Small Grants Fund 2026 – an update from recipient Ellie Ballantine

Based in Peebles, Ellie is an artist, researcher and writer whose work explores care, ecology, landscape and our relationships with the natural world. The Small Grant Fund was awarded to enable Ellie to attend Murmuration – gathering of listeners 2026, a residency and workshop focused on field recording, sound art and deep listening practices. 

“The Small Grants Fund benefited my creative practice tremendously because it allowed me to attend a workshop residency. It was a group residency with other artists, facilitated as a training experience for artists. It was sound art and field recording with a focus on ecology and environmental research. I learned skills in using different equipment to record things like ants, nests, underwater creatures. It was amazing. There were skills that I had minimally before, but the funding allowed me to attend, because I couldn’t have attended otherwise, so I got hands-on experience in using different types of microphones, and where to place them, practical experience. On the other side, because I was with other artists, I was also learning with them. 

It really gave my practice and skills a big boost. Also, because I had my daughter, she’s 2 now, but it’s taken a long time to just be able to do something for myself. I was nervous to go because, it’s a long time to spend with other people, and I’ve got chronic fatigue, so being around people all the time is a lot, but it was good. It was just inspiring, and I think has just made me like realise I do have skills and that it would be good to eventually organise listening and sound walks nearby so I feel like I know a little bit more how I would go about doing that. 

I’ve recorded a little bit underwater before, but I haven’t recorded freshwater and the guy that ran the course, Jez Riley French, he’s a well-known field recordist, but he also makes his own microphones and they’reaccessible. His hydrophones are around 50 quid, so I used one of his that work better in still water, and I listened to a loch, and I heard tadpoles and dragonfly larvae, and it’s just these little clicks and pops and unusual sounds that were just so amazing. I just didn’t think that my equipment would be able to pick that up. And then also learning how to process the file to take out some of the hissy sounds so you can hear things better, that as a practical experience has allowed me to now record more.”