Supporting Creatives

Over the past several years, Dig It! has shifted its marketing budget to support local creatives rather than multinational technology conglomerates.

In 2020, the team hired Dr Li Caswell-Sou FSAScot, Miranda Stuart and Sara Julia Campbell to digitally recreate some of the most intriguing finds from the summer dig season. The following year, they worked with photographers Chris Dooks, Demelza Kingston and Shahbaz Majeed who captured unique perspectives on fieldwork.

In 2021, the team commissioned Mae Diansangu, a spoken word artist and performer, to produce a poem to coincide with StAnza 2021, Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, which was inspired by a site from Dumfries & Galloway linked to the Can You Dig It (CYDI) community archaeology program.

They also hired artist Abz Mills to reimagine three scenes featuring Black figures in Scottish history with archaeological details, as well as storyteller Niall Moorjani to create an original story based on the Brora Saltpans in the Highlands to mark Scotland’s Year of Coasts & Waters and the Scottish International Storytelling Festival.

In 2022, the team celebrated LGBT History Month by commissioning non-binary artist Jem Milton to explore the connections between archaeology and folklore through the selkie legends (pictured below) and ushered in Scotland’s Year of Stories by running a flash fiction competition.

Watch this space for future commissions!

“I wanted to give a glimpse into the selkie world and the human world, at the same time as depicting a happy trans and happy selkie love story” (© Jem Milton 2022)