HI~Arts Final Curtain On The Organisation

3rd July 2013

At a meeting held on 27th June the Board of HI~Arts, the cultural development agency for the Highlands and Islands, formally resolved that the company should be wound up, and that William Young CA should be commissioned to implement the winding up and be authorised to organise the meetings of members and creditors necessary to appoint a Liquidator.

As noted in the previous Board statement of 5th April 2013, 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 have meant that past funding arrangements would not be continued beyond the first quarter of 2013/14 . During 2012/13 the Board and staff thoroughly examined the potential for restructuring the company on a more commercial basis, which followed on from several years of preparation by the Company to compete for the renewal of existing contracts, but concluded that, given the company’s continuing obligations and the non-availability of appropriate contracts for tender, this model was not viable.

Two project staff have transferred to a new organisation delivering a programme previously operated by the Company , but the remainder of HI~Arts’s staff are being made redundant, in line with the notices of redundancy which the Board had issued 12 weeks’ previously, and the company’s various services and programmes will cease with immediate effect.