To Inverness Again

Inverness is already such a long way from Edinburgh that most official events for the Highlands and Islands--a region nearly as large as the rest of Scotland combined--take place there. I have gotten accustomed to a 120 mile trip (each way) in a day for hospital visits or collecting friends from the airport, or workshops. Yesterday was easy because my friend did all the driving, the weather was mostly pleasant, and the event was very rewarding.

Having discovered that getting published is not an impossible obstacle, but getting paid for it just might be, I have turned to Plan B, which is a sort of amorphous combination of crafting and writing and administration with some teaching thrown into the mix. That's why I was in Inverness at a HI-Arts workshop on crafting. And that is why I'll write a review of the day for them. The administrative part will follow.

I am hoping to take my cubicle-world experience, my fondness for almost anything textile, and my need/talent to write and make some sort of living out of it all. It must be the Highland air has gone to my head.

Craftscotland is an audience development agency. They want to get folks who have not thought about buying crafts--textile, jewelery, furniture, books, to think about buying them. And they want crafters to have some support and recognition. They are willing to wade in with media campaigns--in the jargon of the audience development biz--"forward facing" and then sector-facing. With crafters being the sector. I don't think I'll extend the forward facing metaphor too far. All the HI Arts craftscotland folks seemed both very energetic and willing to take on the job of actually listening to the folks they want to support.

It was a great day. Now I have a stack of handouts, a pocketful of business cards, some CDs and a headful of ideas. Now it's my turn to get down to work.

You can check out some of their ideas/activities here: www.craftscotland.org