Sustaining Culture

The role of culture and the arts in sustaining local communities in the Highlands and Islands is well known. A number of further examples are recorded here and in the Appendix, illustrating how creative collaborations with schools are of benefit to pupils, communities and businesses.

Collaborative projects between Community Centres, schools/teachers, Arts Centres/arts organisations, professional artists and the Community.    

Petrea Cooney 

Links to the community, artists and arts centres have provided schools with a wealth of experiences which otherwise would not be possible. Some of the examples which I am going to report on will hopefully inspire Head Teachers, teachers, arts organisations, artists and community groups to work closer together and collaborate on artistic programmes allowing young people and learners to reap the benefits. Teachers, particularly in the primary sector should not feel isolated or turn a blind eye to the numerous opportunities that are available to help with what they might perceive as their own short comings in overcoming obstacles artistically when delivering the curriculum.

I am one of those teachers who, from a different perspective have found ways of coping with limited resources (human and materials) and have been running a one person music department at Tobermory High School for a number of years and still manage to contribute significantly to the lives of young people artistically, thanks to support from my local arts centre, An Tobar, the local community, individuals – amateur and professional and also through the support of Feisean nan Gàidheal, as immediate examples. The music department is a very active one, which is situated on the sparsely populated Isle of Mull. The department is not enhanced by additional staffing or instrumental instructors, so upon accepting the music post I realised that resources were limited until I opened my classroom doors and mind to the local community, for their additional support and involvement. Never a month went by without a passing professional musician popping into the music department via An Tobar on a gigging circuit. Musicians are always welcome to come and work with the music students during and after school hours. I have also highlighted a number of interesting collaborative projects below, in which our music department participated.

The examples given in my report come from a small sample of the excellent work that has been carried out by other schools which may help towards inspiring teachers and those interested in the expressive arts within the curriculum. The intention behind giving these examples is to help encourage teachers to seek collaborations and to encourage you to “go for it” and engage with professional organisations, funders and professional artists. I have focused particularly on the schools in some of the remotest parts of Scotland.

Caol Primary School

Room 13

Caol is a Highland village with inner-city problems and the school is a more than adequate measure of the local economy.   Money may be tight, but there is no poverty of aspiration as in stark contrast to their surroundings. Many of the walls are covered with artworks of breathtaking imagination, sophistication and technical ability.

The children run Room 13 as an autonomous republic, independent of the school in where it is placed. It elects its own officials, keeps its own accounts and pays Rob Fairley, their art teacher, his salary. To raise the money for this republic, they have sold Christmas cards, painted murals and obtained grants. Two years ago one girl applied to the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) for a Young Person's Lottery Award. There was some consternation at the SAC when they rang to speak to the managing director of Room 13 and were told by the school secretary that she would call back when she was out of her PE class. Their managing director still wound up with an award of £21,000.

Fairley started working with two girls who were being bullied by some of the rowdier members of their class. "I got them to take the school photographs," he continues, "and they did it brilliantly. The lab in Birmingham where the photos were developed wrote back to say the work was of a professional standard."   Fairley was invited back the following year and given his own room - Room 13 - and to date has never left.   He tried to, mind, when he was offered a much better paid job elsewhere, but the managing director of Room 13 refused to give him a reference as she didn't want him to leave.

And this is where it gets even more interesting, as the managing director at the time was 10-year-old Becky MacDougall.   What makes it still more special is that pupils in  P6 and P7 are free to leave their lessons and go to Room 13 whenever they want, as long as their class work is up to date.   Art is at the core within Room 13; at any time of day you can find up to 10 children scattered around the floor making or painting something.   Some works are staggeringly inventive - Jodie Fraser's piece created out of burnt matches to symbolise those who died on September 11 is a case in point.   What counts here is the creative process.

Creativity is explored and developed in its widest form within Room 13 and members regularly hold debates, share portfolios, go on expeditions and give talks to anyone - from other local schools to academics at the Royal Society of Arts and Scottish National Heritage.   They have even been instrumental in getting a £64m project to extend the Fort William waterfront up and running.  

Several of the 10-year-olds have read or are reading Finnegan's Wake and others are genuinely astonished that their peers from other schools have no opinion or understanding of Edvard Munch.  

