‘Being an Islander: Art and Identity of the Large Mediterranean Islands’ runs as a research project between 2019 and 2023, with a major exhibition titled ‘Islanders: The Making of the Mediterranean’ opening at the Fitzwilliam Museum on 24 February 2023 and closing on 4 June 2023.
Both the exhibition and research project, together with corresponding public engagement actions and outputs, aim to elucidate what defines island identities in the Mediterranean. They explore how insularity affected and shaped cultural identity using the examples of Crete, Cyprus and Sardinia, and provide a platform to debate cultural evolution in the islands as opposed to the surrounding mainland. The exhibition will extend beyond the topic of the Ancient Mediterranean, incorporating the current perceptions of and discourses about island versus mainland cultural identities (e.g. including Britain’s own, debated island identity).