Changing Lives
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| May 2004 Feature: Changing Lives |
Engaging with the Arts in
Moray
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KENNY MATHIESON reports from the Changing Lives conference in
Moray
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GLENFIDDICH DISTILLERY provided a handsome
setting for the Changing Lives conference earlier this month. The Glenfiddich
artist-in-residence scheme is only one excellent example of artistic activity in
Moray, and the lively presentations and discussion in the course of the day
highlighted a range of activities and initiatives, notably at youth and
community level.
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This was Moray’s first Arts Conference, jointly
organised by Nick Fearne’s Arts Development team at Moray Council and HI~Arts,
and was notably well attended. John Byrne was a happy choice as keynote speaker,
and his informal presentation traced his own life-changing encounters with art
in episodic but suggestive fashion, a process that began as visiting schoolboy
at Pluscarden Abbey. Byrne opened the session to questions early on, and the
consensus from the floor seemed to find both his attitude and his example
inspirational – a word which recurred frequently in the course of the ensuing
debates.
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The panel discussions were split into three different
topics. The first looked at the broad picture of arts development in Moray over
the last three years, with contributions from Nick Fearne, Tina McGeever of Out
of Darkness Theatre, Caroline Docherty of the Scottish Arts Council, and Andy
Fairgrieve, who runs the Glenfiddich artist-in-residence scheme, and vied with
John Byrne for the most entertaining presentation of the
day.
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The overall picture that emerged from their presentations was encouraging,
recording a striking growth in activity at a variety of levels, but the spectre
of inadequate funding and an uncertain future inevitably raised its head.
The final session of a busy morning dealt with the topic of Changing Youth,
and focused in particular on two projects in the area, Total Jam Music Group in
Buckie (represented by Catherine Hall) and a music, video and dance project at
Hythehill in Lossiemouth (represented by Jacqueline Bennett, an arts development
worked in Moray, and John Todd, a detached youth worker, plus two of the
teenagers involved in the scheme). Bryan Beattie, the Expert Adviser to the
Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, provided a Holyrood perspective on the
subject.
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| The success of the Lossiemouth and Buckie projects
were both quantifiable, but once again doubts were raised over how to take the
projects forward in both the practical and aesthetic sense.
Three short workshops followed lunch, including a session on the work of
HI~Arts from Robert Livingston, and one on the Lossiemouth project with video
artist Simon Fildes and some of the young people involved in creating it.
The final panel discussion, Changing Communities, focused on the activities
of the arts development team and community volunteers in specific sections of
Moray, and on the festivals at Speyfest in Fochabers (big and well-established)
and Buckie (new and growing). The problems facing the volunteer workers who make
these events possible were aired, as was the work on the ground by the
development workers, Fiona Herd and Fiona Hay. Sarah Nairn Anderson also spoke
about the work of the Speyside Action for Youth Initiative in
Aberlour.
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Bryan Beattie summed up proceedings in his role as
Chair, and reminded us all that whatever the policy decisions taken at higher
level, they needed to address what he called “that moment of engagement between
the inspired and the inspirer” which the arts makes palpable, and which lies at
the heart of our experience of them. Brian was particularly taken with Andy
Fairgrieve’s analogy between distilling and art in terms of slow maturation
toward excellence, “a perfect metaphor for the arts”.
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| Other threads from the day included the importance of
community involvement, the changing perception of art itself, and issues of
accessibility and entitlement, as well as the need for lateral thinking on
funding.
As always many questions and issues remained open, but it was clear from both
the formal presentations and informal comments that while much remains to be
done, the arts have at least begun the long process of changing lives and
communities in Moray.
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| December 2008 Editorial |
H2007 Evaluated
Posted by Commissioning Editor, Kenny Mathieson, on
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:01:00 GMT |
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