Portrait of Colonel Colin Mackenzie, with three of his assistants, by Thomas Hickey
STORNOWAY arts centre An Lanntair has been awarded £59,900 to host the first exhibition of the Colin Mackenzie Collection, 196 years after his death.
Funding was given by the Heritage Lottery Fund to deliver the project which will see the exhibition and a vibrant arts festival, Purvai, run at An Lanntair this August, celebrating the Hebrides’ South Asian heritage links and Scotland’s 2017 Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology celebrations. The Mackenzie Collection is the oldest and largest collection of ancient South Asian art, collected by Colin Mackenzie from Stornoway. Born in 1754, Colonel Mackenzie left the Hebrides for India in 1783.