between by Helen Balfour
There is a place where you are not persecuted that they will never find by Belladonna Paloma, Rabindranath X Bhose and Oren Shoesmith
The Weather Man by Robbie Burns
Welcome to Vagrøy by Tristan Rafferty
We also hosted three artist talks this year, welcoming Cé Simonis and C.A. Hiley of Riso Des Bois in Belgium, Helen Balfour in Shetland, and Esther McManus from London. Esther’s talk had to be postponed due to illness and has now been rescheduled for 28 January 2026, which we’re very much looking forward to.
Bursaries take time and care
Shetland artist Selina May Miller finished off her 2024/25 Bursary sessions, creating a selection of wonderful prints combining screen printing and risography, infused with a love of Shetland dialect and storytelling. It has been a joy to see this body of work grow and take shape, and Selina shared her experience in this blog.
Louise Scollay was awarded the 2025/26 Bursary and began her sessions bursting with Bressian energy, excitement and curiosity. We’re excited to see where her time at Gaada leads over the coming year!
Editions that flew out the door
Gaada published 26 new Artist Editions through our popular Online Shop in 2025. Highlights included Salt Water Island by Sally Hubband, Land of Ice and Wind by Helen Balfour, Shetland by Numbers by Walter Scott, and Toogs Artist Workshop’s first stationery product, Shading Plates, which sold out fast. The year was capped off with Struan Haswell’s incredibly popular 2026 Animals Calendar, with just a handful of copies remaining at the time of publishing!
We also had a stall at the Shetland Pride Village, launching new 2025 Shetland Gay Bird Club merchandise. All profits from these editions were donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), raising over £1,000 so far.
Residencies, exchanges and Art-links beyond the isles
In March, artists Belladonna Paloma, Rabindranath X Bhose and Oren Shoesmith undertook a residency at Toogs Artist Workshop, concluding Gaada’s 2023-2025 programme Toogs: Digging a Deeper Creative Ecology. The trio were commissioned to develop designs that will be incorporated into Gaada’s redeveloped building, with more to share in early 2026(!!!).
Five Shetland artists were featured in the Nordic Letterpress Network’s inaugural exhibition. Burra-based artist Michael Wiseman’s Frozen Gloves was selected for the physical exhibition, marking his first ever public exhibition. Recent work by Daniel Clark was also shown in the physical exhibition, with Robert Burns, Issey Medd and Jono Sandilands featured in the digital strand.
We even went to Stockholm! Jono Sandilands and Issey Medd travelled to attend the exhibition opening at Grafiska Sällskapet, alongside artist talks and letterpress tours, building new ties across the Nordic letterpress community.
In August, London based artist and researcher Esther McManus undertook a DYCP Residency at Toogs Artist Workshop, we couldn’t miss the opportunity for McManus to host a special comic-making workshop for Shetland artists in addition to her explorations of Gaada’s island based risography and etching facilities.
For the first time, Gaada opened applications for the Brig∂i Residency, a self-directed artist residency in Bergen, Norway in 2026. This forms part of Brig∂i, our ongoing programme fostering creative exchange between artists in Shetland and Norway.
In September, Gaada was one of three Shetland organisations taking part in Doors Open Day, Scotland’s largest free festival.
Building Resources, Community and Shelves
The Island Zine Library continues to grow and now holds over 700 catalogued publications. We also hosted our first Island Zine Club, which was a great success and will be continuing into 2026.
Gaada’s Shetland Artist Membership scheme continues to thrive, with 59 talented members. New members are always welcome, and you can discover the work of existing members at www.shetlandartists.org
Behind the scenes, we upgraded a significant amount of equipment this year, including new trolleys and shelving by master joiner Neil Pottinger, a new vacuum screen printing bed, a Farley galley press, a larger hot foil press and improved letterpress equipment!
Big Thanks + Deep Breaths before 2026
None of this would be possible without the energy, trust and enthusiasm of the artists, participants, collaborators and communities who make Gaada and Toogs Artist Workshop what they are. We give our deepest thanks to you all.
A huge thank you also to our funders, Creative Scotland and Shetland Charitable Trust, whose support makes this work possible.
