Northings | Rik Hammond | Friends Activity

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Northings Podcast 15: Moray Art Centre, on the site Northings

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:04:05 +0000

ROBERT LIVINGSTON speaks to Founder and Director of the Moray Art Centre, RANDY KLINGER.

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Northings No More, on the site Northings

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:39:01 +0000

Robert Livingston explains why Northings cannot continue
BACK at the turn of the Millennium, I was keen to set up an online journal that would properly represent the dynamism and diversity of the arts and culture […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Inverness College Drama Degree, on the site Northings

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:22:18 +0000

Robert Livingston welcomes the opportunities to be offered by the new Drama Degree in development at Inverness College
IT’S not easy making theatre in the Highlands.

EVEN though a full house in a village hall […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, HI-Arts Reflections: Zenwing Puppets, on the site Northings

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:53:03 +0000

Ross-shire-based Zenwing Puppets may have started small, but with the launch of Creativity in Care this month their work takes an exciting new direction. Robert Livingston talked to Karrie Marshall about Zenwing’s […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Wanted: Alive or..., on the site Northings

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 14:29:57 +0000

At a recent meeting of members of the Highlands and Islands Theatre Network, a colleague from the Edinburgh-based company Stellar Quines gave a fascinating presentation on the company’s experiments with live […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, How to come third and win, on the site Northings

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 08:01:43 +0000

We are binary creatures, cursed by our bilateral symmetry to think in terms of pairings and oppositions: black and white, right and wrong, formal and informal, incomer and native. We are (no pun intended) […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Speakout: Memory and Legacy, on the site Northings

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 13:44:47 +0000

Engagement from the Inside
ROBERT LIVINGSTON recalls the most important formative experience in his career in the arts at Glasgow’s Third Eye Centre, and ponders the lessons to be learned from its fascinating […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, The Shock of the Neuk, on the site Northings

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 10:32:13 +0000

Before moving to the Highlands we lived for twelve years in Anstruther in the East Neuk of Fife. In the mid 90s Anstruther and its smaller neighbour Pittenweem were sad places: empty shops along the harbour […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, 'A Great Summer of Art', on the site Northings

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 08:54:52 +0000

I hate sport. All sport and any sport, from tiddlywinks to Premier League Football. So, this dismal summer has held a particular horror for me, what with Wimbledon, Euro 2012, wall-to-wall golf tournaments, and […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, HI~Arts Awards Preview, on the site Northings

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 10:11:42 +0000

Great Oaks from Little Acorns
Sometimes even a small amount of funding is all that’s needed… Northings asked HI~Arts Director ROBERT LIVINGSTON to introduce their suite of awards schemes for individuals, in […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Sausages, trains and Old Spice, on the site Northings

Tue, 22 May 2012 08:48:12 +0000

We’ve been to the lands where everyone eats sausages and drinks beer, where the trains run on time and are spacious and clean, and where culture still seems to be funded—and supported—to a remarkable degree. We’ve […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Month in the Life: Robert Livingston, HI-Arts Director, on the site Northings

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:01:48 +0000

Our behind-the-scenes look into the lives of arts people in the Highlands and Islands continues as ROBERT LIVINGSTON, Director of arts development agency, HI~Arts, records his hectic May 2003.
May 2

To Huntly […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Whaar is da snaa o fernyear?, on the site Northings

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:08:56 +0000

We spent part of the Easter weekend in Ullapool and, even if there hadn’t been a persistent drizzle of that fine rain that soaks you to the skin, we’d certainly have visited, as we always do, the village’s two […]

Robert Livingston commented on the post, BBC SSO, on the site Northings

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:02:49 +0000

Dear James

I respect your opinions on so many subjects that it pains me to take issue with you, but to dismiss the cheery and ebullient First Symphony of Shostakovitch as ‘cacophony’ is grossly unfair. Is […]

Robert Livingston commented on the post, Hebrides Ensemble, on the site Northings

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:49:09 +0000

I’ve rarely felt so intensely the correlation between music and meditation. It was an effort to break the spell and start applauding. A good size of audience for such a challenging programme, and utterly silent […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Is Beauty Useful?, on the site Northings

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:18:08 +0000

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 rever…[Read more]

Robert Livingston commented on the post, The Scottish Ensemble with Lawrence Power, on the site Northings

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:22:05 +0000

You’ve said it all, Georgina, especially about the imaginative programming, compared to the ‘big boys’, and the sheer, mesmeric intensity and showmanship of the playing. There were two young children next to us who, I suspect, will be playing ‘air viola’ for some time to come! And after that fine piece by the unjustly neglected […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Grumpy in Glasgow, on the site Northings

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:39:44 +0000

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 […]

Robert Livingston commented on the post, Hebrides Ensemble: American Pioneers, on the site Northings

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:17:18 +0000

I couldn’t agree more, Georgina: it was a terrific concert. Like you I found the Crumb very much of its time, if always fascinating, and I can’t imagine it will seem as thrilling in sixty years time as the Ives still does today. But what a great chance to hear such a varied programme in […]

Clare Gee wrote a new post, Tumim and Prendergast, on the site Northings

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:54:51 +0000

We were perched high above Stromness, almost atop Brinkie’s Brae, with the not surprisingly fabulous night time views down over the ferry, Hamnavoe and the Holms. Tumim & Prendergast – Matilda Tumim and Christopher Prendergast, who are married, sharing a domestic life, and artist collaborators – have returned with their work from a successful exh…[Read more]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Living in a Heissenberg World, on the site Northings

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 09:07:48 +0000

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 […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, A Grand Day Out!, on the site Northings

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:05:27 +0000

OK, so Lancashire is the home territory for Wallace and Gromit, and we were in fact spending a week on the Eastern edge of North Yorkshire, in Robin Hoods Bay, but ‘a grand day out’ seems nonetheless the best way to describe our visit to Scarborough, just 15 miles down the coast from our self-catering […]

Robert Livingston commented on the post, The lamp in the seaward window – the art of Sylvia Wishart , on the site Northings

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:43:40 +0000

A marvellous piece, Morag, thank you. It was ‘Orkney Tapestry’ which first took me to the islands in 1973, aged just 18, and just this July I had the uplifting experience of staying at Heatherybraes for a restorative week, watching ‘Hoy TV’ through that great picture window, and being thrilled by the Tall Ships sailing […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Zombies v Vampires, on the site Northings

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:37:57 +0000

Hamlet talked of ‘shuffling off this mortal coil’ as a metaphor for death. To judge by the average zombie movie, that shuffling doesn’t end with death. The media have been full this week of hysterical coverage of Brad Pitt’s visit to Glasgow to star in the latest zombie epic (as a Glaswegian born and bred […]

Robert Livingston commented on the post, Youth Orchestra of The Netherlands, on the site Northings

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:02:38 +0000

More unanimity from me too. What an orchestra, what a conductor. I’m still high on the experience. But full marks to the Inverness Courier for giving such a big preview to the concert last week, without which I might well have missed it, not being sufficiently organised (or with the flexibility) to book all my […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, on the site Northings

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:25:36 +0000

Sometimes the gods are smiling, and sometimes they’re just having a good laugh. Two days travelling through Argyll exposed me to the best and worst of weathers. On Wednesday, driving back north from Inveraray through Glencoe, the sunshine was glorious, and I’ve never seen the Glen looking so lushly green. But just the evening before, staying […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Unviewable Art, on the site Northings

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:57:13 +0000

How do you judge a work of art that you can’t really see? Anyone who’s been tempted to lie flat on their back on the floor of the Sistine Chapel, or who’s waited impatiently for someone with the right change to pay for the light to come on in a gloomy Italian side chapel will […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Lacking in Culture?, on the site Northings

Fri, 20 May 2011 15:16:40 +0000

Back in 2003, when controversy was raging about the proposed transfer of the HQ of Scottish Natural Heritage from Edinburgh to Inverness, it was said that some SNH employees were objecting to the move on the grounds of the lack of culture in Scotland’s newest city. Well, that’s a charge that would be hard to […]

Robert Livingston commented on the post, Jasmin Vardimon Company: 7734, on the site Northings

Wed, 18 May 2011 13:48:09 +0000

At the end of the first half I felt this had been a strong of piece of work with some weaknessses, but worth seeing. I was surprised to find there was a second half–it seemed everything had been said that needed to be said. And I found that second half to be close to dance […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Cityscape and Memory, on the site Northings

Mon, 16 May 2011 09:43:20 +0000

Up till now I’ve always found it easy to blog about our travels, and so had assumed that there would be nowhere that I couldn’t find something interesting to write about. But Berlin has nearly defeated me. So many people have already written so much about this extraordinary city, and after this, our first visit, we’ve […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Omnivores and Gluttons, on the site Northings

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 08:57:44 +0000

Hi, I’m Robert, and I’m a cultural omnivore. There is, I fear, no cure. I came across this useful term recently on an American website . Cultural Omnivores, it seems, are those who regularly participate in a wide range of cultural activities, making little distinction been ‘high’ and ‘low ‘culture. Cultural Omnivorism is associated with the […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, So Civilised, on the site Northings

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:39:43 +0000

I’ll let you into a small secret — the original inspiration for starting this series of blogs was the weekly e-bulletin issued by Senscot’s co-Founder Laurence Demarco, which contains a wealth of useful information and links, but is made unmissable by Laurence’s very personal musings on his own life and the world around him. Often opinionated, […]

Clare Gee became a registered member

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:59:22 +0000

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Are We Dumbing Up?, on the site Northings

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:21:42 +0000

Both by age and temperament—if not by celebrity–I’m an obvious candidate to join the ranks of TV’s ‘Grumpy Old Men’, and in that role I’d normally be the first to fulminate about ‘dumbing down’ as an inescapable fact of contemporary life. So, for example, I was spitting expletives over the BBC Trust’s recent recommendation that […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Read any good films lately?, on the site Northings

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:20:51 +0000

It looks like BBC 4 has uncovered another cult hit. ‘The Killing’ follows the police investigation of a murder over twenty days, one day per episode. It has a strong, believable, feisty heroine, a satisfying, complex plot, and excellent filming. We‘re going to have to work hard to keep up as BBC4 are cruelly showing […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, It’s a Mystery!, on the site Northings

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:09:40 +0000

I spend part of most Sundays reloading my MP3 player with a batch of BBC podcasts, to see me, like a sheep’s heid, through the week. A regular item is the ten minute Radio 4 slot ‘A Point of View’. The current contributor is the popular (or should that be ‘populist’?) philosopher Alain de Botton. In […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, It's a Mystery!, on the site Northings

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:46:47 +0000

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Oh No It Isn't, on the site Northings

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:58:55 +0000

Panto is a vital ingredient in our cultural mix. For many thousands of people, from one year to the next, it’s their only regular experience of live theatre. For quite a few, no doubt, it’s their only experience of any kind of live show. And of course, for most theatres, it’s a crucial opportunity to earn income […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Let the People Sing, on the site Northings

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:00:47 +0000

Press articles regularly feature complaints about the poor coverage of music on television. You can see the point when the BBC even treats its own Choir of the Year competition so meanly, squeezing a pre-recorded and edited version of the final into a 90 minute slot on BBC 4. When acres of screen time, and radical […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, The Architecture of Reading, on the site Northings

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:00:44 +0000

When I was in Glasgow last month for a Creative Scotland meeting, I had an hour spare before it started, and took the chance to have a wander, and survey the present state of the ‘Merchant City’. It was quite inspiring to see the restoration of so many buildings that, in my youth, had seemed derelict, […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Growing Old Disgracefully, on the site Northings

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:30:41 +0000

Last week, Creative Scotland brought together representatives of all 52 of its ‘Foundation’ clients. Such gatherings were regular occurrences under the Scottish Arts Council, but with all the upheavals of the transition to the new organisation, it’s been well over a year since the last one was held. That’s just long enough for me to notice […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Zen and the art of beach sculpture, on the site Northings

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:46:58 +0000

Whenever, as now, there’s the prospect of serious cuts in arts funding, there will always be someone who’ll say ‘no matter what happens to the funding, artists won’t stop making art’. On annual leave last month, what turned out to be an unexpectedly cultural week’s holiday in East Lothian gave me plenty of opportunity to reflect […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, ‘Have you met the Poor?’, on the site Northings

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:00:13 +0000

Last Friday to the HISEZ conference at the Centre for Health Sciences , which, incidentally, is one of the many remarkable new buildings which now grace Inverness. HISEZ is very much a sister organisation to HI~Arts: we are both contracted by the Strengthening Communities team of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and we collaborate on supporting…[Read more]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Lament for the Makars, on the site Northings

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:00:10 +0000

I was travelling for most of last week, and so it was only while surfing the Internet on the train back from Edinburgh that, in the space of an hour, I learned of the deaths of two of my favourite writers, Frank Kermode and Edwin Morgan, both, coincidentally, aged 90. It’s one thing to regret the […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Always Now, on the site Northings

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:00:08 +0000

I worked in Edinburgh for five years before moving to HI~Arts and I always enjoy going back. Too often, though, I tread a short path from station to meeting room and back again, and miss the many cultural delights the city offers. So this time I seized the advantage of having a morning meeting in Edinburgh […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Literary dogs and Adam fireplaces, on the site Northings

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:03:10 +0000

It’s that time of year, and I’ve been doing my bit again at the Nairn Book and Arts Festival . This year I was off the hook as a judge for the Open Art Competition, so I could enjoy the final outcome just as a member of the public. But of course I couldn’t help making comparisons: would […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Cars and Crofting, on the site Northings

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:00:46 +0000

Documentaries are the new black. At a time when reporting is dominated by the rolling bulletin and breaking news, we need documentary-makers to take the long view, to get behind the headlines, to tell the stories that can change our view of the world forever. On BBC2 last night, Julien Temple’s film ‘Requiem for Detroit’ achieved just such […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Going Live, on the site Northings

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:00:57 +0000

What kind of TV event would get you out of bed early—a General Election, the Oscars, the Olympics? For me, many years ago, it was an opera. At 6am one Sunday morning in 1992 I was huddled before the TV in pyjamas and dressing gown to experience a live relay of the last act of Puccini’s […]

Robert Livingston wrote a new post, Let it snow?, on the site Northings

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:00:03 +0000

It’s been a funny old festive season. We’re culturally programmed to long for a white Christmas (that Irving Berlin has a lot to answer for!), but when it comes, chaos ensues. Among all the many other victims of this prolonged period of exceptionally bad weather, spare a thought for all the cultural venues that must be […]

Robert Livingston became a registered member

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:32:01 +0000

Robert Livingston became a registered member 16 years, 4 months ago