WE HOPE you are finding your way around the redesigned web site, and approve the changes we have made to the design and functionality, both in terms of the surface look and in the way the site operates. With any luck, I’ll even get to grips with it all myself in the not too distant future …

The advent of warmer days also means the festival season starts to roll in, with Northern Roots getting underway ahead of the rest in early April. We had hoped to bring you coverage of the Knoydart festival marking the 10th anniversary of community ownership in the Rough Bounds, but at the last minute the organisers informed our reviewer – who was also commissioned to cover the event for a national newspaper – that they would not be extending the usual press courtesies (in other words, a ticket).

I thought that kind of insular and amateur attitude was a thing of the past in the Highlands & Islands arts scene, especially when it comes to major events, but clearly not. When our reviewer explained that we wanted to included some perspective on the community takeover itself as part of the coverage, the response was apparently along the lines of “that’s the Knoydart Foundation, nothing to do with us”, despite the fact that event was billed as Knoydart 10 Music Festival. Hmm. Local politics at work, perhaps?

Anyway, we hope they had a good festival even if they didn’t want to share it with the rest of us. We will continue our coverage of the summer festivals with the Shetland Folk Festival instead, where they are more used to welcoming the outside world.

The Creative Scotland saga rumbles on, but Mike Russell, the Minister for Culture, recently assured the Scottish Parliament that the money to fund the setting up of the new body would be met fully by Government rather than coming from frontline funding to artists, one major bone of contention in the opposition to the merger of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen into one new body.

Following a series of meetings with various arts and cultural organisation after taking up his post in February, Russell made the following statement to the Scottish Parliament in April:

“Creative Scotland will be much more than the sum of its parts and as such this is not just a transition, it is a transformation. This means taking the best from the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen and creating a unified body with skilled, confident leadership from the sector’s best.

“Much detailed work has taken place on the cost element of this transformation and as a clear signal of my commitment to our artists and creators I can confirm today that Government will meet the costs of establishing Creative Scotland.

“In doing so we will create a new force and set a national standard for a vibrant, forward-thinking development body that will empower and enrich our creative talent for generations to come.”

Let’s hope the reality matches these fine sentiments. Meanwhile, it may be a sign of the economic hard times beginning to bite that both the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra have announced only one visit each to Inverness in the 2009-10 season, rather than the former three.

In response to my enquiry, Eden Court confirmed that they are reducing the orchestral subscription season for 2009-10, and will make an announcement to that effect shortly, but that the arrangement they propose for next year will be for that year only (we will carry details in our news section when they become available). Let’s hope that is the case.

On a more positive note, Scottish Opera have just announced that they will be back in Inverness again next season (they will be here even sooner, with David McVicar’s splendid new production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and their first ever staging of Massenet’s Manon). November will bring Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love and Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers, while next May will see both a revival of Stewart Laing’s production of Puccini’s La Boheme in the Empire Theatre and a smaller-scale production of Janacek’s great Katya Kabanova, which will also tour in September this year, including a number of venues in the Highlands and Islands, in the OneTouch Theatre.

The National Theatre of Scotland begin three residences in the Highlands & Islands this month. Their Transform projects in Elgin, Thurso and Orkney will bring together eminent theatre professionals with local communities and schools to create a new piece of theatre over a roughly six-week span. We will be reporting on progress from these projects throughout their runs.

Our interview this month is with a man who has done excellent work with limited resources on the island of Mull. Gordon Maclean, the artistic director of An Tobar, reflects on a decade in charge of the Tobermory arts centre.

Regular readers will have noticed over time that I have concentrated more on reviews than on features on Northings. That seems to me the best use of our resources, and will continue to be our main focus, but we will also bring you as much feature material as possible alongside the core review coverage and our news section.

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.