If this sounds all hideously precocious, think again.   These aren't middle-class children with pushy parents; they are just normal people who have been given the right facilities and the right teacher and have allowed their imaginations to do the rest.

"Culture and creativity are taboo words and should never be mentioned out loud in polite society," says Peter Jenkinson from the Department for Culture Media and Sport.   "Creativity scares people; they think it's anarchic and out of control but in fact it's the opposite.   Creativity requires structure and focus." Jenkinson, who was instrumental in setting up the new art gallery in Walsall, is now running the new £40m Creative Partnerships collaboration between the Department for Culture Media and Sport and the Arts Council of England, which is designed to expand the creative links between schools and the community.  "We want to show that education and culture can work together; for instance, instead of a school getting an artist in for a week it will now be able to develop longer-term relationships.

The Scottish Arts Council has set up its own education and culture programme through a pilot called Cultural Co-ordinators in Scottish Schools programme (CCiSS programme) set up in 2002. This funds Cultural Co-ordinators to work with Scottish Schools throughout Scotland helping to co-ordinate artistic programmes and visiting artists within their local authorities. Championing Culture in Scottish Schools pilot project was initiated in response to the pledge made in the 2000 National Cultural Strategy that stated: 'we shall pilot the appointment of cultural co-ordinators in schools who will liaise with arts and cultural organisations, including the heritage sector, and organise activities which ensure that our national cultural resources are used to the advantage of all young people’.

Taboo and creativity, is something that Rob Fairley knows all about as parents often tackle him in the fish and chip shop on subjects such as Modigliani's techniques, as they struggle to get up to speed with their children. The problem with creativity though, is that it's hard to measure and quantify, which makes it a sitting target when accounting for itself as everything needs to be measured and evaluated or written in black and white...

It is well known that the arts have a positive impact on children's behaviour and punctuality, but many arts professionals are wary of making too many claims about the knock-on effects on other parts and positive impacts on the curriculum, even though they firmly believe they occur. Jennifer Cattanach, Caol's Headteacher has no such reservations. She took over the school four years ago and has transformed its academic and behavioural performance; she inherited Room 13 as an ongoing concern and her only thought was how best to keep it going.

"The self-confidence that children get from what they do there is unbelievable," she says. "Kids who struggle in other areas of the curriculum no longer feel like they are failures, and they also feel able to have a go at difficult areas of the curriculum that they would otherwise decide were hard and boring. Through Room 13 we get to see the whole personality of the child, not just the bit that performs academically."

A part of the success of Room 13 is undoubtedly down to the vision and determination of Rob Fairley, and no amount of money or buildings will ever find you that. But a part is also down to the ownership that the children feel for their creative space. "When you join Room 13 you are asked to make a lifelong commitment," says 12-year-old Fiona Cameron, Room 13's president. 

Portree Primary School

Every year as part of the School Developmental process, Portree Primary School looks at how it is working with, working for, supporting and making use of its local and wider communities.  This year a unique and exciting project was developed which cemented links with both the local community and extended communities throughout Scotland and beyond.

The Project

As part of their ongoing studies the pupils of Gaelic Medium P7 decided to develop a mini-enterprise project that was based on their studies of The Great Wars which revolved about the experiences and memories of people in the local community and the people related to the pupils. They wanted to create a social history about local people who have lived and experienced the tragedy and bravery of the two Great Wars.

As a result from discussions between pupils, parents, class teacher and Head Teacher they decided to produce a book and CD ROM of wartime memories. The project aims are stated below:

Reactions to their work:

Reactions from locals

“The result is that what has been produced is something that is well and truly embedded in the contributions and aspirations of a whole community and in people of all ages…because of the vision of our children, we have secured a documented social history that will be appreciated by us and by generations to come”

Andrew Millar-Local Councillor

“It is, without doubt, a project of the utmost significance, contributing as it does in such a unique fashion to the corpus of local history and the material culture of this area…it has provided our communities with a pan-generational perspective on a very important period in world affairs, and, as a result, through the intimacy of the knowledge and research they have provided a deeply personal a particular account of the impact on their families and the Highland’s and Island’s communities of this period of history. It is of course of great significance that the work has been carried out and presented in bi-lingual form” 

