Being Transported
The story of the Travelling Tea Bag
The end of January marked one year since Transported’s Project Assistant, Iain, travelled to Shetland to experience Up Helly Aa, one of Scotland’s most distinctive community festivals.
What began as a personal trip became something more: a reflection on how Transported’s ethos doesn’t stay in one place, but travels with the people who take part in our work.
Up Helly Aa is held annually across Shetland between January and March, marking the end of the Yule season. Each event is shaped by its community, culminating in a torchlit procession and the burning of a Viking galley. The festival is years in the making, with local participants designing costumes, building the galley, visiting schools and raising funds. It is, at its heart, a celebration of place, identity and collective effort – values that feel deeply familiar to us at Transported.
Iain didn’t travel alone. Traveling along with his partner Sam, he packed something small but meaningful: a Transported-branded tea bag.
If you attended our Illuminate parade in 2023, the Pilgrims to Presidents lecture, or creative workshops at Fydell House and the Stump, you may have come across them. The tea bags were created to mark the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, acknowledging Boston, Lincolnshire’s role in a story that would go on to shape the United States. Simple, familiar and very British, they were also a reflection of who we are as a team; a group that values conversation, reflection and, quite often, a good cup of tea.
That small object took on a life of its own. Compact enough to travel, it became what we affectionately called the Transported Travelling Tea Bag — or simply, TT.
A travelling symbol of community
After Shetland, TT went on to explore more of Scotland, including the Isle of Skye, Harris and Lewis. Along the way, it appeared at community gatherings, historic landmarks, ferry crossings and moments of public art in action, including a mural painted by local secondary school pupils beside the RNLI station in Portree.
What mattered wasn’t the mileage covered, but what the tea bag represented. It became a conversation starter; an everyday object that invited questions, stories and connections. In many ways, it echoed the role of Transported projects themselves: familiar, accessible, and rooted in shared experience.
Up Helly Aa made this especially visible. Watching the Jarl Squad lead the procession, supported by dozens of community groups, followed by music, food and performance through the night, it wasn’t hard to draw parallels with the work we do. The dedication, collaboration and pride in place felt strikingly aligned with Transported’s approach.
Seeing the world differently
When we asked Iain to reflect on his experiences, he spoke about how working with Transported has reshaped how he moves through the world.
“My personal life has changed greatly since Transported has become part of my life. The rich variety of the work I do, the variety of artists and what they bring with them, have opened my eyes to more of what is around me in any given place. And so, I try and find that variety. For instance, I look for carved faces on buildings and try to see the subtle tool marks that were made centuries ago by some unknown carver.
It’s a whole new world. I wouldn’t have tried anything artistic, believing that I would never be able to achieve anything creative. I wouldn’t have visited galleries and enjoyed my time there as I do now. Going to see local performances from drama groups would not have been on my list pre-Transported. I wouldn’t have joined a male voice choir for a project. I didn’t work for Transported at that point, but having taken the steps into being a participant on projects, I recognised that joining this singing project in Cambridgeshire was part of this creative journey I was now becoming part of, and that I should give it a go!
And now at home I have a variety of creative projects, each waiting for a piece of my time! There’s a piece of stone with a design on it. I’ve removed some background, and it’s just waiting for me to pick up my chisels. In another space, a piece of wood is in a similar state. In one space in the house is some sketching that needs to spend some time with me. I’ve paused typing…while I spin a plate! I should at some stage, take the unicycle out of the shed and actually learn to travel on it! So yes, this wonderful world of art, creativity, and culture has found me, and that is entirely due to Transported.”
Would you say that working for Transported has changed your perspectives on the world around us and places?
“Working for Transported has changed so much for me. Travelling to different places, I now actively look for, or notice pieces of art in a public setting. If the opportunity allows, I will now read the information attached to see if there was community involvement in the project.
One example of the was the recent visit to the Isle of Skye where there is a bronze installation below The Cuillin, and the two mountaineers forever linked to the mountain range. There are some panels of artwork from local primary school children supporting the bronze figures. Very much something in line with what we do. Another example from Shetland being Up-Helly-Aa, the community Viking themed celebration, involving a torch procession and the burning of a Viking Galley. Once again, very much in keeping with events Transported has been involved with – the community involvement, the work behind the scenes, the running of the event itself on the night. It wasn’t such a leap in the imagination to see us, the Transported Team at work.
Walking around historic houses, which we have always enjoyed doing, I now find myself pausing at the fine art on the walls and actually looking at them. Prior to working in the world of art, I probably would not have prior to working on the Art Road Trip project.”
Was bringing the tea bag along a way of bringing the ethos of Transported with you on your travels?
“Very much so. I found it in the car on the way to the ferry to Shetland on that first adventure, having been spare one following Illuminate. As we use the friendly term ‘Team Transported’ amongst ourselves, it occurred to me that I was holding a Transported T-bag, TT, and that I was part of Team Transported, TT. And the idea formed that I would include Transported on the journey to The Northern Isles. By having the TT with me, it did bridge the geographical miles between us.
I love talking to people, and the T-bag added to that community engagement that is so much a part of Transported. The t-bag is an everyday item, everybody recognises t-bags, and my t-bag being ‘dressed’ in Transported colours, it was a vehicle that allowed for some story telling when making contact with people. And sharing its journey with my friends in Transported was/is a wonderful way of having connectivity with those I value.
On reflection the T-bag is like the teaspoon I carried in my pen pocket of my trousers while in the Police, the story of which was turned into a book nook by Laura Mabbutt for the Spalding Stories project. Being a ‘Bobby on the Beat’ it was noticed by those I came into contact with that I had a teaspoon where a pen would be…and people had to ask me why. The spoon broke down some barriers and allowed me to interact with people in ways that were wonderfully unexpected, and fun.”
Carrying identity with us
Back at Transported, these reflections sparked conversations of our own. Around Christmas, Iain shared another piece of heritage with the team: shortbread made using a biscuit mould passed down through his family, featuring a thistle design. The recipe, too, had travelled through generations. It was a simple, tangible reminder of how identity, memory and place are carried forward — and shared.
In many ways, this is what we mean by being Transported.
As we move towards our next chapter, including the launch of our Mind the Gap programme in 2026 and the lead-up to Boston 2030, these ideas feel increasingly important. Boston’s story has always been shaped by movement. By migration, exchange and radical ideas travelling across oceans. We’re interested in how people carry their sense of place with them, and how those stories continue to evolve.
The Pilgrims who once left Boston for a new land would have done the same: bringing memories, customs and identity with them as they boarded ships into the unknown. Today, the objects may be smaller, the journeys different, but the impulse remains.
- A teabag
- A conversation
- A moment of pause