Northings

FESTIVAL season is upon us again, and while there is plenty to look forward to, the proposed two-day Rock4Life event featuring Status Quo, REM, Sugababes and others planned for Arderseir has now been cancelled entirely due to poor ticket sales, following an initial announcement that the second day would be sacrificed.

It is another reminder that such large-scale promotions are a very risky business, and follows in the wake of the demise of both The Outsider and Hydro Connect last year. A more traditional community-related event like the Shetland Folk Festival, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, is perhaps a little more insulated from economic vagaries, but it is a major compliment to all concerned that it has thrived so well.

The Traditional Music and Song Association is another recent victim of the financial squeeze, although not yet to the point of demise. The organisation recently announced the necessity of making its paid staff redundant, but still hopes that a renewed bid for Scottish Arts Council funding will be successful.

Meanwhile, the Highland Council’s budget consultation remains open until the end of June 2010, and I would urge anyone involved in or simply interested in the well-being of arts and culture in the Highlands to make their views known.

Comments and responses can be made to the Council through the weblink above, or at Ward Forums in your local Ward. We have also added a comments box – delayed by a technical hitch – to Georgina Coburn’s Speakout article. While this does not feed directly into the Council’s consultation, we’d like to see some debate on the issue.

Many of the proposed cuts could be deeply damaging to the infrastructure and hard-won developments in arts activity in the region. Proposals include the closure of Inverness Museum and Gallery and the ending of funding to Eden Court’s Out of Eden outreach project.

I have said before in this column that the arts cannot expect to escape in budget cuts of the severity that the Council needs to make, but the arts community is certainly entitled – and indeed obliged – to fight its corner at this crucial point in the decision-making process. No use looking on in silence and complaining afterwards.

On a happier note, Right Lines have finally succeeded in the long haul to bring Whisky Kisses to the stage in the version they envisaged, and hit the road with the show this month. The aforementioned Shetland Folk Festival and Fèis Rois’s Adult Fèis in Ullapool see out April and usher in May, while both Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet visit Eden Court.

The Ullapool Book Festival (7-9 May 2010) includes a session with Iain Banks, always good value on these occasions, and Pitlochry Festival Theatre have announced their summer repertory season, which opens on 14 May 2010.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor, Northings

THESE columns have struck a rather pessimistic note of late, and there is a bit more of that to come below, but what better antidote to the gloom over the parlous state of arts funding than a bit of Laurel & Hardy, courtesy of the late Tom McGrath and Mull Theatre.

Alasdair McCrone, the artistic director of Mull Theatre, has a serious bit of history with this play. As Mark Fisher points out in his review, this is the sixth time that Alastair has twirled his tie and looked coy in the role of Stan Laurel (the first was way back in 1988), although he does confess that his modestly expanding waistline had him wondering if a switch of character might be in order.

Barrie Hunter takes the roll of Ollie in a play that is currently touring widely in Mull Theatre’s characteristic manner, and McGrath’s multi-faceted portrait of the great comedy pairing is well worth catching if it comes your way (and indeed, going a bit out of your way for).

Also on the road this month (and into May) is the An Tobar Commissions, a must-see double bill that brings together two of Gordon Maclean’s imaginative projects at the Tobermory arts centre, Aidan O’Rourke’s An Tobar and the Dave Milligan Trio’s Shops. As Rob Adams’s interview with the two bandleaders explains, they will also be concocting a new piece for all eight musicians especially for the tour.

Fiddlers Bid and Bellevue Rendezvous are also out and about in the Highlands & Islands, and Inverness plays host to a tasty range of treats, taking in the Treacherous Orchestra, the Scottish Ensemble, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Wee Stories and Scottish Dance Theatre, among others.

Plenty to enjoy there, even if the impending cuts in Highland Council funding continue to cast a shadow, Rumours and counter-rumours currently abound, but there is a growing feeling that the long term cultural well-being of the region is going to be sacrificed to short-term expediency, even where the resulting savings are fairly small, a situation which has the potential to do great and lasting damage.

The announcement of cuts at both a local and national level has led to the launch of several on-line petitions to allow people to make their feelings known, including one protesting the proposed cuts to music education in the region, another seeking support for the Cultural Coordinator (remember them?) in Schools programme, and another opposing the scrapping of the Applied Music course at Strathclyde University.

There has been a fair bit of recent activity on the Creative Scotland front. The appointment of Andrew Dixon as their new Chief Executive and speculation over plans to move to new premises are now followed by a Scottish Government commitment to fast-forward the launch of the new organisation – which will take on the functions currently filled by the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen – to this summer.

It remains to be seen how the new arrangements shape up, but at least it will bring an end to what now seems a rather long Transition period, and allow everyone involved to get on with the crucial business of supporting the arts in what will be a very difficult period ahead.

I ended last month with a word of congratulation for An Lanntair to mark their 25th anniversary. This month, local artist and writer Ian Stephen reflects on both the very real achievements and some things that are still to be achieved at the Stornoway venue.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor, Northings

GUITARIST Graeme Stephen was pointing out to me the other day that whenever he is involved in a Tune Up tour, it seems to snow. He won’t be disappointed this time, then, when he takes his excellent contemporary jazz sextet and special guest Ben Davis on the road in late February and early March, including dates in Perth, Inverness and Banchory.

It is a shame that this tour is not reaching any west coast venues, since the Aberdeen-born, Edinburgh-based guitarist has written a new suite of music, Vantage Points, inspired by either places or journeys through Scotland, including Callanish, Ardnamurchan and Knoydart.

He was due to take delivery of the first copies of a new CD of the music just prior to the tour, featuring the line-up he will take on the road minus Shetland fiddle maestro Chris Stout, who had to miss the recording sessions through other commitments.

Let’s hope the latest hefty snowfall in this very snowy winter does not impede their progress, or lead to too many cancellations to other planned events around the country.

The cold winds blowing through the arts world are not only of the literal variety, though – they are getting much chillier in the area of arts funding.

I have written on several occasions about the impending ravages of funding cuts to come, but the recent advance announcements of proposed cuts in Highland Council’s very hard-pressed budget over the next three years suggests things may be even worse than envisaged. The fact that they have taken the unusual step of issuing such advance warnings is itself a measure of the seriousness of the situation.

They are seeking a saving of £60 million over the next three years, a position the Council’s Budget Leader, David Alston, described as “extreme”. (Read more here) It is also planned to consult with the public (Read more here) on where the cuts should fall, although the final decisions will be made by Councillors.

It seems particularly hard to take in the case of the Blas Festival. Having set up and established the event as a very successful going concern, the cuts the Council are now threatening are likely to mean that the 2010 event in September could well be the last.

Quite apart from the artistic and cultural issues, should the event disappear the financial loss of income generated by the festival around the Highlands will be considerable, and it is only the most high-profile of the likely casualties. Finding new sources of funding elsewhere is likely to be equally tough. All in all, not a happy picture.

The availability or otherwise of music tuition is the subject exercising arts worker and concerned parent Jelica Gavrilovic in her Speakout piece this month, one she intends to follow up with a second piece on “the age of technology, rock school and general music education and its lack of consistency in terms of curriculum, plus a call-out to all guitar people of all genres.”

In a pair of interviews, Barry Gordon looks at two contrasting aspects of the arts scene in his native Thurso, cinema and breakdancing. Mull Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland and the Hebrides Ensemble are among those following Graeme Stephen’s example and taking to the road this month, and we will bring you reviews of all these, and much more. (March 2010 Interview: Donald Mackenzie and March 2010 Interview: Darren Manson)

And just to end on a cheerier note, congratulations to all concerned at An Lanntair over in Stornoway, where they celebrate the 25th anniversary of their founding this year.

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

Back On The Road

APART from the usual extravaganza that is Celtic Connections down the road in Glasgow, it has been a fairly quiet start to the new year – and a new decade – in the arts around the Highlands & Islands, particularly on the touring front, although Eden Court did host both Scottish Ballet and Off Kilter.

While the Inverness theatre complex is an obvious focal point for touring shows, and pretty much the only option for large scale productions, it is always good to see smaller scale work doing the rounds of the Highland and Island venues. Scottish Opera’s Essential Scottish Opera has been a very welcome part of that process for many years now, and returns this month, albeit with a new name.

