Caitriona MacCuish

Caitriona MacCuish is the Heritage Officer at Taigh Chearsabhagh. She describes what the job entails and what she enjoys about working there.

My name is Caitriona MacCuish, and I work as Heritage Officer in Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Art Centre in North Uist.

I work in the museum and I curate the exhibitions, or I set them up and research them. Um, and I work with Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath, the North Uist Historical Society, um, to curate exhibitions. I also work with schools, showing them round the exhibitions, creating work for the exhibitions with schools. And I also work with other community groups, and also with older people who are resident in the hospital or in the local care homes.

Um, I suppose most of the time I’m here, but I do then spend quite a percentage out in the community as well, out in the schools, or with other groups.

I really enjoy my work, yeah. Um, there’s always something different doing every day. There’s lots of people around as well, and the staff here are very friendly. Um, and I like the fact that there’s lots of the community come in to visit, to use the café and also to look at exhibitions, so I really enjoy it.

I think it’s very important. It is a place both for the community and also for tourists, um, and also it employs a lot of people. There’s nowhere like it, I don’t think, in North Uist otherwise, so it’s very important, and also it helps to conserve our history for future generations as well.