HI-Arts

Argyll & Bute is one of Scotland’s largest local authority areas and one with which HI~Arts has enjoyed a fruitful relationship for over fifteen years. At HI~Arts we generally refer to the area as Argyll and the Islands, partly due to our contract status with HIE but also because the 25 inhabited islands make up a defining feature of this complex region, not least in terms of culture and the arts.

Our first major partnership here was the Argyll Arts Audit in 1995, followed by the setting up of the Argyll and Bute Arts Action Group (ABAAG). Both these initiatives were directly influential on the creation of the first ever Arts Development Officer post at Argyll and Bute Council. In 2001 HI~Arts initiated and helped to organise Deliver Art, a conference in Oban, working with the ABAAG and Argyll and Bute Council.

Rebecca Sloyan in The Mysterious Death of Netta Fornorio (Mull Theatre and Wildbird). Photograph by Douglas Robertson

Since then HI~Arts has worked both strategically and directly with many individuals and arts organisations including Mull Theatre, An Tobar, Ballet West and more recently with new artists collectives including 6°WEST and Artmap Argyll. In 2004 HI~Arts was a major partner with Forestry Commission Scotland and the Society of Wildlife Artists in Aig An Oir, a wildlife and natural heritage art project that included the Atlantic oakwoods of Argyll as one of three principal project areas. In 2009 we convened a conference at Argyll & Bute Council Headquarters with Jim Mather MSP, then Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, as part of the National Conversation. And of course for many years HI~Arts managed the iconic Screen Machine mobile cinema which attracted capacity audiences on the mainland and islands and continues to do so under Regional Screen Scotland.

Having a member of HI~Arts staff based in Argyll has helped in maintaining an ongoing working relationship with agencies and partners locally, including Business Gateway, CAST (Creative Arts in Schools Team), Argyll & Bute Community Planning Partnership and the HIE Argyll and the Islands area office. We are looking to foster closer engagement with the Heritage sector as we go into 2012 and are ideally placed to broker new developments in Argyll and the Islands in relation to Creative Scotland’s new Corporate Plan.

In common with all other regions of Scotland, Argyll is rich in culture, the Arts and heritage, and is constantly evolving as new markets develop and technology brings greater opportunities to reach them. HI~Arts aims to assist as much as possible in that process and to be at the heart of a bold, imaginative arts community in Scotland, especially in an area with so much more still to offer.

If you wish to enquire about any aspect of arts and cultural development in Argyll and the Islands please see our contact page for details.