Special feature - The state of the visual arts

The State of the Visual Arts in the Highlands and Islands – 
A ‘Report from the Front’

May 2006

This is a time of remarkable change in the arts in Scotland, and not least in the area of the visual arts.  In the Highlands and Islands the visual arts, like other artforms, have experienced rapid growth in recent years.  The 1999 edition of HI~Arts’ Galleries Guide listed some 90 galleries—the online version now has over 150 entries.

Some of the more factors driving these developments include the establishment of a number of artist-led groups across the region (Visual Arts Sutherland, Veer North in Shetland, and the Highland Open Studios network), the presentation of Highlands and Islands artists at art fairs (supported by the Highland Council) and appointment of the area’s first dedicated Public Arts Coordinator in Inverness.

There has also been the expansion or creation of arts centres, including public centres such as Taigh Chearsabhagh in North Uist, An Lanntair in Stornoway and the Pier Arts Centre in Orkney, and many new private gallery ventures.  The introduction of the Scottish Arts Council's Own Art interest-free scheme for the purchase of artworks in also encouraging sales across the sector.
 

The imminent Year of Highland Culture, 2007, and plans for a major new gallery and museum complex in Inverness suggest that the sector will only become stronger over the forthcoming years.

Less immediately apparent drivers for change in the visual arts sector include an increasing number of recent graduates returning to the area, the plans for Inverness to form part of the 2007 Six Cities Design Festival, and an increasing focus on the crafts.  HI-Arts have responded to these developments in the crafts sector by piloting the now well-extablished national online crafts portal, craftscotland, and establishing a regional small awards scheme for makers.

In other areas of the arts, HI~Arts has helped to develop stand-alone agencies.  Go Events supports the music industry in the area.  The Highlands and Islands Theatre Network represents more than twenty professional companies based in the area.  A Writers Development Agency is planned for 2007.  But although HI~Arts has given substantial support to the visual arts in a number of ways--marketing projects, galleries guide, forums, awards schemes—a specific agency to work with and support visual artists has not yet emerged as a viable concept.

HI~Arts has therefore decided to undertake an investigation into the present state of the visual arts in the Highlands and Islands.  Rather than adopt the standard procedure of formal questionnaires and statistics-gathering,  we are proposing something much more immediate, personal, and subjective—what we’re calling a ‘report from the front’.

This is an approach which HI~Arts  trialed successfully some years ago when Deirdre MacMahon undertook a journey through the Hebrides which resulted in the report Creative Islanders (see http://www.hi-arts.co.uk/Na_hEileanaich_Ealanta_Creative_Islanders.htm).  It is about one-to-one conversations (wherever possible face-to-face), about subjective impressions and personal experience, about local diversity and regional networking.

To undertake this investigation HI~Arts has contracted Georgina Coburn.  Georgina’s name will be familiar to many as she has been a very regular contributor to the HI~Arts internet journal, Northings, covering the visual arts through interviews, features and reviews.

Over the summer, Georgina will be travelling extensively throughout the Highlands and Islands, and this introduction is to encourage everyone—artists, galleries, arts officers—to welcome her and spare her some time.  Her report will be featured in Northings and widely circulated, and it will inform a Visual Arts Conference which HI~Arts is in the early stages of planning, for late 2006.

Out of these two initiatives, the study and the conference, HI~Arts aims to formulate  a clear programme for future development that will link individual artists and national agencies, public and private sector galleries, funders and politicians. 

This is a unique opportunity to enable the voice of those who work in the visual arts to be heard, regionally and nationally.

Robert Livingston
Director
HI~Arts

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