ESO now goes under the rather more self-explanatory name of Opera Highlights, but the formula remains the same. Take four emerging singers, a pianist, an imaginative programme of operatic snippets from a diverse range of sources, hone it all into a thoroughly entertaining show, and pack them all off in a van to visit the parts that opera otherwise doesn’t reach.

This year’s show will visit Strathmiglo, Brechin and Midmar in the northeast before swinging west to Carrbridge, Findhorn, Torridon, Ardross, Strathy, Gairloch, Skye, Benbecula, Barra, Benderloch, Killin and Tarbert, with several more dates further south to follow. It is their biggest ever tour, and if it is anywhere near as good as last year’s ESO offering – one of the best I can remember – then it is not to be missed.

It is a shame, though, that the visit to Carrbridge should coincide with a concert in the Osprey Music Society’s season just along the road in Boat of Garten that same night. Mark Morpurgo made a similar point regarding events in Argyll a couple of months ago, and for the same reason – there is a considerable overlap in the local audience for these two events, and both are likely to suffer as a consequence.

The opera singers won’t be the only ones hitting the road this month, either. Glasgow-based Birds of Paradise start a tour with their new show, Davey Anderson’s Clutter Keeps Company, in Mull, with several more dates thereafter.

Back at Eden Court, theatrical delights on offer include Tall Stories adaptation of Room On The Broom, a popular story for the 3+ audience by Julia Donaldson (author of The Gruffalo); a return for NLP Theatre’s Singin’ I’m No A Billy He’s a Tim, seen here last year; and a touring production of Willy Russell’s phenomenally popular musical Blood Brothers. Oh, and Circus of Horrors and The Chippendales, but let’s not go there.

Mention, too, for the ever-imaginative Scottish Ensemble, who stretch even their elastic boundaries in a programme in which tenor Toby Spence will sing new arrangements of songs by Belgian singer Jacques Brel. On more familiar ground, local heroes Session A9 will hold court in the OneTouch, while the annual Inverness Fiddlers Rally is always a popular event.

Still in Inverness, another new arts venue has opened its doors. The Bike Shed in Merkinch is a more modest affair than that other recent re-opening across the river, Highland Print Studio, but it promises to fill a gap in the local community, and to provide an inexpensive facility for artists from all across the Highlands & Islands. Annie Marrs tells us all about it in this month’s interview.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor, Northings

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

WHERE did 2009 go? It hardly seems any time since I was last writing the final editorial of the year. It has certainly been a busy one for arts in the Highlands & Islands, and we have covered more events than ever before in the course of the year, despite the very real difficulties facing artists and promoters in what are still very straightened times.

That has been a triumph for the sheer persistence and determination of a whole network of individuals and organisations, including very many people around the region who give their time and expertise on a voluntary basis to ensure that all manner of events take place in halls all over the area. So a well deserved pat on the back to all of you out there supporting and sustaining the arts in whatever capacity, and we look forward to a lot more good stuff to enjoy in the twelve months to come.

As usual, this final Editorial of 2009 will also serve as the first of 2010 as Northings goes into hibernation for a couple of weeks over Christmas and New Year. The sharp-eyed among you will already have noted that there are changes afoot in the review sections.

Once we have ironed out the technicalities, the existing navigation buttons for Event Reviews and Film Reviews will be amalgamated as a single Reviews button, and all reviews are already going into the Event Reviews section. We are currently cooking up some more changes to the website, of which more in due course.

We have decided that we will no longer carry a regular film review after Christmas in order to free up more resources to cover specifically Highland & Island-oriented events (including films as appropriate). Many thanks go to Allan Hunter for his excellent reviews since taking over that role several years ago, and we look forward to his continuing input to Northings.

Our main interview this month features Mirrie Dancers in Shetland, a light-based art project which will culminate in a permanent installation in the Mareel venue when it opens in 2011. Lead artists Roxane Permar and Nayan Kulkarni filled me in on the project.

While December looks a little quieter than recent months on the events front, there will be many events clustered around our “down time” around Christmas and New Year, including pantos around the Highlands & Islands, and the final stages of the Inverness Winter Festival, so get out and enjoy, and accept the Compliments of the Season – and have a good new year in 2010 – from the Northings team.

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.

