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 AMALGAMATION of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen into a single organisation, Creative Scotland, has aroused lots of controversy, but few could really have expected the bill to be voted down in the Scottish Parliament on the grounds of the proposed financial arrangements for the new organisation.

AS THE Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen continue to gear up for their forthcoming – and rather costly – amalgamation as Creative Scotland (amid mounting criticism), the announcement of the SAC’s decisions on who would receive what is now known as Flexible Funding for the period 2009-2011 inevitably produced winners and losers among applicants in the Highlands & Islands.

HI~ARTS and the University of the Highlands and Islands combine this month to bring a new feature to NORTHINGS. Robert Livingston explains the thinking behind the Virtual Dinner Party in his introduction to the feature, and the round-table – or should that be round-keyboard?

THE RECENT changes to the Highland Council’s arts team mentioned in last month’s editorial will take time to translate into a practical response on the ground, but our request for an official response from Highland Council brought a fairly predictable reaction.

NORTHINGS takes a first plunge into the increasingly popular world of podcasting this month, and for our debut we have turned to one of the most intriguing articles that we have carried in the journal.

WHILE the arguments over the success of Highland 2007 will doubtless rumble on for some time yet, the official end of the designated Year of Highland Culture duly arrived on 12 January in Inverness.

NORTHINGS awakes from its seasonal slumber this week, but not quite as originally intended. In the December editorial, I spoke of an article from Highland 2007’s Fiona Hampton that we intended to post ahead of the final festivities in Inverness on 12 January.

HIGHLAND 2007 moves into its final phase, although it’s not quite over with the passing of the year. The last hurrah will come on the weekend of 11-12 January, culminating with Highland Lights ~ Solais na Gaidhealtachd, which they promise will provide a spectacular final flourish back where it began exactly a year earlier in Inverness.

TWO YEARS and five months after Eden Court Theatre closed its doors with a sold out concert by Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham to begin a massive refurbishment and extension project, the theatre will reopen on 3 November with the same artists and another full house.