THE ARTS JOURNAL will be borrowing another tradition from the world of the printed page with the on-line equivalent of a Christmas double issue. In practice, that will mean that regular features like this editorial, our Venue Profile or A Month in the Life will not change again until the ‘new’ issue at the start of February, but (with the exception of the holiday period itself, when the HI-Arts team will be off doing seasonal things for a couple of weeks) we will continue to post new material throughout the two month period, so do keep checking out the site.

The ‘Rants’ section of the Journal should not be confused with the contemporary usage of ranting, as in ‘ranting and raving’. It is intended to provide a platform for people to air strongly-held and often controversial opinions on matters relevant to Highland arts and culture, and one man who can always be relied upon to hold and express such opinions is George Gunn.

We are grateful once again to George for permission to reprint his talk delivered to the Changin’ Scotland shindig at the Ceilidh Place (it appears under a title invented by me rather than George). He throws down the gauntlet on the vexed topic of the Scottish National Theatre, a  subject which we shall undoubtedly return to in these pages.

ArtsRants seem a bit like Glasgow buses at the moment – nothing for ages, then two come along at once. Robert Davidson’s thoughts on an alternative vision of Inverness as a City of the Highlands should also provide plenty of scope for thought and debate.

Continuing on a literary theme, Peter Urpeth interviews one of Scotland’s most formidable writers and intellects, poet and theorist Kenneth White, while Dingwall-based writer Andrea Muir had a grand old time at the opposite end of the country on one of the Arvon Foundation’s courses, and reports on her experiences (at least the ones she can recall) in a Month in the Life of …. The Devon course is a sister course to the summer events run at Moniack Mhor.

The seasonal madness of Christmas and New Year now looms alarmingly close, so it only remains to wish all readers and everyone involved in Highland arts the compliments of the season and a happy and creative New Year from all at the HI-Arts Journal.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor
December 2003