An Tobar and Mull Theatre has announced We Know Where We’re Going, a bold three-year artistic vision shaped by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, beginning with its 2026 season.
Each year will explore a single SDG theme through new work and collaborations, inviting audiences to engage with urgent ideas for people and planet.
The 2026 focus is Life on Land, with artists responding to landscape, biodiversity and shared stewardship of fragile ecosystems.
As the Hebrides’ only producing theatre and a multi‑artform hub, the organisation will connect climate, culture and community across its programme.
Visual arts centrepiece The Ground Shakes by Dundee-based Calum Wallis runs until 26 June, tracing Scotland’s Highland Boundary and Great Glen fault lines through large-scale drawings, etchings, stone lithographs and film.
Later this year, Fast Familiar’s immersive outdoor audio walk Invasive Species will lead audiences through Aros Park, blending storytelling, sculpture and sound to examine belonging, environmental change and human impact.
Marking the Royal Scottish Academy’s bicentenary, painter and filmmaker Ronald Forbes curates a special film programme that explores movement, time, space and perception.
An artist exchange and residency strand will link Scotland and Cornwall to extend creative dialogue and strengthen networks.
From 11 July, Scottish artist Eve Campbell brings a vibrant exhibition of exuberant wall hangings, alongside workshops in screen printing, ceramics and textiles inspired by the natural world.
Theatre highlights include Stand and Deliver: The Lee Jeans Sit-In on 30 May, telling the extraordinary 1981 Greenock factory occupation and reflecting Goal 5: Gender Equality.
Award-winning actor and producer Scott Kyle presents It’s Not Where You Start on 16 July, an autobiographical blend of theatre and animation touching on resilience and opportunity.
For families, A Home for Hamish on 1 July offers an interactive, sensory adventure for children aged 4–7, celebrating collaboration, creativity and learning.
Across music and comedy, wellbeing, inclusivity and sustainable communities underpin the season.
Bruce Fummey’s Scotland Made the World arrives on 30 April, while experimental folk duo Amulet perform on 23 April, creating evocative soundscapes from looped guitar, analogue synthesis and field recordings.
Community celebration returns with Pride on Sunday 21 June, inviting audiences to Tobermory beach for face painting, glitter and music.
Highlands-based songwriter Iona Lane appears 9–10 July with songs rooted in ecology and island life, and Cuban guitarist Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas performs on 25 June.
Rebecca Atkinson Lord said, “From our edge-of-the-Atlantic home on Mull, We Know Where We’re Going is our way of setting a creative compass for the years ahead. Through this programme we are inviting artists and audiences to reimagine our place in a better future for us all. This year’s focus on Life on Land (Goal 15) grows directly from the landscapes that hold our stories — the paths we walk, the weather we endure, the fragile beauty we depend upon for spiritual and economic sustenance. Yet the season also speaks to the wider ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals, recognising that the future of culture, community and the natural world are inseparable. We believe that powerful ideas can take root in remote places and travel far. By nurturing bold artistic voices here on Mull, we are contributing to a national and global conversation about how creativity can help us imagine, and build, more hopeful futures.”
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
