About the Collective
The Highland Culture Collective is a group of socially-engaged artists, who are working closely with communities and arts organisations across the Highlands of Scotland. We’ve come together as part of Culture Collective, a national pilot project across Scotland, in response to the impact of the pandemic. Funded by Creative Scotland, our 5 artists-in-residence have been working creatively & collaboratively with communities since September 2021.
Our team
Catriona Meighan
Catriona works 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.
Hector MacInnes
Hector works 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 works with Gaelic-speaking communities across the Highlands, primarily through Gaelic-medium education.
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
Based in Caithness, Sinéad is hosted by Lyth Arts Centre, and works with a number of organisations & groups including Lybster Teen Café and Caithness Young Creatives.
Sinéad is exploring our environment & coastlines with communities across Caithness. 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 in based in Inverness, and is working 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 is our Project Manager. She supports the Highland Culture Collective’s artists, and links the project 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 is 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 are host to Sinead Hargan, our artist-in-residence for Caithness.
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 kind support 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 continue to support us in developing relationships with third sector organisations, especially in relation to Catriona & Hector’s residencies.
Our sister-projects
We are one of 26 projects across Scotland, which make 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 