Editorial by Kenny Mathieson
A Sad Farewell and A New Arrival
1 Oct 2011
THE Nairn International Jazz Festival was very much the creation of Ken Ramage, the Forres-based businessman and jazz fan who died recently.
Although the festival had not taken place since 2009, it created a wealth of fond memories for the regulars who made the trek north every year to enjoy the high quality traditional and mainstream jazz in which the festival specialised.
It was no secret that Ken in part underwrote the event from the profits of his successful fruit and vegetable business, and it became increasingly difficult to sustain after his retirement, even with some funding support from the Scottish Arts Council.
Ken Ramage welcomes American singer Steve Tyrell to Nairn in 2006
It was one of those events that very much reflected the taste and unwavering commitment of its creator, aided by his partner, Roslin, and a loyal band of volunteers. Both Ken and the festival (as well his occasional out-of-festival Ramage Jazz promotions) will be missed.
With effect from today, 1 October, Highland Council’s community learning and leisure services will be delivered by a new arms-length company, High Life Highland, a move announced earlier this year and aimed at saving the Council around £1 million annually, while ameliorating some closures and service cuts.
Over 1,000 staff working in adult learning, archives, arts, leisure facilities, libraries, museums, outdoor education, sport and youth work will transfer from the employment of the Council to the new company, which is predicted to have a turnover of more than £20 million a year. Just under £8 million has been provided for the first six months of the company’s operations.
As well as many community-level initiatives, the new organisation wil be responsible for the running of Inverness Gallery and Museum and various other larger-scale venues and activities, although at this stage it is difficult to know precisely how it is all going to work, and what the likely effects will be.
Given current trends, the gut feeling has to be that diminishing investment and the arts receiving an ever smaller slice of a rapidly shrinking cake is the likely prognosis, not just for the year ahead but for the foreseeable future.
The long-held dream of a proper gallery space in Inverness now seems further away than ever, for example. Inverness BID are looking at creating a major new focus event for the city, but it is more of a festival-style celebration centered on Falcon Square they have in mind.
I suspect the real challenge – now and for some considerable time to come – will be to keep as much as possible of the activities and infrastructure that already exists (as Gerry Reynolds pointed out in a recent blog, “Scotland would rather promote as much new stuff as possible, than ensure the survival of what it already has”).
Put simply, re-organising and re-naming is all very well, but without a healthy influx of cash, nothing will happen. And the outlook is pretty bleak in that respect.
Mark Fisher’s review of Mull Theatre’s Singing Far Into The Night has clearly irked some of the people who have seen the show on its current tour, which is now around the half-way mark. Writer Hamish MacDonald explains the genesis of the show in our new interview, and there are still many opportunities to catch the play as it makes its way around the Highlands & Islands and decide for yourself.
The National Theatre of Scotland are also prominent this month. With Graham McLaren’s new production of Ena Lamont Stewart’s Men Should Weep visiting Inverness and later Aberdeen and Perth, and a smaller-scale touring double bill of Calum’s Road (adapted by David Harrower from Roger Hutchinson’s book about the building of the eponymous road on Raasay by local man Calum MacLeod) and Gerry Mulgrew’s Tall Tales for Small People.
MacLeod literally took matters into his own hands when the authorities refused to build a road on the island – perhaps that self-help ethic might be equally necessary for Highland & Island artists and organisations in weathering the current funding storm.
Kenny Mathieson
Editor
© Kenny Mathieson, 2011
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What are the long term plans for the running of resources such as the Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, archives, and museums and what is High Life Highland’s vision or strategy to develop and deliver its broad portfoilo of services?
There has been no statement, detailed information or commentary in the local press about this. Although ironically there has certainly been plenty of comment about the current economic climate, the importance of tourism and the development of the city centre.
Festivals are an important part of a city’s cultural life however hand to mouth events funding is not a substitute for broader cultural infrastructure, which supports long term retention of skilled workers in the Cultural Industries, diversity of employment and permanent resources for visitors and residents alike.
People seem to blindly accept that Arts cuts are an inevitable casualty in tough economic times, however imagination and vision are the only things likely to pull us out of such crisis and in an area such as ours promotion of the region through the arts is a key strategy to achieving long term stability and growth.
Inverness must be the only city in the world where a street sign reading “Falcon Gallery” refers to a multistorey carpark and not a showcase of its unique visual culture.
I look forward to Creative Scotland’s research and report into the economic benefits of the Arts as perhaps this might go some way to convincing politicians and councilmen of what those working in these industries already know; that culture is our greatest asset in terms of economic and social recovery, sustainability and health.
Programmes such as the Federal Art Projects in the United States during the Depression prove even in the most difficult economic circumstances, vision that acknowledges the importance and value of all the Arts in relation to quality of life and identity is a transformative element that has a lasting legacy.
It is not clear who is steering the ship in relation to Arts, Museums and leisure facilities or even what the destination is.