OUR CONGRATULATIONS go to Simon Fildes in making the shortlist for the prestigious Creative Scotland Awards for 2006. Simon, based in Strathspey when he was first featured in Northings, but now relocated a little to the north and east in Moray with his partner, video-dance artist Katrina McPherson and their two young children, is the only artist on the short list based in the Northings area.

New Look Northings

THE NEWS THAT the work on Eden Court Theatre in Inverness has run into delays will come as no great surprise, given the cost and complexity of the project they have undertaken. Colin Marr has always admitted that the projected re-opening date of late 2006 (in time for the panto was the original fingers-crossed target) would depend on a hassle-free operation, and that was never really on the cards.

Not Quite There Yet…

September sees the launch of the first-scale running of Blas, a festival of Gaelic arts and culture that will take place across five different areas of the Highlands. As Highland Festival discovered, running a Highland-wide festival is no simple matter, and we wish the new venture well in its first full year, following last year’s single-day pilot.

THE HIGHLAND 2007 project may still seem a long way away, but there is now less than 18 month until it arrives. Whatever shape it finally takes, it will make a major impact on the Highlands and Islands art scene, not just for what goes on here during and beyond its tenure, but also for the way we are perceived beyond the region.

THE CULTURAL COMMISSION finally delivered its report to the Scottish Executive at the end of June, but the mammoth 500 page document is going to take a bit of digesting, and any actual decisions on implementing – or not – any of its recommendations are still some time away.

PHIL CUNNINGHAM AND ALY BAIN will officially bring down the curtain on Eden Court Theatre as we know it on 4 June, the prelude to the theatre’s much discussed expansion and refurbishment. The doors will not open again until at least the very end of 2006, at which time they hope to be the proud owners of a new and very badly needed second theatre, new cinema spaces, a new foyer and improved backstage space for performers, among many other things.

Let’s Hear it for the Tractor

THE RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT of the cancellation of this year’s Highland Festival will inevitably raise the spectre of Northlands. The Caithness festival also pulled the plug at even shorter notice to take a year off, and never returned.