So what is this thing, Highland 2007? And is it worth getting out of bed for? BILL SYLVESTER reveals all.
THE HIGHLANDS are incredibly lucky in the strength of their culture. Music, visual and performing arts, sport, heritage, the environment, even language and dress contain elements which are not only unique but are recognised and admired throughout the world. |
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Our strength goes further. The number of people who are actively involved in cultural activity is extraordinary, from volunteers to full-time professionals, from individuals to large organisations, from those based in formal facilities to others for whom ‘performance’ space is wherever they happen to find themselves.
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And our culture is alive and kicking. In fact, there is constant evolution through the application of new talent, trial and error, changing technology and greater knowledge. Young people creating contemporary music based on Gaelic themes is at least as legitimate a reflection of Highland culture as the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society ensuring the survival of traditional reels, or as broadband communications bringing the Highland environment to a wider audience.
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Although the Inverness Highland bid for EU Capital of Culture 2008 may have been unsuccessful, the independent panel gave a great deal of praise for our approach to innovation and partnership, the spread of talent across the whole region and our willingness to look forward. They acknowledged that the ambition and confidence with which we entered the competition were soundly based on real people and real activities of which we were all entitled to feel proud.
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It was clear from the number of people who wanted to be involved in the bid that many shared the belief of the bid team that we were doing something which was worthwhile. Artists and audience members, performers and promoters, tourism operators and visitors, businessmen and unemployed, schoolchildren and pensioners, single issue activists and strategic thinkers, everyone seemed to have something to contribute. Well over 2,500 ideas were submitted and many more people just wanted to be part of delivering the year.
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It would be a real waste if all that goodwill and enthusiasm were simply left hanging in the air. The Highland 2007 initiative gives us the opportunity to pick up the threads again and with a clear focus to concentrate the mind. We have the advantage that we can play to our strengths rather than to a European agenda. The fact that we have now got to deliver a programme throughout Scotland may add to the task but reflects a growing awareness of what the Highlands has contributed to Scotland in the past, and what it can continue to add in the future.
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© Bill Sylvester, May 2003 |
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