THE INVERNESS WINTER FESTIVAL 2009 got off to a rocky start when a single complaint about a Jolly Roger flying from the flagpole on the Town House led to the removal of the “offending” item, apparently on the grounds that it gave succour and support to Somalian and other latter-day pirates.

The flag was there to promote their Blackbeard’s Haunted Ness Islands Halloween Show, but Highland Council felt obliged to remove it following that single complaint. It made our correspondent “Jolly Roger” feel rather less than jolly about the whole business of Creative Censorship – read his/her reaction here.

Meanwhile Homecoming Scotland 2009 moves into its final stages this month, culminating with another surge of events leading up to St Andrews Day . A flick through the Finale brochure reveals only one major event in the Highlands, a St Andrews Fèis Homecoming event at Eden Court (27 November 2009).

The final assessment of the merits or otherwise of the promotion will only emerge later, and will doubtless be the subject of ongoing debate. Whether it achieved it broader aims of generating visitor numbers I cannot say, but I can say I’m not sorry to see it end. I am not a fan of these year-long extravaganzas, and this one seemed even more amorphous than Highland 2007.

Doubtless a number of events would not have taken place without it, or would have done so in a different form, and artists and promoters have equally doubtless been happy to take advantage of the funding opportunities it has offered.

Once again, though, there seemed to be a great deal of slapping a Homecoming logo onto things that were already happening, and a lot of slightly strained attempts to manufacture a Homecoming slant to events that did not really fit the template. Or am I just being unduly grumpy?

Reports from The Gathering, Homecoming’s flagship event in Edinburgh this summer, suggested that conditions were less than ideal for the inaugural performance of The True North Orchestra, led by Jim Sutherland. There will be another chance to hear them when they perform in the opening concert of Celtic Connections 2010 in January.

Oh, and there is also another year-long celebration waiting in the wings, albeit not as lavish – 2010 is BBC Scotland’s Year of Song, and they plan to celebrate songs and song-writers (in all genres) across their radio, television and online programming.

More immediately, the Inverness Film Festival rolls out in November. Their website promised programme details as of 12 October 2009, but remained ominously unchanged. Enquires have revealed that all is well, the programme is in place, and was scheduled to be revealed on 29 October 2009.

In our lead interview this month, Barry Gordon caught up with a couple of music promoters trying hard to bring name bands to his native Caithness. A number of companies based in the Highlands & Islands are out and about this month, including the Black Isle-based Plan B . Frank McConnell revisits a 1988 collaboration with Michael Marra, director Gerry Mulgrew and designer Karen Tennent in A Wee Home From Home.

Moray-based Wildbird take an unusual look at the Bard in Playing A Round With Shakespeare, while Strathspey-based Dannsa team up with the Cape Breton band Beòlach on a tour.

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.

I BEGIN this month with an apology. In September, Northings ran a review of a reading of George Gunn’s play Fields of Barley in Thurso. I received an e-mail from John Cairns, writing on behalf of both Grey Coast Theatre and Caithness Arts, strongly objecting to what he saw as “an attack on the use of Caithness dialect”.

John pointed in particular to the phrase “heavily soiled in broad Caithness dialect” as offensive, and deserving of “an apology to the people of Caithness”. I agree, as does the writer of the review (a Caithness native), who otherwise stands by his review.

The sense he meant to convey – and the wording was then changed to reflect it – was “rooted in the soil”, but the phrase as it stood bore a different interpretation, and should have been amended at the editorial stage.

I accept responsibility for allowing it to slip through, and am happy to offer an unreserved apology to anyone offended by its use. I also offered John Cairns the opportunity to expand on his assertion that “promotion of local dialect and culture is fundamental to our work as arts practitioners in the Highlands and Islands”, which he has done, although – as he admits – not quite to the brief I suggested.

An interesting exemplar of the point he makes about theatre being more than language is heading for Inverness this month as part of the Highland Homecoming event. Teatr Biuro Podrózy’s production of Macbeth – Who Is That Bloodied Man? more or less abandons the hallowed text in favour of imagery and action to tell their own visceral version of Shakespeare’s Scottish play.

