Post by Traditional Music Forum on Mar 27, 2021 18:22:37 GMT
A weekly two minute catch-up for members from the
TMF Director's desk
These are some of the things that have caught my attention this week.
This week saw the last of Duncan Chisholm's #CovidCeilidh posts on Twitter, a wee morale booster of beautifully played (of course) tunes from Duncan's repertoire. People have been so creative with their adaptation of online resources, with the recent Hebcelt short film commissions an excellent example.
There's been a wee bit of debate about access to online material, particularly teaching content, and the length of time it should be available. Fèis Rois and the BIT Collective, for example, limited access to recent online learning projects, encouraging people to approach tutors direct for additional contact.
Piper Ali Hutton raises some fundamental issues in a series of tweets about his (and many others') current situation, a perfect storm of no gigs, limited income from online endeavours, no new gigs next year (because of re-booking), streaming...Ali talks of the financial aspect, but also the central thing that drives so many to make music and so many to experience it: "CONNECTION is our engine. It propels us. It’s the seed of our whole infrastructure. Ultimately it leads to us being able to earn money doing the thing that we love the most!" We'll continue to add our voice to those arguing that, economic considerations aside (and they are considerable; according to the latest figures the creative industries were worth £4.6 billion to the Scottish economy), we are all the losers if the arts and culture are not properly supported through the current mess. And not just supported but seen as making a vital contribution to recovery.
The Carnegie UK Trust is a source of interesting ideas (and potentially funds), most recently the 'enabling state' and its role in recovery. Linked to this is an idea that came out of the report from Scottish Government's Economic Advisory Group the proposal for a National Arts Force that could work in education and community projects while the live economy recovers. (Echoes here of the US Government's Federal One initiative under Roosevelt). Carnegie UK's recent report, 'Talk of the Town' on place-based storytelling gives a flavour of how that might work.
Different times - Bill Smith's serialised account of the early days of The Corries concludes with his departure from the group.
Green shoots perhaps. Scottish Government this week updated its guidance for the events sector.
This week's earworm: a bluesy ballad from the 1940s
Spent a morning sourcing pictures and YouTube links for a forthcoming page on Scottish traditional arts which will be going up on the Google Arts and Culture site.
Something to look out for. Folks from the TMF Board will be getting in touch with members over the next two or three weeks to fix up a chat to see where we all are as we move out of the Covid restrictions, and how the TMF's work plan for the next couple of years can reflect and support that. There was some discussion along these lines at the recent AGM, but this is a chance to go into a wee bit more detail.
Sad to report the loss of two stalwarts of our folk club scene, one very suddenly and the other after a long illness. Murray MacLeod was a luthier, songwriter, guitarist who was part of Edinburgh's folk scene for many years, including helping to run Edinburgh Folk Club for a while. Irene West was one of the instigators of Partick Folk Club, a club famous for the warmth of its welcome and the bowl of soup you got half way through the night. Both will be greatly missed.
All the best
DF
David Francis is Director of the Traditional Music Forum
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