DAVE SMITH’s ArtToon last month anticipated the announcement of the first batch of the Scottish Art Council’s Inspire funding, initially due to be announced at the end of June, but in the event delayed until late July. The joke regarding perspiration proved even more appropriate than we first though – an awful lot of it seems to have gone to waste.

The SAC selection committee deemed only 13 proposals from over 400 applications to be worthy of further consideration, which is either setting the bar at a very challenging level indeed, or an indication of their low opinion of what is currently being put forward by the Scottish arts community. A large amount of funding remains uncommitted at this stage.

The Scottish Arts Council’s statement released with the announcement of the successful applicants said that while they had been encouraged by the level of imagination shown in the proposals, they felt that “many of the applicants did not demonstrate or articulate how their proposal would genuinely increase participation through ‘more, wider and better’ access to the arts.

The statement added that “the Scottish Arts Council proposes two further development strands for Inspire applications. The first strand will address those ideas that did not clearly articulate the barriers they sought to address, the communities they sought to reach, or how their approach was innovative in the way it proposed to increase participation to meet the standard required for an Inspire application. A second strand will be the development of a further application round.”

Announcements on both strands are expected by September, so further perspiration looms. At a time when confidence in the Arts Council has already taken a few dents, when arts funding is shrinking and the economic situation is very difficult, I suspect the announcement will have done little to inspire those working in the arts.

Two organisations in the Highlands & Islands, Eden Court Theatre and Shetland Arts, were among the successful applicants, and our congratulations go to them.

Hearty congratulations also go to Right Lines, Mull Theatre, Dogstar and plan B, all of whom will be represented with new or revived work in substantial runs at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Love it or loathe it, the Fringe is a major showcase for work, and kudos and good wishes go to all of these companies for their efforts.

Right Lines are in the possibly unprecedented situation of having two shows running in Edinburgh, Accidental Death of an Accordionist (in a co-production with Mull Theatre – see Alasdair Satchel’s entertaining blog) and Whisky Kisses. Dogstar will premier Matthew Zajac’s The Tailor of Inverness at Assembly ahead of a tour in February, and plan B take Parallel / Parallels to Dancebase, also ahead of tours in September and February.

On the festival front, it is the turn of Tartan Heart at Belladrum to take centre stage in the first half of August, followed by the Hydro Connect festival right at the end of the month, both replete with loads of big names. The truncated Nairn Jazz Festival runs at the start of August with the new Community Hall as its main venture, while the region-wide Blas festival will be up and running in early September.

You may well have noticed that we have been tweaking the look of the pages here on NORTHINGS in recent months, and the developments across the website are ongoing. One recent innovation that may be of interest to readers are the introduction of the Art Forms pages, pulling together material from various branches of the HI-Arts websites under specific generic headings. Have a look by clicking on the Artforms tab under the NORTHINGS banner at the top of the page.

Our features this month look at two of the Fringe-bound companies, Right Lines and plan B, while Allan Hunter sets the scene for the inaugural Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams in Nairn, a commendably idealistic attempt to focus on the artistic rather than the commercial exigencies of the world of cinema.

Glen Urquhart Public Hall is the subject of this month’s Venue Profile, while our From the Archive feature is my interview with the late Martyn Bennett from 2003. The Martyn Bennett Trust are organising the Mull Grand Traverse  adventure challenge on the island on 23 August, with proceeds going to the MBT and the Marie Curie Trust.

As usual, look out for more features and reviews in the course of the coming month.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor, Northings

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 Scotsman, The Herald, The List, and other publications. He has contributed to numerous reference books, and has written books on jazz and Celtic music.