As the traditional arts benefit from a significant increase in interest and funding from both the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) and the Scottish Executive, Moira Gibson sees a bright future for those involved in the country?s traditional arts culture.
?The Scottish Arts Council believes that the arts are the heart of the nation: but of all of these it is perhaps Scotland?s traditional arts that most readily allow us to glimpse its soul. The richest resource of any nation is its people: their ideas; their energy; their passions. Scotland?s traditional arts are a deep vein running through the history of Scotland mirroring the diversity of its tongues and peoples. Scotland?s traditional music and song are widely regarded as one of the finest treasures of any nation in Europe. It is a marvellous thing; through it we can reach into the past, we can reflect upon our present condition and can tap into a dynamic force to fuel our future creativity.?
The above statement, which introduced SAC?s strategy for Traditional Music in Scotland in 1998, accurately reflects the philosophy behind the development work across all of the traditional arts since then. The last decade has seen a significant increase in interest in the traditional arts in Scotland. The numbers of children learning traditional music have grown, as has the interest in areas such as storytelling, traditional crafts and traditional dance (in particular the return of step-dancing). The success of festivals such as Celtic Connections and organisations such as the Fèis movement (Fèis is Gaelic for festival) has both reflected and influenced the increase.
Breadth and scope
The traditional arts cover a number of artforms, of which music is probably the most diverse. Traditional musicians, such as Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain, Dougie Maclean, Capercaillie and Deaf Shepherd, are extending the tradition in new and different directions and regularly perform internationally. Scotland also has large numbers of community music groups, including pipe bands, strathspey and reel societies, accordion and fiddle clubs, as well as numerous folk clubs, many run by dedicated volunteers.
Opportunities for learning traditional music in the formal education system have been given a new status with the creation of the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music for secondary pupils, and the degree course in traditional music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. The informal learning sector has also mushroomed: the ALP Scots Music Group offers a range of instrumental, singing and dance classes in Edinburgh, while in Glasgow the Piping Centre and the Fiddle Workshop continue to attract increasing numbers of students.
Sector funding
With a new Scottish Parliament and the subsequent launch of the National Cultural Strategy by the Scottish Executive, SAC was allocated new funding to further develop the traditional arts. Through consultation, three essential points emerged:
? The traditional arts are by their nature regionally and locally diverse. Their infrastructure comprises the grassroots from which they spring, and funding should recognise local specialities and differences.
? To help traditional arts flourish, the public needs greater access to excellence through education or community projects, including opportunities to see and hear the finest exponents
? As tradition bearers, artists and craftspeople need more opportunities to perform or exhibit and for creative and professional development.
These essentials underpinned SAC?s ongoing financial support for the traditional arts, currently amounting to well over £1m (including the new funding from Scottish Executive). This includes crafts, dance, literature, music and projects, such as Gaelic theatre and showcase projects where promoters are invited along to see a range of work. Although a wide range of projects are also supported within individual artforms, specific traditional arts organisations funded by SAC include the following:
Fèisean nan Gaidheal is the umbrella body of the community based Fèis movement, which offers high quality tuition in the Gaelic arts to young people, to enable them to learn more about the artistic traditions of their communities. The Fèisean have spread rapidly and are now to be found throughout Scotland. Fèisean nan Gaidheal provides funding and training opportunities for each of the self-supporting and self-governing fèisean.
Fèis Rois was established in 1986 to provide a platform for the tuition and performance of traditional music, song and dance in Ross and Cromarty. Covering all age groups, Fèis Rois provides music tuition, Gaelic conversation, an instrument bank, song-writing, composing and arranging classes, not to mention ?ceilidhs, ceilidhs, ceilidhs?!
Founded in 1996, Proiseact nan Eilean (the Gaelic Arts Agency) is responsible for the promotion of all areas of Gaelic traditional arts as well as initiating and developing new Gaelic arts initiatives. The most recent of these was the production of Leabhar Mor, the Great Book of Gaelic, which brought together 100 Gaelic writers and artists from both Scotland and Ireland to produce a modern version of ?The Book of Kells? illuminated manuscript.
Scottish Traditions of Dance Trust (STDT) was set up to foster interest and participation in Scotland?s indigenous dance styles, such as Ceilidh, Country, Early, Hebridean, Military, Old Time, Orkney, Shetland and Step. As well as establishing an archive of traditional dance, the STDT has also piloted dance development officers in three local authority areas. The development officers work to capture older people?s memories of the dances they were taught and then, through links with local schools, introduce a new generation of primary children to the dances their grandparents knew.
Dannsa, a co-operative established in 1999 by four professional dance teachers, has toured Scotland with a haunting production linking ?waulking songs? with Western Isles step dance. Dannsa gave 14 performances to 700 people over 21 days, with each performance using a local Gaelic singer, piper and fiddler. A powercut in Barra meant a performance by candlelight, with the audience in full voice as accompaniment, and in Sleat the performance was so successful that some of the audience travelled to Portree to enjoy it for a second time.
New developments
Recently, one of the most exciting marriages of tradition and technology has been the approval for a crafts website for Scotland?s makers. Although still in its early stages, following a pilot initiative with Hi-arts in Inverness, the new website will eventually provide Scottish crafts makers with a one-stop portal to show their work and accept commissions, as well as highlighting classes and promoting crafts workshops.
More partnerships are being developed now, a recent result being the Traditional Music and Tourism Initiative through which SAC and VisitScotland funded various projects throughout Scotland to encourage more links between traditional musicians and the tourism trade. Another event promoting contemporary Scotland?s traditional arts will happen this summer in Washington DC in the USA, where the Smithsonian Institution will host a Folklife Festival showcasing Scottish musicians, dancers, storytellers and crafts. This unique opportunity will enable around one million Americans to get a glimpse of Scotland beyond the more stereotypical images.
If the increased funding can be sustained, the future looks bright for traditional artists and organisations to grow and flourish as a newly devolved Scotland develops both nationally and internationally.
Moira Gibson is Head of External Relations at the Scottish Arts Council.
t: 0131 240 2449; f: 0131 240 2566; e: moira.gibson@scottisharts.org.uk