Donnie Munro-Sabhal Mor Ostaig, writer and musician

Ullapool High School

Suilven Spring - Inventing Project

This is a project in which senior students in Ullapool High School music department, led by Val Bryan, have been working on composing songs and tunes inspired by the local area, the landscape, its people, and their feeling about living here. With regular support from composer John Saich, they have been developing, recording and rehearsing their compositions, and the result was a performance of Suilven Spring which is Instrumental music balanced with songs in various styles to give an artistic impression of growing up in the West Highlands in the 21st century. The music composed in the projects had also inspired art students to create sculptures and images, which added vibrant atmosphere to the performance.

Outcomes

Feedback

“Suilven Springs…What a joy…This event was unforgettable for a host of different reasons…Unforgettable because the music, although rooted in tradition…unforgettable because it oozed talent from our young folk, unforgettable because every person involved seemed to be enjoying themselves so much.   The singers and the songs, the music and the musicianship, the entire ensemble, the lovely Gaelic introductions to each piece.   The added extra of having a professional musician …gave a ringing endorsement of the value of such a project.

The PRS Foundation funding enabled Ullapool High School to go ahead with the project and paid out one-third of the overall cost of the project.   The remainder has been covered by in-kind sponsorship, donations and fund-raising”

“My only sadness is that everyone in the village, county, highlands even, can’t all have the experience… My three fellow councillors were equally impressed and quite over-whelmed.   I have no doubt whatsoever that they are all off to think how they can have some of the same in their own schools, and that can only be a good thing”.
Councillor Jean Urquhart

Ullapool High School also has been working on a visual arts exhibition in co-operation with professional artists. This has resulted in a number of pieces of work being permanently exhibited around school. The project was co-ordinated by a School Board Sub-committee with staff representation from the Art Department.

Taigh Chearsabhagh and Eriskay School organised a children’s Art Day in Lochmaddy where their work was then displayed in an open exhibition.

Pupils at Eriskay also form its own Enterprise Company called ‘Molagan Eirisgaidh’.  Skills attained by pupils are as follows

Decorating locally collected pebbles (molagan) with pictures of local birds, fish, flowers, shells etc. and selling them through the local community ship-Co Chomunn Eirisgaidh. 

An Tobar and Tobermory High School

Over the years the arts centre, An Tobar and Tobermory High School have worked well together in helping to sustain music in all styles ranging from rock, traditional and classical music. Tobermory High School does not have any instrumental instructors supporting the work of the school. An Tobar have stepped in and are trying to fill this void by organising instrumental lessons which are subsidised by the arts centre and parents. Pupils can now attend guitar and piano lessons during the school day, one day a week.

An Tobar is a very active arts centre, which welcomes many visiting artists and bands.   It provides the youth of Mull with opportunities to perform, record and participate in many creative collaborations with artists and musicians.   Below are just a small number of samples from some artistic collaborative projects which An Tobar has carried out with Tobermory High School. 

Songdreams with Michael Marra

This is a project, which Michael Marra worked on with the pupils of Tobermory High School. He encouraged pupils to capture their dreams by keeping a diary of their dreams at night, which they would later use to influence their song. Michael worked with the pupils over a three-week programme of school visits and song writing workshops, rehearsals and the recording of materials for a CD in which 10 young songwriters participated. Songdreams Album is on sale at An Tobar.

Air and Waves with Karen Wimhurst and Mr McFall’s Chamber

This is another collection of songs, which the pupils of Tobermory High School worked on with composer and performer, Karen Wimhurst. Workshops were held over four weeks in which 10 young people were coached and helped to compose a piece of music for a string quartet. In the final week, Mr McFalls Chamber recorded all 12 pieces, which were then mixed into three 20-minute radio programmes and were broadcasted on Oban FM and BBC Radio 3. Some of the pupils were asked to perform at the Bongo Club in Edinburgh to perform their songs with McFalls Chamber.

