A knitted sunflower cascade inspired by Highland Hospice volunteers is to be displayed in Inverness Museum in the lead up to its Health, Wealth and Happiness exhibition next year.
The community-led project brought together volunteers who crafted and crocheted the brightly-coloured piece during the lockdown.
The cascade will be displayed in the museum’s community gallery until the exhibition opens in April 2022.
It will be shown alongside other artworks created by local groups and charities from across the Highlands during the pandemic.
The Health, Wealth and Happiness exhibition will explore the history of healthcare in the north and an appeal has been launched for items and information that may be useful to the exhibition’s curators.
Particularly relevant and sought after, are people’s experiences with the Covid-19 pandemic and the effect it has had on their lives.
‘It captured people’s hearts’
It is hoped the Highland Hospice sunflower cascade it will give future generations an insight into what life was like during the pandemic and how communities came together to support each other.
Highland Hospice’s head of fundraising, Andrew Leaver, said, “We invited people to create these beautiful sunflowers in May 2020 with the aim of creating a cascade to mark our Wear Yellow Day in May 2021.
“Over the year, the response was completely overwhelming, with our social media post being shared thousands of times and donations sent from around the world.
“More than just being an art project, this was an incredible community project, and we were astonished by the extent to which it captured people’s hearts. We received many more flowers than anticipated, which resulted in the creation of two cascades instead of one.
“Having one of these creations displayed in Inverness Museum in the build-up to this important story-telling exhibition is just wonderful, and we are grateful to our supporters for making the project such a positive story to share from the pandemic.”
Inverness Museum assistant Joe Setch added: “The sunflower cascades created for the Hospice are a perfect example of the Highland community coming together to do something positive in appreciation of an important healthcare provider, during lockdown.
“Our experiences over the past year and a half have shown us the importance of health and its ability to affect every aspect of our lives. It is our hope that the donations we receive will, like the cascade, capture the essence of what health and wellbeing means to Highlanders today.”