It is one of the potential highlights of Highland Homecoming, which runs from 19-31 October at venues across the Highlands (although the event listings in their suitably fat programme brochure also includes events outside of that time frame). It is to be welcomed as a tangible presence for what has so far seemed a very nebulous event in these parts.

The big outdoor festivals have now pretty much run their course (although Teatr Biuro Podrózy will brave the weather in the car park at Eden Court), and the festival action moves indoors this month, with the Inverness Book Festival taking over various corners of Eden Court (see our interview with its new director, Brid McKibben), and the Royal National Mod returning to Oban.

Highland Print Studio made a welcome return to their elegantly refurbished premises in Bank Street this summer (they officially re-launched on 25 September), and Georgina Coburn caught up with director Alison McMenemy and Studio Manager John McNaught to hear all about it. HPS offer a variety of courses and facilities, and also welcome visitors simply curious to see what the business of print making is all about.

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.

THE SUMMER may be wearing on, but there is still plenty going around the area. The Blas Festival takes pride of place this month, with Blair Douglas’s much anticipated Gaelic Mass heading a busy programme.

The latest segment of the Inverness Old Town Art project also hits the streets this month, and I do mean that literally. Re-Imagining The Centre takes up where the original event of that name left off in 2006, and aims to both celebrate the creation of new outdoor public arts spaces in the old town, and to ask where the city might go from here in the field of contemporary art.

That question will be addressed – along with many others – in the associated Invernessian Clanjamfrey event, which incorporates a free public lecture by Johannesburg-born artist Neville Gabie in Inverness Cathedral.

Later in the month Inverness will also be the venue for the completion of the relocation of Highland Print Studio to its former premises in Inverness, newly refurbished for the purpose. The Studio has been rather hidden away in its current location on the Longman estate, and this return to a more visible presence is a welcome one.

Up in Shetland, meanwhile, they have two festivals running simultaneously in early September, the Wordplay and Screenplay events at the Islesburgh Community Centre in Lerwick. Caithness has its own Arts Drama Festival in the opening week of the month, with a new play from Grey Coast Theatre as its centrepiece.

The play’s author and founder of the company, George Gunn, has announced that he is standing down as Artistic Director of Grey Coast. His commitment to the company and to the theatre arts in the Highlands & Islands has been a huge one, and we feel sure that he will continue to make his trademark no-punches-pulled contributions in whatever form he now chooses. We wish both George and the shortly to be reconstituted Grey Coast well.

Over in the Isle of Bute, Puppet Lab’s Big Man Walking project  – one of the few successful contenders for the Scottish Arts Council’s initial batch of Inspire funding earlier this year – will rise from his slumbers and make his public debut. Although based in Edinburgh, Puppet Lab’s Symon Macintyre is from Nairn, and has a strong track record in both puppet-based and more conventional theatre, including The Big Shop project in Nairn and Inverness.
These are only some of the highlights of an arts scene that remains both busy and vibrant, despite the difficult economic circumstances currently prevailing. There is little of great cheer emerging to suggest an up-turn is imminent, and reports that Highland Council have more substantial cuts in the offing – and are considering changes to the licensing system that may price festivals like Tartan Heart out of the market – do nothing to lift the gloom.

Happily, as the foregoing – and only partial – list of impending highlights suggests, there are still many reasons to be cheerful, including the imminent release of a new album by Uist piping maestro Fred Morrison, the subject of this month’s interview. And our critics will be out and about as usual in the course of the month ahead, so keep checking back for news and reviews.

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.

AS DAVE SMITH’s cartoon reminds us, if it’s August it must be the Edinburgh festival extravaganza again. Kicking off right at the end of July with the Jazz Festival and taking in the full razzmatazz of the International Festival, the Fringe and the Tattoo, it will be a month of colourful mayhem amid the uncollected rubbish in the capital.

Last year’s Fringe brought a triumph for Matthew Zajac with The Tailor of Inverness, and success for Right Lines and Mull Theatre with Accidental Death of an Accordionist, but Highlands & Islands representation is less apparent this year.

It is good to see a revival for St Kilda, one of the major projects from Highland 2007, in the opening weekend of the International Festival programme (as well as a recital from the Lewis Psalm Singers), but a trawl through the Fringe brochure yielded only the one-man show Djupid – The Deep and outings for youth groups from Lochaber, Gordonstoun and Glenalmond, plus Tabula Rasa Dance Company in the Made In Scotland season (see this month’s interview with Claire Pençak), and the customary sprinkling of traditional music performers.