‘The Peoples' Mass’ with the Dunedin Consort

An Tobar and Tobermory High School worked together with the Dunedin Consort in ‘The Peoples’ Mass’, organised and commissioned by the Dunedin Consort. This was a new commission which resulted in combining a capella voices, harp and lighting and contemporary dance by Caroline Reagh. The Mass was a newly composed work and comprised of work written by Tommy Fowler, John Gormley, Anthea Haddow, Malcolm Lindsay, Christine McCombe and Rebecca Rowe. This project was an exciting collaboration between the Dunedin Consort, six Scottish based composers and children's choirs.

Calgary Walk-Music and Sculpture

Music and Sculpture was commissioned by An Tobar to celebrate the role of the arts in the community through the symbolism of light.   The community and the pupils worked together to provide visitors with a musical and sculptural walk around a woodland walk.   Thirty-six musicians and singers were involved in the project both adults and pupils from Tobermory High School.    Fourteen separate performances of new music which were staged throughout the woodland.

Shetland

Report of a meeting between Gordon Stove and Mr. Davie Gardner

Shetland Arts Trust Music Development Officer

Music and Tourism are currently the only two genuine growth industries in Shetland (replacing fishing and the oil industry) and a recent socio-economic study prepared for the Trust (yet to be published) indicated that the music industry in Shetland is worth £7 million annually – excluding education employment and CD purchase of local bands outside the Isles.   The music industry because it relies on local talent can unlike other industries – be controlled and managed in the isles.

Because of their geographical separation from the mainland, Careers Scotland organises and promotes an annual Careers Convention at which a number of visiting colleges and Universities have stalls along with a selection of local businesses.   This year there are over 80 organisations represented (The Convention is on 3^rd October).

Mr. Gardener represented the music industry at the convention in 2002 and personally saw 77 youngsters who wanted information about following a career in music. His worry is that the raw talent nurtured so carefully in their schools through individual accordion, fiddle, brass, piano, string, percussion and woodwind tuition (Shetland has a greater percentage of children receiving direct musical tuition than any other UK area) isn’t supported by an infrastructure to compliment the initial investment.

Mr. Gardner is strongly behind a plan to allow the excellent talent that is Shetland’s youth to flourish in a purpose built venue including facilities to allow college courses to be developed on PA, stage management, lighting, etc.   A small management team would run the facility and schools would also use the venue for music arts and drama development. Youth Voice Scotland is also concerned about the lack of a proper venue.   Shetland Representatives on Youth Voice have been vocal in their pleas for a sustainable future for the music industry in Shetland as well.

Even without a purpose built venue musical development in schools has seen the formation of 10 youth (rock/traditional/jazz) bands.   Strategic spending on workshops to compliment the 1:1 tuition with visiting artists such as John Goldie, Albert Lee, Steve White and Shetlands own Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham and others have helped nurture almost 50 musicians to the stage of live stage performances.   There is an ethos of youngsters wanting to be involved with a successful project, and benefiting from the social interaction that music brings. 

Some of the bands (Death by Monkeys, Sparticus Crumb, Olicks) are visiting Aberdeen venue ‘The Drummond Foyer’ (a registered charity) this weekend to record some tracks take part in a gig, and travel to Ullapool to meet west coast youngsters at a similar stage of development.  This Saturday (4^th October 2003) they will also be featuring in a live 3 hour radio show on west coast commercial radio.

The Arts Trust finances the trip, although generous support from local Ferry Company Northlink and the takings at the Venue door make the cost very reasonable.

Mr. Gardener also drew attention to the inroads that young bands in Shetland are making on improving the social fabric and trying to end the drinking culture that is unfortunately ingrained in some areas.   Some bands through him have been allowed to play in licensed premises on weekday nights – with a strict alcohol free policy.   In the local pub ‘Captain Flint’s’ there are regularly 200+ youngsters gathering to listen to their peers – without a hint of trouble.   The youngsters invariably respond well to being treated like adults.

Some of the more established traditional bands -Filska, Rock Salt and Nails, Miladen - took part in the ‘Shetland Sessions’ – a series of concerts in Edinburgh (Queens Hall), Stirling (Tollbooth) and Aberdeen’s Lemon Tree.

Perhaps the avenue of music and musical ambition is as good a medium as any of getting across our citizenship/sustainability/enterprise message.   Mr. Gardner was convinced that making music brings the best out of young people.

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