ADRIAN CLARK reports on a month (or so) behind the scenes in the life of an Arts Officer

FROM APRIL TO AUGUST, the working life of an Arts Officer in Inverness (in my case at Highland Council) and probably elsewhere, becomes something of a blur.

The Easter Activities programme is hardly done before deadlines loom for the summer version, which goes out to all primary aged pupils and Secondary 1 to 3. The Highland Festival intervenes with various opportunities for joint initiatives and marketing, in particular of the Highland Council’s annual Day of Dance.

Funding packages have to be finalised for the Caledonian Canal Ceilidh Trail (Year 2), the Traditional Music Programme (Year 3), the Cultural Coordinator for Schools programme (Year 1) and various new projects such as a series of writers’ visits and a socially inclusive digital art programme. Job descriptions and plans must be written for a New Opportunities Fund Out of School Hour Activity programme, due to start in the autumn.

Meanwhile the promotions programme is kicking in, and there is danger of missing out on some crucial detail, such as artistes’ accommodation, tickets, floats, payments, PA, lighting, et al. Artistes working with children have to be checked through the Disclosure Scotland process, and final arrangements made with venues and artistes regarding the summer activities.

Running through all this is the need to ensure constant publicity through the media, special publications, email, web presence, postering, mail-outs and word-of-mouth. Little point in running activities if nobody knows about them, but it is also difficult knowing when to stop. And this also involves publicising the activities of the voluntary sector through the Arts Diary.

At the same time as all of this is going on, the Service is being restructured, bringing together Culture and Leisure with Community Education, to give birth to a new animal, Community Learning and Leisure. Lots of new faces to deal with and lots more clutter in a crowded office.

One is normally confident that certain events and activities will work well. The Day of Dance fits this bill, its format and core clientele now well established in its seventh year. More teenagers now take part, but males are an endangered species.

A concert by top Gaelic group, Cliar, with its strong local following, in Phipps Hall, Beauly, is bound to go well and indeed did so . Mr Boom continues to be a sure draw for children and grannies.

One is quietly confident that a show about the writings and life of George Mackay Brown (“For the Islands I Sing” by Splinters Productions) will go down well in Inverness Town House, as indeed it does.

More risky is a concert/dance of West Swedish music in Kilmorack Hall. In the event word-of-mouth does the trick and pulls in a dozen people for the dance workshop (polskas, engelskas and reels) and a healthy crowd, with a good number of children, for the evening ceilidh – to make truly a day to remember.

Tango Siempre, which went down well in Beauly last summer, do equally well this summer at Hootananny, although the fiddler has difficulty concentrating while the trio at a nearby table chatter incessantly through the music – but, hey, maybe the same happens in the bars of Buenos Aires. There is a demand for follow-up dance classes (now set for 16 September 2003 in Maple Court Hotel).

Children’s puppet shows usually get a decent turn-out, although audiences can vary from 10 to 100 for little apparent reason. Clydebuilt Puppet Theatre return this summer with one old favourite “Indian/Native American Tales” and a cracking new show “The Magic of the Mummy”. The first attracts 30 to the spanking new theatre at Glenurquhart High School; the second attracts the same number to the small Culduthel Hall.

This summer some strange blips occur. Can it be the good weather that has led to the cancellation of the African drama project and several Multi Activity Days? How come only one child shows up for a Magic Workshop in Culloden, that attracts large numbers in Nairn, this in spite of the venue doubling up on the postering? And yet “Life in a Box”, which one had expected to be hard to fill, books up almost immediately.

The feedback forms tell us that people like the activities, the leaders, the venues and the selection. What they don’t tell us is why people stay away. Maybe one’s own children, with their lethargic holiday habits, screen fixation and unwillingness to make decisions, could help point the way.  (Note: Must check with Eden Court, whose extensive summer activities programme we have advertised in our brochure, to see if they have had the same spotty results.)

Little time to draw breath before we embark on several new projects. Some 34 new media artists respond to the advert for the 7 short-term residencies in the Highlands, including Merkinch, and the Arts Officers have their work cut out in drawing up the shortlist. Lochaber will pilot the scheme, with the other areas, following suit over the following year and a half.

“Local Motion”, the NOF funded Out of School Activity programme in Inverness and Nairn, aims to integrate sports and physical arts and will have a small team ensuring its spread to all primary schools over the coming 3 years. We will, no doubt, learn a lot en route.

Adrian Clark is the Arts Officer for Highland Council (Inverness area).

© Adrian Clark, 2003