A more modest profile this year, then, but we hope they all enjoy the experience (and apologies if I have missed anyone). Back in the Highlands & Islands, the aforesaid Mull Theatre are currently embarked on one of their trademark massive tours with a new show, Island Nights Entertainments (we plan to catch up with it later this month), while Tilda Swinton and Mark Cousins will hit the road on their Pilgrimage taking hand-picked films around the Highlands in the Screen Machine mobile cinema from 1-9 August. Follow their progress on the Day By Day diary at www.a-pilgrimage.org

The Tartan Heart festival gears up again at Belladrum (near Beauly) with another stellar line-up and lots of interesting side-shows. The Nairn International Jazz Festival has suffered from not getting expected funding this year, and a shift of dates – at the Edinburgh end – that brought it into a direct clash with the Edinburgh Jazz Festival rather than the usual overlap, but still manages to offer a strong programme of mainstream jazz in the Moray town.

Public art is often a thorny subject, and the Streetscape project in Inverness has been attracting some adverse publicity over its costs and benefits of late, but the organisers are preparing for the next phase of the project. Look for the Re-Imagining The City event in early September.

As well as the interview with Claire Pençak already mentioned, we have also invited visual artist Nigel Mullan to share his challenging but fascinating thoughts on the topic of visual arts and landscape. Nigel’s illustrated essay is available as a downloadable PDF file.

Oh, and just in case anyone is in doubt, my “Recession? What Recession?” headline last month was definitely tongue in cheek. These are difficult times for funding the arts, and not likely to improve anytime soon, so all the more credit goes to those who do succeed in persevering in the face of adversity.

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.

I HAVEN’T done a strict comparative count, but June felt like the busiest month we have ever had on Northings, with a seemingly endless stream of reviews added to several features, and all reflecting an intense month of arts activity around the area.

It did rather contradict my gloomy assessment of the effects of the recession on the arts scene last month, but I suspect it will prove to be a particularly productive blip rather than set the pace for the rest of the summer. (I neglected to mention in that survey that the Connect festival in Inverary wasn’t happening this year either, although they do hope to return next year).

It was great to see so much going on, and a great deal of it to a very high standard. I was very impressed with the two NTS Transform projects in Elgin and Thurso (the latter was particularly ambitious) that I had the opportunity to follow in some detail. To see the level of commitment and enthusiasm they got from often initially reluctant or suspicious school groups, and the equally enthusiastic participation of community groups in Thurso, was extremely heartening.

For a variety of reasons we were unable to plant anyone in the NTS Orkney project, Mixter Maxter, and just to round out our neglect of it, neither of our reviewers at the St Magnus Festival was able to see it. It was well-received by the critics (see, for example, Joyce McMillan in The Scotsman), and you can also check out some of the participants’ own blogs and videos at this site.

July is shaping up to be a little less frenetic, although that won’t be the case in Stornoway, where the Hebridean Celtic Festival will unleash its usual good times. The rather more sedate Mendelssohn On Mull festival also occupies its usual slot early in the month.

There is lots of grassroots activity as well. The Feisean programme is well underway around the Highlands & Islands , as are the ceilidh trials, including the Caledonian Ceilidh Trail. The Inverness Highland Games in the Bught Park includes some arts events among the sport.

I can’t say that Homecoming Scotland has impinged a great deal on my own sphere of activity, aside from the Burns 250th Anniversary flurry (much of which would have happened anyway) early in the year and the odd themed commission here and there, but the main event of the programme, The Gathering , takes place in Edinburgh this month, and may raise the profile a bit.

In our lead interview this month, Helen Slater caught up with dancer and choreographer Christine Devaney as she and her collaborators worked on developing a new show during a two-week residence at Eden Court Theatre in June.

We have also instituted a new function on many of the reviews and features, where clicking on the writer’s name in the © credit at the end of the piece will take you to a short biography and picture of the said writer (one or two have chosen to remain anonymous, and some others have not yet got round to it, so if you click and nothing happens, that’s why).

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.