Mhairi Muncaster of An Talla Solais reflects on GI x SCAN event
On 5 June 2026, SCAN and Glasgow International festival welcomed a British Council delegation for Meet the International Curators, an event allowing Scottish producers and curators to make connections and foster future collaborations with curators from around the world. Mhairi Muncaster of SCAN member organisation An Talla Solais in Ullapool was able to attend the event thanks to a travel and accommodation bursary from SCAN. Here she shares a reflection on the day and the benefits of attending.
I was lucky enough to attend Glasgow International and SCAN’s event Meet the International Curators in early June. I am the Director and Curator of An Talla Solais, a small but ambitious gallery, community-driven contemporary visual arts venue, and artists’ studios. We are situated in the seaside village of Ullapool in the North West Highlands. An Talla Solais was founded by local artists with the remit of bringing contemporary art to the Highlands, an area rich in artists but with surprisingly few galleries showing works that don’t depict Highlands cows (they are of course adorable).
An Talla Solias was thrilled to be awarded Creative Scotland’s multi-year funding in 2025 – this has meant that we have the time to deepen our links with local schools, invest in being more sustainable, and provide more opportunities for artists. As well as this, we are working on setting up a network of galleries which are based in locations that might be deemed as ‘remote’. Personally, I think being ‘remote’ is a state of mind.
I grew up in Ullapool but moved away at sixteen to pursue an education and career in the arts. During Covid, like many people, I longed for home and made the decision to return. At that point I was working for a well-known London gallery and museum, and I did worry about missing the London art scene. What I have learnt while working at An Talla Solais is that we have a vibrant and unique art scene in the Highlands, just as vital as any city art scene, and with artists who are just as skilled and passionate.
This brings me back to Meet the International Curators. The morning comprised of presentations from curators from Turkey, Palestine, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Senegal, Ukraine, Pakistan and the Philippines. I am conscious of sounding hackneyed, but I was struck by the similarities between the speakers and my professional network of people who work in the creative industries. So many of them wore multiple hats: they ran their own projects; were also artists; and worked for more than one venue or organisation. This reaffirmed to me that we are a hardworking group of people, motivated by ideas; we are resilient and think deeply.
I was struck by Ksenia Malykh from the Ukraine who said, ‘please contact me, the more visible I am the harder I am to kill’. Here was someone doing a comparable job to me, but through circumstances beyond her control she has to worry about being murdered. I felt lucky and guilty. In the Highlands we are blessed with peace – as I type this all I can hear are the birds singing in my garden. And this is why Meet the International Curators is important. We must not get complacent.
I was motivated to reach out to Malykh and start a dialogue about how we can support her and her network of artists and arts professionals.
Find out more about An Talla Solais on their website.
Image: Panel at Meet the International Curators event, 5 June 2026.