When was the last time that BBC News at Ten carried an advert for the arts in Scotland?
It was brilliant to switch on the TV and find VisitScotland’s Year of Creative Scotland advert being screened on the BBC and then to switch over to Newsnight and see it screened again – this time with a direct reference to Scotland’s year of culture and creativity. Well done VisitScotland.
Momentum for the Year has gathered pace again this week with the festival season getting underway; programme announcements from Glasgow Film Festival, Heb Celt and Ullapool Book Festival; and the first announcements from our First in a Lifetime programme – ten projects that will engage new audiences and participants.
This week also sees the start of Celtic Connections in Glasgow – with a ten day music programme that would fill a year in most cities – and the first instalment of the experimental arts festival, Arika12. Both of which are included in The List’s newly published Guide to Scotland’s Festivals 2012 which features some 350 entries stretching from Wigtown to Lerwick.
My hope is that organisations and businesses beyond the cultural sector also take on board the Year of Creative Scotland and I recently visited the relatively new Grasshoppers Hotel in Glasgow where the owner has lined the walls with work by Scottish artists.
It’s a very creative place, a sort of home from home B&B right in the centre of the city. The addition of quality artwork differentiates it as a unique experience for visitors. In a year where we are trying to strengthen the links between the arts and tourism it’s good to see a hotel seeing the arts as good for business.
Meeting artists is the best part of my job. The other day I met Ramesh Meyyappan who is artist in residence with Solar Bear – a theatre company based at The Arches in Glasgow. His aerial piece Snails and Ketchup was previewed as part of the Made in Scotland programme in last year’s Fringe and is coming back in the summer for a UK tour.
Ramesh Meyyappan in Snails and Ketchup (c) Alberto Santos Bellido
Ramesh is one of a number of Scottish artists commissioned through the Unlimited programme - the UK’s largest programme celebrating arts, culture and sport by disabled and deaf people – and this week Dundee is the venue for a major equalities conference that looks to explore the issues inhibiting the inclusion of physically and sensory disabled people in the performing arts. Over 200 delegates are set to attend two days of debate, talks, key note speeches and performances as part of the Pathways to the Profession Symposium 2012.
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