OUR CONGRATULATIONS go to Simon Fildes in making the shortlist for the prestigious Creative Scotland Awards for 2006. Simon, based in Strathspey when he was first featured in Northings, but now relocated a little to the north and east in Moray with his partner, video-dance artist Katrina McPherson and their two young children, is the only artist on the short list based in the Northings area.

Having served on the judging panel for the awards myself, I know how tough it is for the successful nominees to win through from what is always a very high standard of competiton, but we wish Simon well.

The Scottish Executive have finally pronounced on what they plan to do from the morass of findings generated by the Cultural Commission’s report, delivered last summer in exhaustive – and exhausting – detail.

The headline changes had been well signalled in advance. They included transferring funding for the major national companies to the direct control of the Executive, and amalgamating the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen into one new organisation, Creative Scotland, with effect from 2007.

Local authorities will be called on to deliver the Executive’s potentially problematic baby, “cultural entitlement”, a still somewhat hazy concept that is open to many possible interpretations. We will watch with interest as these changes begin to take effect.

The Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow has attracted headlines for all the wrong reasons this year, sparked by the cancellation of their prestigious opening concert at 24 hours notice. The event was further undermined by a spate of high-profile cancellations, poor attendances for some of the bigger events, and calls for the director’s head in the national press.

Many musicians will admit privately that the booking and administration of the festival has long been in a disorganised state, and there was a feeling that this year’s well-publicised problems were the proverbial disaster waiting to happen.

There is no question that the size, scope and their methods of working stretches the available personnel and resources beyond the limit, and some hard-thinking needs to be done about the way ahead for a festival that does a great deal right, but gets some key things badly wrong.

What it did deliver once again was some great music, served up by performers ranging from Feisean students through to international stars. It was good, too, to see the Old Fruitmarket back in action, part of a splendid refurbishment that has also transformed the adjoining City Halls, and created a new home – administrative as well as performing – for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Scottish Music Centre, and Glasgow Cultural Enterprises education section.

Our focus in the early part of this month turns northwards to Orkney. Alistair Peebles has interviewed the returning director of the St Magnus Festival, Glenys Hughes, following her sabbatical in Malawi, while David Simpson reports on Morag McGill’s lecture on the work of George Mackay Brown, scheduled to be repeated as part of the celebrations of the writer’s work at this year’s festival.

Peter Urpeth considers the music of clarsach player and pianist Ingrid Henderson as she releases her debut album. Later in the month, Mark Fisher will be reporting on the launch of the National Theatre of Scotland’s ‘Home’ project in multiple locations around Scotland.

As usual, we will be adding features, reviews and news items on a regular basis throughout the month, so keep checking back for the latest developments in arts in the Highlands and Islands.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor
Northings Arts Journal

Kenny Mathieson lives and works in Boat of Garten, Strathspey. He studied American and English Literature at the University of East Anglia, graduating with a BA (First Class) in 1978, and a PhD in 1983. He has been a freelance writer on various arts-related subjects since 1982, and contributes to the Inverness Courier, The Herald, The Scotsman, The List, Times Educational Supplement Scotland, and other publications. He has contributed to numerous reference books, and has written books on jazz and Celtic music.