HI~Arts Issues Redundancy Notices To All Staff As Restructuring Begins

6th April 2013

The Board of HI~Arts, the cultural development agency for the Highlands and Islands, has announced that the company has been awarded short-term extensions of its present funding agreements with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Creative Scotland, as part of an ongoing process of restructuring the company’s activities and programmes.

Although HI~Arts is working with HIE and Creative Scotland to safeguard the continuation of a number of the agency’s key programmes , while at the same time scoping the potential for working more closely with the University of the Highlands and Islands, amongst other options, nonetheless, as part of this process, the Board of HI~Arts has this week issued formal notices of redundancy to all staff. It is hoped that many of the staff will be able to transfer to new hosts and new initiatives, but while those options remain to be resolved, the Board agreed that it could not avoid the formal step of issuing redundancy notices.

HI~Arts has played a highly significant role in the cultural growth of the Highlands and Islands, and more recently also in the North East of Scotland. In 2012 HI~Arts staff worked with, or provided advice and support to, over 200 groups and organisations across the Highlands and Islands, and the rest of Scotland, as well many hundreds of individual writers, artists, craftworkers, theatre workers, event organisers and promoters, and heritage workers. Additionally, many more made use of HI~Arts’ two websites, www.hi-arts.co.uk and www.northings.com, which together receive over 10,000 unique visits a month.

Both HIE and Creative Scotland provided ‘transition’ funding for HI~Arts for the financial year 2012/13, but subsequent strategic and structural changes in both organisations mean that past funding arrangements cannot be continued into 2013/14 and beyond. This additional assistance, however, will ensure that HI~Arts has sufficient time and resources to complete a process of restructuring by the end of June.

HI~Arts currently employs ten full-time and part-time staff, six based in the company’s Inverness office, and four based in Argyll, Knoydart, Lewis and Aberdeen.

HI~Arts was originally established by Highlands and Islands Enterprise in 1990, has been contracted by HIE ever since, and has also been funded by the Scottish Arts Council, and then Creative Scotland, since 1994. Its many successes have included a number of now independent initiatives, such as the Screen Machine mobile cinema, the Go North creative industries showcase, the Highlands and Islands Theatre Network, and the Artsplay programme of work with pre-school children and carers. Recent initiatives have included the Growing Audiences North East programme, the Atlas Visual Arts team on Skye, and a major visitor survey for the members of the Highland Museums Forum.