Goodbye 2024: What Were Your Highlights?
As we close out 2024, it’s easy to agree that the year has been intense and fast-paced. However, we hope we can all find, as the Blockheads song goes, “reasons to be cheerful.” Here at StoneCrabs, there’s so much to be grateful for, along with exciting opportunities ahead—especially as we look to expand our team (click on the link to read about our part-time project assistant opportunity)!
Our 2024 highlights
It’s a wonderful time to reflect on some of our 2024 highlights, such as our Pride In Self Pride In Place exhibition celebrating LGBT+ History Month last February at Monkton Arts.
Labels in April
We’ve hosted a variety of events, workshops, activities and theatre productions. We brought to Joe Sellman-Leave Labels in April.
Joe Carstairs
We also produced the “ingenious”, “beautifully acted”, “enjoyable” Joe Carstairs at both Omnibus London and Quay Arts on the Island earning a nice feature on BBC South news.
Theatre Summer School
We partnered with Quay Arts to deliver our first Summer Drama School for 8 – 12 year olds.
With the IWCEP, we delivered a series of workshops to Island schools during Careers Week and are currently supporting ‘Our School Creates,’ where our Artistic Director will serve as the artist-in-residence at Dover Park School in Ryde. Click here for more information.
Quilted Memories and IWPride
We partnered with the New Carnival Company to create costumes for Mardi Gras and IW Pride, and with Jenna Sabine and Dawn Fidler at Monkton Arts to produce the brand new Quilted Memories Exhibition at Carisbrooke Castle Museum. We also celebrated our LGBT+ History during the IWPride weekend.
We engaged our community through numerous meet-ups and history clubs, including the LGBTQ+ Club with a historical walk starting at Ryde Town Hall, exploring the Wilde side of Ryde. We worked with Anmarie Bowler who produces Brevity, the Island’s free literary handbill and co-produced the Hear Me Now Writing Project which saw some wonderful special editions featuring LGBT+ writers and allies.
Building Bridges
The year culminated with the World Aids Day commemoration, which also saw the launch of Out On An Island’s new phase, Building Bridges, supported by the National Lottery Community Fund. 
We are taking a little break for the seasonal holidays, but will be back with you with lots of more news on January 6
Wishing you all the happiest of holidays and an inspiring, fruitful 2025!
Thank you for your continued support and stay tuned for more updates!