New Arts Inititive - WHY?

[veekay]

Please would someone like to explain why we need a new Arts Inititive in the North. Surely with the Mill theatre, Lyth, the Live Music group etc. we are well supplied with a wide and varied arts programme.

Is this new kid on the bloke going to gather all the arts council grants megre as they are? Is it thought that perhaps we are not getting the right sort of 'arts' adn if so who has the right to tel us what we should and shouldn't be watching or listening to.

With the pot of money from the arts council shrinking shouldn't we all be making sure that the groups and organisations who have for years been keeping us well entertained, educated and fulfilled get what money there is not as far as I can see a need for anyone else to muscle in it is all there for the taking as it is.

[Tubthumper]

Our universities are doing a superb job of educating and qualifying people who are ideally-placed to arrange arts entertainment for us. They need jobs, and they must be paid a good rate, because they've studied hard.
I thought it would be obvious why we need these new initiatives...

[veekay]

So Tubthumper, those who have ben doing stirling work over the years providing us with the various entertainments both professional and amateur haven't been doing it right because they don't have the right degrees?

[Tubthumper]

They've been doing a great job indeed, within their limits. But we can't have a load of well-educated arts specialists on the dole now, can we? We need a better quality of entertainment, why else are we training them all?

[veekay]

They've been doing a great job indeed, within their limits. But we can't have a load of well-educated arts specialists on the dole now, can we? We need a better quality of entertainment, why else are we training them all?

How very condisending of you Tubthumper. I am sure they will appreciate your pat on the head.

When was the last time ou supported any of the local arts groups whether professional programme or amateur. In fact have you ever seen any of the huge range of 'arts' available up here?

The point is still that with such a small pot of money why do we need it all to go to the 'arts specialists' you support that will provide just that specialist arts not the wide programme now available.

[TBH]

They've been doing a great job indeed, within their limits. But we can't have a load of well-educated arts specialists on the dole now, can we? We need a better quality of entertainment, why else are we training them all?

How very condisending of you Tubthumper. I am sure they will appreciate your pat on the head.

When was the last time ou supported any of the local arts groups whether professional programme or amateur. In fact have you ever seen any of the huge range of 'arts' available up here?

The point is still that with such a small pot of money why do we need it all to go to the 'arts specialists' you support that will provide just that specialist arts not the wide programme now available.I may be wrong but I think Tubs, (I can call you tubs can't I?), was agreeing that the people that are protecting the arts in Caithness are doing a great job.

[Tubthumper]

I may be wrong but I think Tubs, (I can call you tubs can't I?), was agreeing that the people that are protecting the arts in Caithness are doing a great job.
You've sussed me out TBH! I was kind of hinting that it's the 'professional' arts world that's being condescending.
You can make what you will of my dark hints about the arts/education situation...
And Tubs is fine with me.

[veekay]

Sorry to disagree TBH but I think Tubthumper was saying what we have been getting hasn't been up to standard and it is time the specialists got hold of the arts in the county.

It would be great if we could all rub along together but the money and like all these things it does all come down to pounds shillings and pence ( sorry that dates me doesn't it) in the end and there just isn't the arts council money going around anymore ask the people at Lyth they do great stuff but can;t without help. If we get these 'great and good' up here doing their thing then the money will go there it won't go to those who have over the last ??? years been keeping the arts up here safe

[TBH]

Sorry to disagree TBH but I think Tubthumper was saying what we have been getting hasn't been up to standard and it is time the specialists got hold of the arts in the county.

It would be great if we could all rub along together but the money and like all these things it does all come down to pounds shillings and pence ( sorry that dates me doesn't it) in the end and there just isn't the arts council money going around anymore ask the people at Lyth they do great stuff but can;t without help. If we get these 'great and good' up here doing their thing then the money will go there it won't go to those who have over the last ??? years been keeping the arts up here safeThat's absolute rubbish, he was being sarcatic as to people that have gone to university then think they can come to Caithness and do a better Job than those that sweat blood and tears keeping the arts alive in Caithness.
He is with you all the way, can't you tell the difference between support and disdain?

[veekay]

Obviously not!

[Tubthumper]

Thanks TBH and sorry Veekay. I support our arts folks unconditionally. It's been a while since I did anything artsy, but believe me I (a) had my arts moments although they were unappreciated by the world (b) sweated blood on more than a few occasions in the name of the arts (literally!) and (c) have encountered artsy snobbery from both the educated professionals and from the enthusiastic amateurs. There's not much to choose between them sometimes...

