NORTHINGS is an on-line journal devoted to the arts and culture in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland. Our aim is to provide news, reviews, interviews and features on the work of artists in all media based in the region, artists from the region now working elsewhere, and visiting companies and events. 

Northings is part of the HI-Arts family of websites, and we share material with other pages across the site. It is editorially independent of HI-Arts, and opinions and views expressed are strictly those of the writers of the articles or reviews, and not of the organisation.

As part of our new look website, all reviews and features which are specifically commissioned for Northings will bear an identifying ‘watermark’ to distinguish them from other material across an increasingly inter-linked site.

But why Northings? As anyone who reads maps will know, a northing is the name given to the second half of a UK grid reference (the first bit is an easting). A trawl through various dictionaries produced some more definitions, including those at the foot of this page.
 

Buried within the name is the appropriate implication of ‘North-things’, and the idea of “progress toward the north” not only signaled our focus on the northern part of Scotland when viewed as a whole, but also recognised that fact that our ‘home’ area actually stretches quite far south.

Our mission continues to be the provision of high quality coverage of the arts in the Highlands & Islands. The journal has come a long way since our launch in June 2003, and we look forward to continuing to develop the service even further.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor