Latest News

Orkney Islands Council's Resettlement team, in partnership with the Pier Arts Centre, has organised a new exhibition by Ukrainian refugees now living in Orkney which compares the similarities between Scottish and Ukrainian folklore.

Routine survey work is due to take place on the Kirkwall Town Hall this Sunday 9 March - weather permitting.

The Orkney Museum will present a timely new exhibition, "Unnatural Arrivals - The Stoat Crisis in Orkney", opening on 9 May and running until 20 June 2026. The exhibition is a collaboration between a selection of Orkney-based artists and the Orkney Native Wildlife Project, responding to the ecological impact of the recent arrival of stoats in the islands.

On Saturday 4 April, Orkney Museum will open ‘Lines of Light, Letters of George Mackay Brown’, a new exhibition by artist Ian Charles Scott celebrating his creative relationship with the poet.

The exhibition offers a concise but powerful look at Orkney during World War II, pairing recreated images-shot on original 1930s–40s cameras-with the historic photographs that inspired them.

Alongside these are displays of vintage cameras, uniforms, darkroom equipment, and a rolling film of the project, creating an immersive glimpse into how wartime photographers saw and documented the islands.

This week, Orkney Islands Council’s Museum Service organised a conservation and collection care training programme, funded by their Esmée Fairbairn Foundation grant, for heritage centres and organisations across the isles.

The second round of funding is open to applications for the 2025–26 Visual Artists and Craft Makers (VACMA) Awards, offering support for Orkney-based artists to develop new directions in their practice and deepen their skills. 

A tender document has been published for the major refurbishment of the organ at St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall.  

The Sanday Shipwreck has been nominated for the Rescue Project of the year at the Current Archaeology Awards. This nomination follows on from the Wreck being named one of the top archaeological finds in 2024 by ‘Dig It!’, a hub for Scottish archaeology coordinated by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.