[veekay]

OK so I am calmed down. Re read the paper. Re read the posts and your right. SORRY.
Things like this get me so angry I become Thicko of Thicko town.

[Tubthumper]

But soft!
What light from yonder window shines?
‘Tis the East, and Veekay is the sun
She loses the plot at the Tubthumper’s lines
Even though he was only in fun

He’s sorry, the Tubs, that he caused her such stress
He really is not such a cad
The clowns who’ve left arts funding in such a mess
Are the ones who we know are so bad

Here in Caithness we do just as much as we can
With music and plays by the score
But the dopes with the purse-strings send hope down the can
And see valuable art shown the door

Oh Veekay! Not Thicko, not from Thicko town
Your passion’s a lesson to all
If we all played the game with such fiery frown
We’d soon have a Caithness Arts ball!

[tootler]

Aw, Tubs, what a sweet gentle talent you have with words - fair warmed my heart, your poem...:)

Veekay, I'm so pleased that there are folk in Caithness who are passionate about protecting and developing the arts here & you're obviously one of them - so am I.

Try not to be too hard on the old Duke of R, he's just doing what he thinks is best and I'm sure he's sincerely trying to help, not hinder. He's done his bit for agriculture and now he's trying to work the same charm on the arts! Perhaps there's room for his project alongside the good work of Lyth and the real needs of the genuine local arts community (well represented by Caithness Arts) - I certainly hope so.

Funding's tight - for food & fuel, never mind Arts - so we just have to make the best with what we have... no amount of funding cutbacks will stop me from making music in Caithness!

But the more professionals the Duke brings to visit Caithness, the more will fall in love with the place and decide to stay here forever....

His plan is to make us the "Aldeburgh of the North" (it's a wee town in East Anglia with it's own opera house and an ever increasing population of retired musicians, thanks to the similar work of Benjamin Britten & his friends.) The St Magnus Festival has done a similar thing for Orkney - I have a few muso friends who have retired there. Is trying to replicate that artsy-heaven a bad aim for Caithness?

Personally, I'd welcome more colourful characters to Caithness & arty folk are often that!:)

[veekay]

Tubs ( may I!) I love you.

What a lovely ode I will treasure it. As for the Duke of R. Tottle I think he is just being used. I suspect it will all end in tears anyway.

[cuddlepop]

What really annoys me is that our Arts Centre had to be put into liquidation as they were hundred of thousands in the red.Cant remember the exact figuere but every year they ran at a loss and every year they were bailed out and for what? they went bankrupt anyway.

Now we have another brand new Gaelic Arts centre down at Sleat,probably built with brand new Gaelic Arts money.

Education,Culture and Sports jobs are advertising in the job discription for "arty" backgrounds for pool attendents.

Plays by the Pool.:confused

Me thinks there chasing funding and tweeking job discriptions to suit.:roll:

[Tubthumper]

Arts funding is always difficult. How to justify spending millions on opera when it's seen as an exclusive interest of those well able to afford to support it themselves? Which gets the dosh -a city playgroup or a privately-owned arts centre in a remote location? To encourage excellence in violin-playing when most kids listen to electric guitar?
Ballet - vision of beauty or muscular birds and dodgy blokes in tights leaping around.
Anything that helps encourage all the arts is good. Anything that reduces the value (fiscal and intellectual) of what we already have is bad.

[Cattach]

Please would someone like to explain why we need a new Arts Inititive in the North. Surely with the Mill theatre, Lyth, the Live Music group etc. we are well supplied with a wide and varied arts programme.

Is this new kid on the bloke going to gather all the arts council grants megre as they are? Is it thought that perhaps we are not getting the right sort of 'arts' adn if so who has the right to tel us what we should and shouldn't be watching or listening to.

With the pot of money from the arts council shrinking shouldn't we all be making sure that the groups and organisations who have for years been keeping us well entertained, educated and fulfilled get what money there is not as far as I can see a need for anyone else to muscle in it is all there for the taking as it is.

It is called Empire Building. New projects are created, new departments, etc and then peopled by the folk who cannot get suitable jobs elswhere. Then they build empires the more peole the more status the more salary. We see it in Social Work, Education, Cultire Health and Saftey, care ommission. Jobs for the boys - and the girls.