About the Collective
The Highland Culture Collective was a group of socially-engaged artists who worked closely with communities and arts organisations across the Highlands of Scotland over the course of the two-year long project (Aug ’21 – June ’23) . We came together as part of Culture Collective, a national pilot project across Scotland, aiming to respond to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Funded by Creative Scotland, our 5 artists-in-residence worked creatively & collaboratively with over 50 community groups across the Highlands, spanning all three of our region’s coasts.
Our team
Catriona Meighan
Catriona worked with survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence, in collaboration with women’s aid organisations, RASASH and the Caledonian System.
Cat is a contemporary visual artist, exploring the expanded field of painting, printmaking, installation and socially engaged work. She is also a co-founder of Circus Artspace, an artist-led collective based in Inverness.
Circus artspace
Hector MacInnes
Hector worked with people across the Highlands & Islands, including residents of HMP Inverness and clients of Am Fasgadh.
Hector is a sound artist, musician and producer from Skye. He works with installation, text, composition, voice and speculative design among other things, often in collaboration with other artists and communities.
Artair Donald
Artair worked with Gaelic-speaking communities across the Highlands, visiting over 20 Gaelic-medium schools.
Artair is an actor and drama facilitator, originally from Tiree. Over the last 30 years, he has worked in theatre, radio, TV and film, and led workshops and directed plays with schools and communities.
Sinéad Hargan
Moving to Caithness to work with communities across the north-easterly tip of Scotland, Sinéad was hosted by Lyth Arts Centre, and worked groups including Lybster Teen Café and Caithness Young Creatives.
Sinéad’s residency explored our environment & coastlines. She primarily works with live performance, dance and moving image, and is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Contemporary Performance Practice.
Evija Laivina
Evija worked with people with autism, learning disabilities, brain injuries and those with poor mental health.
Evija is a photographer and contemporary visual artist, and is a graduate of UHI. Originally from Latvia, Evija made Inverness her home in 2009.
Lauren Hendry
Lauren was our Project Manager. She supported the Highland Culture Collective’s artists, and linked the project up to our sister Culture Collective projects across Scotland.
Lauren is an arts producer based in Dingwall. Lauren has a background in performing and producing contemporary circus and theatre performance.
Our partner organisations
Fèis Rois enables people of all ages to access, participate in and enjoy the traditional arts and Gaelic language in Ross & Cromarty, across Scotland and beyond. Fèis Rois was our lead organisation, hosting 4 of our artists and project manager.
Lyth Arts Centre is the UK’s most northerly mainland arts centre in the heart of Caithness. They hosted to Sinead Hargan, our artist-in-residence for Caithness, who continues to work with Lyth.
Eden Court is Scotland’s largest combined arts organisation. They present and make work with, by and for the people of the Highlands and Islands and those who visit them. Eden Court kindly supported us by offering use of their amazing facilities.
Highland Third Sector Interface ensures that the Third Sector in Highlands is strong, developing and a valued community and regional asset. HTSI supported us in developing relationships with third sector organisations, especially in relation to Cat & Hector’s residencies.
Our sister-projects
We were one of 26 projects across Scotland, which made up the Culture Collective programme. To see our wonderful sister-projects, visit the Culture Collective website.
Our funder
Highland Culture Collective is a Culture Collective project, funded by Scottish Government through Creative Scotland.
Highland Culture Collective 