Home Schedule Tickets Getting Here History Links        The Great Book of Gaelic (An Leabhar Mòr)   An Leabhar Mor/The Great Book of Gaelic is now in Antigonish!  An Leabhar Mor is both a book and an exhibition. The project brings together the work of more than 150 poets, visual artists and calligraphers from Scotland and Ireland to create a major contemporary artwork in the form of a visual anthology. 100 Gaelic poems were nominated by leading poets and writers such as Seamus Heaney, Hamish Henderson and Alistair Macleod. The selection features work from almost every century from the 6th to the 21st and includes the earliest Gaelic poetry in existence. Comedy, tragedy, love, death, the spiritual and the bawdy are all represented in poems by Sorley MacLean, Nuala Ni Dhokhnaill, Iain Crichton Smith, Michael Davitt, Kevin MacNeill and Cathal O Searcaigh. 100 visual artists- 50 from each country- were then commissioned to respond to the poetry in a variety of media. The artists include Alan Davis, Rita Duffy, Will Maclean, Brian Maguire, Frances Walker, Anna Macleod, John Byrne, Shane Cullen, Alasdair Gray, Noel Sheridan, Calum Colvin, and Alastair MacLennan. A small team of calligraphers and typographer Don Addison worked in collaboration with the artists to integrate the key lines of poetry and the artist’s images. The resulting exhibition and book is an extraordinary celebration in words and pictures of Gaelic culture from the earliest times to the present day. For more information on An Leabhar Mor/The Great Book of Gaelic please visit www.leabharmor.net Exhibitions During Highland Games Week artwork from An Leabhar Mor/The Great Book of Gaelic will be exhibited in three locations. At the StFX Art Gallery, in a tent on Columbus field and in the display windows of many businesses. The book itself will be available for purchase at the Gallery, the Great Book Exhibition tent, and Word by Word Book store Exhibition Schedule: All exhibitions finish Sunday July 11 Tent Exhibit Schedule The Tent Exhibition will be installed Wednesday and ready for viewing commencing Thursday, June 8th Friday, July 9th, 12:00pm - Tent Exhibit Opens at Columbus Field (Continues all day) Saturday, July 10th, 8:00am - Tent Exhibit Continues at Columbus Field (Continues all day) Sunday, July 11th, 8:00am - Tent Exhibit Continues at Columbus Field (Continues all day)   Main Street Exhibition Schedule The Main Street Exhibition will be fully installed Tuesday, July 6th The Main Street exhibition will be dismantled beginning Monday, July 12th Main Street Exhibition Participants   West Side   East Side   208 Main Street Encore Consignment Emporium The Perfect Fit - Shoes and Handbags   220 Main Street Haliburton RX Pharmachoice Gabrieau's Culinary Closet Gourmet Food 240 Main Street Down to Earth Framing and Art Gallery 244 Main Street Jim's Shirt Locker 250 Main Street Student Computers Slan Fallain Massage & Wellness Centre 254 Main Street Word by Word Bookstore 256 Main Street Campbell's Printing 260 Main Street Highland Basics Office Products 268 Main Street Antigonish Insurance Agencies Ltd. 308 Main Street Farrell's Ultramar 225 Main Street The Plum Tree Gift Shoppe 229 Main Street Walomar Property 239 Main Street Cameron's Jewellery Ltd. a name you can trust 243 Main Street MacKinnon Pharmasave 245 Main Street Antigonish 5¢ to $1 Store 273 Main Street Oak Manor Men's Wear Ltd. 275 Main Street A. H. Roy and Associates Ltd Engineering Consultants Maurice Smith QC MLA Constituency Office Sunlife Financial 295 Main Street MacInnis' Barber Shop     Walking Tours A number of Gaelic Speakers will be heading walking tours for the Main Street exhibit. Each tour will begin in front of  MacInnis' Barber Shop 295 Main Street. The tour will wind its way along Main Street and finish in the Great Book Exhibition tent on Columbus field. As moved by the spirit, our Gaelic Speakers will pause in front of various artworks and recited the poem that inspired the artist. Gaelic, the living language, is to be heard in full voice on the Streets of Antigonish. Walking Tours Schedule (Tours begin at MacInnis' Barber Shop, 295 Main St.) Wednesday, July 7th, 6:00 pm - Michael Newton Thursday, July 8th, 2:00 pm - Catrìona Parson Friday, July 9th, 4:00 pm - Lewis MacKinnon Saturday, July 10th, 12:00 pm - Lewis MacKinnon Sunday, July 11th, 3:00 pm - Michael Newton The StFX Gallery Schedule The gallery exhibition begins Thursday June 8 and runs through to Sunday July 11 Gallery Hours Are 12 noon to 5 pm daily The StFX University Art Gallery is located on the 1st floor Bloomfield Centre ( Student Union Building ) For more information please phone 867-2303. Acknowledgements The StFX University Art Gallery’s Season Sponsor is Macleod Group Incorporated and its Exhibitions Sponsors is A.A. Munro Insurance. An Leabhar Mor/The Great Book of Gaelic was created by Pròiseact nan Ealan (PNE) - the Gaelic Arts Agency Scotland in collaboration with Colmcille Éireann's Alba (Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Republic of Irelan).   The tour in Nova Scotia was made possible through the kind assistance of the The Scottish Government / Riaghaltas na h-Alba) - Ministry of Gaelic, in cooperation with the Oifis Iomairtean na Gàidhlig / Office of Gaelic Affairs - Government Nova. In Antigonish the exhibition was organized by the StFX University Art Gallery in partnership with the Culture Committee of the Antigonish Highland Society. The Tent Exhibition on Columbus Field was made possible by the generous support of the MacLeod Group. A huge thank you goes to the participating merchants of Main Street Antigonish.   It was the Irish Gaels known as Scoti who migrated into Scotland from the 6th century and gave it their name. The most famous artifact from Ireland’s golden age, the Book of Kells, was almost certainly begun on the Scottish island of Iona. It was the Gaels who united Scotland in the 9th century and made Gaelic the language of the medieval court. The Irish Gaelic culture of the Scottish Highlands and Islands went on to survive that of Ireland itself by a century and a half. Scots were "planted" into Northern Ireland from the 17th century and hundreds of thousands of Irish people migrated to Scotland in the 19th and 20th centuries, but it is less well known that the Hebrides were once mapped as "the Irish Isles" or that Michael Davitt was a leading figure in the Scottish Highland Land League. Amidst the ebb and flow of history, the Book of Kells has become a fixed symbol of the complexity and sophisticated of the shared of the shared culture that produced it. The Gaelic language remains the most potent living link between both countries. Through the Leabhar Mor the Gaelic community has created another great work of art that renews the connection between Gaelic Scotland and Ireland and celebrates the diverse strands of contemporary Celtic culture.