KAN Do

LYNN JOHNSON reports on a busy programme of arts activities in her area.

LOTS OF exciting projects, events and activities have taken place in Badenoch and Strathspey since my last entry and I’m pleased to be able to share some of them with Northings’ readers, and give a flavour of what the year ahead has in store.

The build up to Highland 2007 has been particularly exciting for the arts in Badenoch and Strathspey as schools and community groups put plans into place for how they want to celebrate Highland Culture.

The Community Programme funding has provided the voluntary sector an excellent opportunity to create and deliver a wealth of additional cultural activity to take place in the area.

Events with an arts focus, funded through the community programme include, amongst others:

• Badenoch and Strathspey Music Festival enhanced festival and poetry book launch. 17th – 23rd March.

• A touring exhibition by local artists around community venues from April – September by Creative Cairngorms.

• A drama festival in August by Newtonmore Drama Group.

• Samba workshops and performance by Sound Start Plus, Grantown’s Community Band, February – May.

• Strathspey in May Community Festival has diversified and is enhancing the festival to include many other art forms as well as their trademark traditional music concerts and classes.

• Grantown PTA are organising a Highland Garden Party with all primary school children in Grantown participating in an outdoor performance.

• Carrbridge Community Arts are developing and enhancing the Carrbridge Live Festival in September.
 The Highland Promise has further enhanced cultural opportunities in the local schools in the area. Both the Kingussie and Grantown associated school groups, with the support of a designated Community Learning and Leisure Officer (myself for Grantown) have planned and started to deliver an exciting range of activities and events in school across all of the six strands of culture which include:

• A Heritage Fair in Grantown in June.

• Gaelic language and song events.

• Grantown Schools will make their own music CD’s.

• Grantown Grammar ‘Sew What’? Fashion show in November.

• Visual Art workshops led by local artists.

• School grounds developments including sculptures and interpretation panels.

• Launch and delivery of the MAD (Make a Difference Award).

We have been fortunate to have received a few Eden Court in Exile performances in Kingussie. These have included the Chris Stout band in November. and Scottish Youth Dance Theatre’s brilliant Y-Dance project with ‘RISK’ in February. We look forward to the next Eden Court in Exile production by 7:84 Theatre Company, who will perform their latest show, ‘Union’, on 27 April.

I have very much welcomed the opportunity to work with Eden Court in Exile. The partnership has enhanced the provision of arts events in Badenoch and has complimented the programme of events provided by the local promoters Kingussie Arts Network.

I have been working closely with Kingussie Arts Network (KAN) under the ‘Building Community Capacity’ priority for the Highland Council. KAN have now been programming events since 2004, and now have a wealth of experience

The latest challenge for them is to promote the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra who are joining forces with the Highland Youth Regional Orchestra (a total of 180 musicians!) for a special H2007 concert at Aviemore Highland Resort on 24 March, with an audience capacity for 500 people.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear one of the UK’s leading orchestras with the cream of Highland Region’s young players. The concert will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and will include the world premier of ‘Fling!’, a high-spirited score written to celebrate Highland 2007 by Scottish Composer John McLeod.

The concert is a big undertaking for KAN, who are fully competent to rise to the challenge and promote and organise the logistics for the event successfully. KAN is a group made up entirely of volunteers, no member of the committee receives any payment for any aspect of the work that they undertake and the group is an excellent example of communities working for and participating in the heart of the arts in the Highlands.

Throughout the winter months I have been working with the youth work and street work project staff in Aviemore and Kingussie to deliver an arts project to young people in the area called Being Young in Badenoch.

The main aim of the project is to enrich the lives of young people in by providing them with free, fun, funky and friendly arts activities in the evenings during the autumn and winter 2006/07, and to provide young people opportunities to divert them from anti-social behaviour and substance misuse.

Various workshops have taken place, including t-shirt printing, canvas painting, fabric design and printing, film making, drama, dance and creating ‘urban art’ installations. The workshops have been facilitated by a range of professional art tutors based in the Highlands.
 
We are grateful to the Community Safety Fund and Cairngorms Leader Plus for their support for this project. The entire work created, entitled ‘Being Young in Badenoch’, can be viewed at the beginning of the Iona Gallery season in Kingussie (12–17 March, Mon–Fri, 1-5pm, Sat, 10am-12pm.

Other exhibitions to look out for in the Iona Gallery this season include: Fionna Carlisle – Energy: Portraits of the North Sea, and Fonn ’s Duthchas, a special collaboration between the National Museums of Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland and the National Library of Scotland, as well as the annual summer exhibition by the local arts society, the Society of Badenoch and Strathspey Artists.
For those aged 12-18 years, look out for drama activities in Kingussie and Grantown over the Easter holidays, delivered by Eden Court Theatre Outreach. Details available on request.

We have started to plan for the summer activity programme for children and young people in the Kingussie and Grantown associated school groups. As ever there will be lots of activities on offer for all school age children over the holiday period.
 We are building on the success of the partnership of working with the Badenoch and Strathspey Youth Forum to deliver the programme by consulting and working in partnership with young people in the area and we hope to offer challenging and exciting activities for everyone to enjoy.

Our Cultural Co-ordinator, Nancy McKenna, has been instrumental in delivering an excellent range of cultural opportunities for schools which has included assisting the schools to run focus days, e.g., an Africa Day in Kingussie High School, including African Dance and Art workshops; Live Literature Scotland projects; assisting PTA’s to run cultural projects and secure funding, e.g., the Cairngorms Happy Map Project; and much more!

The Badenoch and Strathspey Arts Diary which started in January 2006 has proved to be popular with event organisers and audiences/participants alike and the mailing list constantly growing which is excellent news.

If you would like any further information regarding any aspect of Arts and Community Development in Badenoch and Strathspey or would like to be added to the arts diary distribution list please don’t hesitate to contact me. Lynn Johnson, Arts and Community Development Officer, Ruthven Road, Kingussie, PH21 1EJ, 01540 664535, lynn.johnson@highland.gov.uk

© Lynn Johnson, 2007