North of Eden

TOM BRYAN evaluates recent progress in Arts Development in Caithness.

THE GAELIC NAME for Caithness is Gallaibh, “the land of strangers”, probably the Gaels of the west describing the coastal Norsemen but there’s little room for romance up here so I’ll get started.

Caithness has around 25,000 people, the same population as Orkney. It has twice the population of Sutherland but far less area. Caithness is losing its young population and by the next census may be the oldest county on mainland Britain.

Caithness is mainly flat so derives its “exquisite beauty” (Neil Gunn) from its aurora borealis, its big sky, its unique light, its peatlands and cliffs, and above all, its people.

Caithness has never had an arts development officer before.

What? My job is to encourage and encourage all the arts: creative writing, visual arts, dance, drama, film, crafts, music (all kinds). I can encourage the arts by offering advice, helping with funding applications and increasing opportunities for viewing (performances) and participation (workshops).

I emphasise that I am not an arts promoter and do not put on events myself, rather, I try to help groups do what they want to do and maybe offer some help in allowing them to do it better. Here are some good things that have happened since I began in the post in June, 2002.

Caithness Arts has been formed and is flourishing. This lobby group is an umbrella for artists and the arts in Caithness, and has recently obtained Scottish Arts Council funding for its own local arts strategy.

Highland Council obtained funding from the Scottish Arts Council to conduct an Arts Study, now completed, called “Revealing the Vision of Caithness”, which left a legacy of 73 key recommendations for the arts in Caithness over the next decade.

The biggest challenge for the future is how to prevent the drain of the young without forgetting that the enjoyment and practice of art is enhanced by experience and detachment of those who have long since paid their dues in the wider world

Caithness Arts compiled a handy directory of the arts in Caithness, and there have been many local lottery awards, including the ever-popular “Awards for All.” In Caithness, these awards have benefited poetry and creative writing, quilting groups, drama and many more artforms.

Funding has helped young film makers in both Wick and Thurso to learn to use film hardware and software. One project resulted in the happy projection of a goldfish onto the reactor dome at Dounreay, the world’s largest and most expensive goldfish bowl!

Wick Traditional Music Workshops is up and running and promoting what is possibly the strongest artform in Caithness: traditional music. Caithness has world-class musicians such as Addie Harper, Gordon Gunn and James Ross, and has lamented the loss of those such as Bobby Coghill and Addie Harper, Senior. The Workshop is now teaching learners of all ages on several instruments.

“Light in the North”, an annual weekend event held in November in Dunbeath, Caithness, devoted to the life and work of Neil Miller Gunn (1891-1973), a native of Dunbeath. This weekend has included drama, archaeology, local walks and history, music and film, and promises to go from strength to strength after two successful events.

The continued survival of the Grey Coast Theatre Company, which is strongly rooted in the Caithness community, its lore and history.

An arts officer in Caithness should do one thing best: listen to what is needed and try make it happen. The main issue is the loss of young people, for no artform can succeed without the next generation.

Also, it is a fact that 86% of the people of Caithness no longer go to school or are yet too young to go. That sizeable majority must not be left out in the quest to meet the demands of formal schooling. Checkhov once said that “there are at least two types of education” meaning of course what happens outside formal education.

The arts must not forget the elderly or those out of the social mainstream. Many arts practitioners are sucked into the vortex of school and formal education issues whilst forgetting the larger community.

The biggest challenge for the future is how to prevent the drain of the young without forgetting that the enjoyment and practice of art is enhanced by experience and detachment of those who have long since paid their dues in the wider world, a world Caithness has always been linked to out of economic necessity, from Russia to Canada.

However, all this makes working here both a challenge and a pleasure.

Tom Bryan is the Arts Development Officer for Caithness

© Tom Bryan, 2005