THE ARTS JOURNAL launched at the beginning of June last year, so we are officially one-year-old this month. We mark the occasion with a redesigned front page and the appointment of a new member of the editorial team, youth editor Andrea Muir, who has worked heroically to ensure that her new remit is fully apparent this month.

Developing and encouraging the – for want of a better phrase – youth sector has always been one of the stated aims of the Journal, but we have taken a deliberate decision not to separate it off in the ghetto of a Youth Section, or even to brand particular pieces as “Youth” articles. We believe that all of the material in the Journal is of potential interest to everyone, and have chosen not to erect artificial barriers around any of it.

We hope the redesign will provide better navigational access to the Journal, including the Discussion Forum, which will now have its own prominent button on the front page (the other major change readers will notice is that long articles are no longer split into multiple pages, but scroll continuously to the end).

I said in my very first editorial that the Arts Journal aimed not only at providing high quality coverage of the arts and culture in the Highlands and Islands, but also a platform for debate on major issues affecting the arts.

That is no less true now, and while we feel we have made a decent start to fulfilling the first part of that aim, we have not yet seen the kind of debate and discussion that we aimed for in the Forum. This month’s ArtsRant by George Gunn, on the National Theatre for , while wholly opportunistic (as distinct from explicitly commissioned) on my part, is precisely the kind of piece which might kick start a discussion thread.

George has strong and often intemperate views on everything, and this piece is no exception. Many may find his assessment of the current state of the Highland theatre companies both controversial and unduly negative, for example, and the Forum provides a means of either agreeing or disagreeing with his contentions, or indeed, anything else affecting the arts and culture in a
Highlands and Islands context. Don’t be shy – use it.

“The Arts Journal … is a journal of comment, criticism and debate, and reflects the individual views and judgements of the writers and reviewers rather than any official line.”

George’s piece is the forerunner to a feature on the National Theatre of Scotland later this month. We have asked a number of notable figures around the Highland theatre scene for their views on whether we need a National Theatre in the form that is proposed, and what benefits it may have for the Highlands and Islands. Their responses are still coming in, and will be published soon.

June means both the Highland Festival and the St Magnus Festival, and we will be bringing you review coverage of both events once they are underway. We are also featuring our interview with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies which appeared in the opening issue of the Journal as the first of a new monthly ‘from the archives’ feature, and it is perhaps worth reminding visitors to the site that all the articles and reviews which appear in the Journal remain accessible through the Archive links in the navigation bar after they depart the front page.

It may also be worth restating what the Arts Journal actually is. HI~Arts is a development agency, and the Arts Journal is directly funded by them. However, when Robert Livingston, the director of HI~Arts, first conceived and subsequently developed the idea of such a publication over a matter of years, it was his explicit intention that the Journal would have editorial independence from HI~Arts.

The Arts Journal is not the official voice of HI~Arts or any other organisation, nor is it simply a publicity outlet. It is a journal of comment, criticism and debate, and reflects the individual views and judgements of the writers and reviewers rather than any official line. In that respect we are no different from a major newspaper or magazine. That independence is a crucial cornerstone of the Journal, and if it means ruffling feathers on occasion, so be it.

We have marked the anniversary with something of a bumper issue of the Journal, but there will be much more to come as the month unfolds. As ever, keep checking back for new features, news and reviews, and join us as we push forward to try and make an even better Arts Journal in our second year.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor