A registered charity, founded in 1977, Lyth Arts Centre has consistently aimed at promoting work in theatre, music and visual art of the highest standard. Most of its programme is devoted to presenting professional artists and performers from this country and beyond but the centre also acts as a stopping-off point for local artistic endeavour.

The 60-seat studio theatre and exhibition gallery play host to a rich mix of drama, contemporary music and visual art from April to December.

Lyth reopened in 2004 after a major 2 year refurbishment. The centre is now fully accessible for disabled visitors, has on site accommodation for performers and improved parking facilities. There is also a comfortable foyer opening onto a veranda and sheltered garden. This work was mostly privately funded, with assistance from Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise and the National Lottery through the Scottish Arts Council. Lyth Arts Centre is financially assisted by revenue funding from the Scottish Arts Council and The Highland Council.

James Bryce in The Sweetener (photo - Callum Mackay)

FOR THOSE of you who have never ventured deep into the Caithness countryside to this quirky little venue, Lyth is a converted Victorian school house sheltered by trees and stone walls in which is secreted a small but perfectly formed theatre. It doubles imaginatively as an exhibition space and is much beloved by audiences and artists, performing and visual, for the warmth of its welcome.

I had driven almost as far North as it is possible to go for a double bill wrapped around a buffet supper. The first play, Arts in Motion’s The Sweetener, was inspired by the inventor of canned laughter, Charles Rolland Douglass, who died only six years ago, aged 93.

James Bryce gave a well-paced, completely convincing performance as a Douglass protégé in an early 70s American radio studio, reminiscing about the changes in the two decades since Douglass had had his brainwave.

As the set, furnished with reel-to-reel tape recorders, 8-track cartridges and wall-mounted telephone, evoked a time which now seems ancient, before PCs, CDs, ringtones and the internet, this dramatic conceit allowed writer Dave Smith plenty of opportunities to wring knowing laughter from the audience.

This was more than just a nostalgic comedy. Having seen the inner workings of the ever more sophisticated canned laughter of sitcoms and comedy shows, having provided live recordings of laughter, sighs and applause which were then neatly integrated into the show, the audience was left pondering the degree to which fakery is a routinely accepted part of twenty-first century life.

In our society of routine plastic surgery, cosmetic dentistry, Photoshop-ed photos, CGI, advertorials, product placement, viral marketing and spin doctoring, how much of our reality is real?

It made for plenty of conversation over supper (delicious) before the second theatrical course was served. Sea View Productions’ The Last Cuckoo echoed the themes of comedy, pathos and nostalgia for a simpler age evident in The Sweetener, but in a British context.

There were many resonances for a rural audience, from the hopeful dish of lasagne left on the doorstep to an impassioned diatribe which ended “Long live the dull, the mediocre and the ordinary – and they do”, which was greeted with sympathetic murmurs of agreement.

With minimal costume changes, Andrew Harrison (last seen in these parts in Murray Watts’ The Legacy of John Muir) deftly changed characters throughout, from eccentric birder Henry “8 point” Baskerville to his nephew and heir, to the latter’s teacher, Mr Gardener, and back again, sometimes after merely a line of dialogue.

Tight writing and taut acting is an unbeatable combination. It’s a long way from almost everywhere, but Lyth is a unique theatrical experience. As the Michelin Guide puts it, “mérite un détour“.

© Jennie Macfie, 2009

Links

• Arts in Motion
• Andrew Harrison
• Lyth Arts Centre
• Jennie Macfie

WILLIAM WILSON sets out the case for Lyth Arts Centre in the wake of the Scottish Arts Council’s decision to withdraw funding from the Caithness venue

THE SCOTTISH Arts Council (SAC) has today announced that as from April 2009 it will cease to fund Lyth Arts Centre, the only dedicated professional arts venue in Caithness. The Council has funded the Centre on an annual basis since it first opened in 1977.

For many years it was one of the Council’s Core Funded Organisations. In 2006 the Council re-organised its methods of funding, awarding core-funded status to a small selection of what is regarded as key strategic organisations and reclassifying the others, including all of the Scottish theatre companies and many venues as Flexibly Funded Organisations.

Lyth Arts Centre received Flexible Funding which is awarded (and has to be re-applied for) every two years. Lyth’s Flexible Funding application for 2009–2011 was one of 106 eligible applications which requested a total of £14,677,011 across the country. But, with only £6,980,000 to distribute, the Council has given awards to only 63 applicants and Lyth’s application has been turned down.

This news has come as a total surprise as we had the impression that SAC was keen to continue to support Lyth. Although we received a 30% funding cut when we switched over to Flexible Funding and, as a result, lost a newly-created Director’s post, during the last two years SAC has provided extra project funding to support an enhanced programme of music events and workshops which was favorably received during its first year and was awarded further funding for the current year.

For some time SAC has suggested that it would have preferred Lyth to be funded by the local authority but had continued to offer its support as Highland Council was never in a position to provide more than a few thousand pounds each year and as SAC acknowledged the contribution Lyth made to the Caithness community.

The Centre’s Executive Committee will meet shortly to discuss our options for the way ahead and, at this stage it’s unclear what course of action we will take. SAC has provided a thirteen-page assessment with reasons for its decision. The first part of this document prepared by the relevant SAC lead officer commends the Centre for its good work and has only some criticism regarding the comparatively small scale of the management structure.

The officer ends her report by stating that “If awarded, I would recommend that the grant should be increased by £6K for both 2009/10 and 2010/11 to include additional project funding. This recommendation is made on the basis of Lyth’s impact as an arts centre (punching above its weight given its small size), its fit with our criteria for flexibly funded organisations and its geographic location”.

However, the application was then passed to another panel of Specialist Advisors who came up with the following statement:

“From the application and the supporting material, Lyth Arts Centre appears to know its market and is programming safely to meet current demands. The programme did not set out to challenge the current audience. The application itself is very vague and the main body of the business plan lacking in detail (running to only three pages).

The panel recognised that this has been prepared by a group of people trying to keep the organisation going on a voluntary basis, and it is difficult to be clear about artistic vision in these circumstances. The panel also recognised that Lyth Arts Centre is in a strategic position geographically and is an important tourist resource and there is a clear need for such a centre in the locality.

The panel felt, however, that there is a need for it to implement its vision and leadership in a consistent way. Within the criteria for flexible funding, the panel rated this application as low priority for support”.

Well, if Stellar Quines, Paul Towndrow and Robert Wyatt aren’t challenging I don’t know what is. Our plans for 2009/11 are awaiting programming, not vague, as this venue chooses to work with what’s available. All the most creative companies in Scotland have been moved onto Flexible Funding so everyone has been waiting to hear who is able to tour before making commitments.

I feel that if a tiny organisation like Lyth needs a business plan with more than three pages to state the obvious then there’s not much point. This is an example of mindless bureaucracy displacing common sense. It’s also an example of management culture being inappropriately applied to artistic creativity and wasting everybody’s time. Arts Centres aren’t supermarkets for art; you can’t create culture like stacking shelves, watching which lines sell best and buying in more, settings targets and measuring everything.

The basic Lyth arts business plan is:
1. Art – find good art or those who could make it
2. Provision – find out what they need and get it
3. Audience – find people who want art and let them have it
4. Finance – cost the exercise and get the money
5. Production – get it to happen
6. Programme – assess and repeat

This is the magic circle and in an artist-led situation the rotation movement usually starts with item one. However, the rotation can be generated or hindered by sudden changes in any of the six components. Remove any one of them and rotation stops. Augment any one of them and the other five will readjust. But you can never make assumptions that there’s only one way to enable artists and the public to engage with each other. All of this is common sense.

Yes, we are a group of people trying to keep the organisation going on a voluntary basis but only because SAC slashed the funding for a paid post so it can’t have it both ways. One could deduce from this that it’s Caithness which is being turned down, not Lyth. As far as I know, none of the Specialist Advisors has ever been to the Centre or, if so, not in recent years. Like many decisions made in the Central Belt, there is no recognition that just about every second outfit in Caithness is run by a group of people working on a voluntary basis.

Until such times as the local authority is press-ganged into providing proper arts facilities in Wick and Thurso with salaried staff there’s no alternative to voluntary-run venues. It’s that or the five-hour return journey to Eden Court. How many people in Inverness would be prepared to drive to Edinburgh or Glasgow for a night out? (It’s the same distance as Thurso to Inverness) Where’s the inclusiveness in that scenario? No doubt a few Inverness boy-racers bomb down the A9 every weekend but the vast majority of people have to fit culture/entertainment into busy family life and work.

It’s been several years now since the SAC commissioned its study on the future of the arts in Caithness. The findings were quite clear: Caithness with its 24,000 population is the second largest conurbation in the Highland Region and requires its own arts venues as those of Inverness are more than twice the acceptable drive distance of one hour away.

The Highland Council has plans to create a new facility in Thurso but, even if funding were to be put in place tomorrow, it would take three years to arrive. That’s why Lyth Arts Centre has been so successful because there is such a need for it to exist. It is endlessly admired by visiting companies and has massive support from Caithness residents. Virtually every performance sells out.

It’s also particularly galling to get this news just after we have spent a week presenting nine performances of Martha, a play by the distinguished Scottish children’s theatre company Catherine Wheels, to 450 children from seven Caithness primary schools and are about to announce an incredibly ambitious evening in our Jazz Exchange programme which offers local musicians the opportunity to perform along side what must currently be regarded as the two top male and female British jazz singers, details of which will be released on 16 May.

© William Wilson, 2008

Links

• Lyth Arts Centre

Eugenia Vronskaya - Self Portrait in Red Jacket.

REPRESENTATIONS of the human face and figure dominate this year’s summer exhibition at Lyth Arts Centre. There’s hardly a glimpse of a landscape in sight, a bold and novel stance in the Highland art scene which is invariably awash with countryside views – but one which has succeeded in bringing us one of the best exhibitions to be seen in the North for some time.

Six artists have peopled the main gallery with a very varied and contrasting selection of paintings and drawings, ranging from the stunning ‘Iconastas’ of Eugenie Vronskaya, the warm and lively portraits of musicians by Andrew Sinclair, working scenes from Sarah Orr and Meg Telfer, prints of figures from the oil industry by Sue Jane Taylor, and gentle reminiscences of the rural past from Mark Smith.

Vronskaya, as her name suggests, is originally from Russia but now lives near Beauly. She began her training in Moscow and her grounding in classical draughtsmanship serves her well.

This is an age where good draughtsmanship has often, like the proverbial baby, been thrown out with the bathwater in most art schools. Since drawing entails learning how to look and convey what is seen, the result of the lack of such training is an art world full of emperor’s new clothes.

An expert in the Russian icon, Vronskaya creates her own secular world of family, friends and self-portraits in ‘Iconastas’. Sixty images, beautifully sketched in oils, sustain and repay the attention the viewer gives.

Not to be overlooked is her large self-portrait, a delicate figure in an ill-fitting red uniform, plus a charming charcoal interior, an insightful picture of two girls on a sofa watching TV, and a still life of little jars and bottles on a shelf. The domestic and everyday, the family; these themes contrast with the almost fragile determination of her self-portraying images of an artist who never ceases to seek her way.

This is what makes Vronskaya such an interesting painter, and, still a young woman, she undoubtedly has not only an interesting past but a fruitful future before her.

Andrew Sinclair manages to combine a great deal of painterly talent with good business sense, very useful skills in today’s art world. He runs his own gallery in Argyll and still maintains an integrity in his work. His paintings of groups of musicians show not just a fine technique but also convey his feeling for the act of making music, especially the relationship between player and instrument.

This is a young painter who has much going for him, but only time will tell whether he manages to avoid the lure of commercial success that can destroy a talent and turn work into “product”.

Telfer’s big bold paintings and Orr’s detailed drawings show two different aspects of Highland people at work. Both convey scenes of contemporary occupations, with Telfer’s strong compositions and deceptively simple approach contrasting with Orr’s almost journalistic style.

Taylor’s beautifully drawn figures from the oil industry perhaps suffer from their very subject: the heavy gear the human figure is buried under almost obliterates the character of the individuals portrayed. Mark Smith’s delicate watercolours of crofting life in days gone by portray the nostalgia we sometimes still feel for the days when hay dried in stooks and not mechanical bales.

Returning to the theme of musicians and portraiture, Wick-based artist Fergus Mather has an outstanding collection of 30 photographs portraying the various jazz events that have been held at Lyth over recent years. These range from straightforward images to monotone and solarised graphic abstractions and sit very well with the subject of jazz.

The blue concentration of Konrad Wiszniewski on the tenor sax, and the fine portrait of Brigitte Beraha in minimalist white are outstanding, plus the multi-imaged portrait of Tina May which so expertly conveys her charm… really there are too many stars to mention them all. But the collection is a tribute not only to Mather’s talent but also to the splendid range of jazz artists that Lyth has brought to Caithness.

No summer show at Lyth would be complete without its crafts and mini-shows. Outstanding among these is a range of hand-made Caithness furniture by Catherine Macleod, an illustrated Ivor Cutler story especially for children, mini-baskets by Sarah Orr, small abstract sculptures, cheerful plastic sea-horses, and deconstructed bottles.

In a word, for anyone interested in people in particular and good draughtsmanship in general, this year’s show at Lyth is not to be missed. The arts centre is open from 12 noon to 5pm daily.

© Bette McArdle, 2007

Links

• Lyth Arts Centre

Julie with Cathy-Anne and Jenna of Dòchas

LYTH ARTS CENTRE was the venue for a feast of traditional music with a modern flavour as part of the Blas Festival. The idea behind the festival is to work up towards the Highland Year of Culture in 2007, and to celebrate the enormous musical potential we have in the Highlands.

To put the audience in the right mood from the start, all communication was bilingual: Gaelic and English. It seemed perfectly in keeping with the atmosphere of the festival.

The North Highland Fiddlers were the (relatively!) local attraction, under the leadership of Karen Steven. The band consists of six fiddlers supported by two drummers and a keyboard–player, and the members of the group come from Inverness, Wick, Alness and Mid-Clyth.

The visiting artist was Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, who also played on various pipes, and was accompanied on guitar and Irish bazouki and fiddle. Julie is from Uist, but her backing group were from Lochaber and Ireland, respectively.

Both groups interacted well with the audience. There was evident partisan support for our local fiddlers and Karen paid a tribute to the late Bobby Coghill who had encouraged so many people to take up traditional music (Addie Harper Jnr is continuing this tradition in Wick).

Karen Steven herself is well-travelled across Ireland and Nova Scotia, and takes an obvious delight in delivering both well-known and less familiar pieces as well as her own compositions.

The Gaelic language lends itself to creating rhythms, and Julie demonstrated this admirably in her songs.

“Tell us something about the African drums.”

“They come from the music shop in Inverness!”

The performance of all the pieces was excellent, with virtuoso pieces by many individuals from the band.

It was quite apparent that Julie Fowlis had a firm grounding in dance. From the moment she started to play, though seated, her feet began to dance to the various rhythms, and this was contagious since the audience echoed the rhythms as they pounded their feet.

The Gaelic language lends itself to creating rhythms, and Julie demonstrated this admirably in her songs. She also managed to play the pipes and sing at the same time (it has to be pointed out, however, that these were the Scottish small pipes powered by bellows!).

As a vertically-challenged individual, Julie drew our attention to the large turn-ups on her jeans, which we probably would not have questioned. Her charismatic delivery made us think we were in the presence of a musical giant. Julie gave us the details of one old song where the heroine is rescued at the last minute from drowning. Such a happy ending is rare in Gaelic songs, she tells us!

© John Sawkins, 2005

Location: Lyth, Caithness
Capacity: 60-seater theatre, gallery, café bar
Programme: Theatre, music, visual arts
 

Director’s Statement

I feel I have been very lucky to have an opportunity to join in the evolution of Lyth Arts Centre at this exciting juncture of its existence. The re-opening of Lyth has been met with great enthusiasm from the community in Caithness and we have seen the membership of our ‘friends’ scheme double to the highest it has been ever. We also have been lucky enough so far this season to have the rare joy of being oversubscribed for all our performances so I feel we will have to maintain that momentum by keeping the programme at Lyth as varied and creative as we can.

As for other irons in the fire, since September, a programme of outreach educational projects has commenced with local schools and feedback so far has been very favourable. Over the coming year the new website at www.lytharts.org.uk will also be extended. We also intend to offer not only residential courses and workshops in a variety of artforms for the community and visitors but also rehearsal space for theatre companies and performers. In the future, Lyth Arts Centre aims to evolve into a key arts agency for the North of Scotland and with a lot of hard work and motivation I believe this is possible and I welcome a chance to be part of it.

 Finally, some information on the new venue. Lyth Arts Centre is a former village school set deep in the Caithness countryside, 15 miles from Thurso and 10 miles from Wick. A registered charity, founded in 1977, Lyth Arts Centre has consistently aimed at promoting work in theatre, music and visual art of the highest standard.

 The main studio works both as a 60 seat theatre and as a gallery. Most of its programme is devoted to presenting professional artists, both national and international, but the centre also acts as a stepping off point for local artistic endeavour. The current 2004 season has seen a six part exhibition and will run to around 30 live performances.

 The centre was closed in 2002-03 while an ambitious building project was taking place. The Re-Launch Weekend at Lyth ,held on 24th & 25th July this year, was a celebration for all the community in Caithness after this major 2-year renovation. Over 350 visitors turned out to enjoy the extra 300 square metres added to the centre’s indoor space.

The centre now boasts an extended performance programme running from March to December. It has fully accessible facilities for disabled visitors and performers alike, a spacious and comfortable foyer with open-fire plus café bar, and a new annex building providing accommodation for up to 10 performers.

The centre has improved and accessible changing and backstage facilities, a new stage piano, and boasts state of the art stage sound and lighting facilities. Outside, there is an enlarged car park and a veranda and established sheltered garden.

This renovation was made possible with a mixture of private funding and grants from the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Department and Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise. The centre receives annual revenue funding from the Scottish Arts Council and the Highland Council.

Aisling Bryce, their current director, originally hails from Dublin but has lived in Scotland for many years.

Aisling addresses the big questions:

When was the venue established?

In 1977, by former director, William Wilson who tirelessly nurtured the centre for 27 years.

What famous names have taken to the stage?

I have consulted William and he has named Carol Kidd, George Melly, Tommy Smith, Theatre de Complicité and Earl Okin for starters. Andy Goldsworthy, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland and George Wylie have also exhibited here.
 
What are your big ideas for the future of the venue?

Just to get on with it.

Does the venue have a ghost?

The aforementioned – and very much living – Mr William Wilson!

What was your worst disaster as director?

So far, so good (cue: apocalypse).

And what was your biggest triumph?

Since I’m just out of the starter blocks, I’ll not jump the gun with any triumphs just yet!

If you could have any artist in the world for a one-off special, who would it be, and why?

Purely for selfish reasons, as I’m Irish, I’d love to see the likes of Christy Moore or Mary Black to come here to perform but if they can’t make it I’m sure I could do with U2 instead!

Why should people look forward to visiting your venue?

Because it is unique, interesting and holds the importance of the artist and artistic expression in any form at the core of its being.

© HI~Arts, 2004