Last Saturday we went through to Nairn to hear Joanna MacGregor play Bach’s Goldberg Variations. It was revelatory. Bach fanatic though I am, I’d never really managed to properly engage with this hour-long display of compositional and keyboard virtuosity. MacGregor’s performance made me understand why: too many players approach the work with reverence. MacGregor grabbed […]

Social Media and Social Networking is not only becoming an essential way of marketing and promoting but also for networking and raising awareness of your online profile. However, there is still alot of concerns and fear around using social media. So I’ve pulled together all the information that I have to hand that has helped […]

My name is Sian and I like to hoard information. Often or not people are surprised at how excited I get about statistics, data and research information. It’s a genuine excitement as well, I often refer to myself as a bit of an information geek. The reason why I love cold hard statistical evidence is […]

I was reading an interesting article in Gift Focus Magazine recently about getting the price point right for your creations. Gift Focus is a gift ware trade magazine sent to retailers throughout the UK. In the first edition of 2012, an ‘Industry Insight’ article was focused on getting the right price point for your goods. […]

New work, an upcoming solo exhibition at a British glass museum and an illustrated description of lost wax casting with rubber moulds.

Forget policemen and doctors, you really know you’re getting old when some of the regular contributors to ‘Grumpy Old Men’ are younger than you are. My home town of Glasgow regularly brings out my inner grumpiness. I spent most of the first half of my life there, but I haven’t lived in the city since […]

‘It was the revolutionary fundraising model that swept Barack Obama to power – and it could help arts bodies in Britain stay in business.’ Are you constantly looking for the right funding route but coming up empty handed? Are you looking for alternative routes to fund your project that doesn’t rely on public bodies? Would […]

The Scottish Government published its new National Performance Indicators this year, which are designed to measure progress towards the achievement of the Government’s purpose and national outcomes. 16 new outcomes were identified to deliver sustainable economic growth, of which Cultural Engagement is one. This is encouarging for the Cultural and Creative sector, as it enables us […]

I love the serendipity of libraries. In the past few weeks, browsing in Inverness library, I’ve come across two fascinating books which I wouldn’t otherwise have read, for the simple reason that they are so lavish and costly that it’s unlikely I’d ever have bought them. And both are books which set out to deliver […]

September has been so jam packed with events, I felt it best to chart them from the beginning and work my way through! From Skye to London via Inverness, I have seen work that has ranged from community knitting to dresses made from 20,000 pins, from exquisitely crafted jewellery to automata made from scrap. Starting […]