Home is where the art is

Item one: Peg Leg Pete the pirate awaits his turn to fill out a job application to the accompaniment of an edgy cello. Item two: Two dozen singers gather in a room above the bar of the Taybank Hotel just for the sheer joy of sharing music. Item three: Glaswegians file into a refurbished church during their lunch breaks to catch a short play. Item four: An American piper stands on a Scottish stage, flanked by three judges. Item five: Fiddler Brian McNeill hits the road, not to perform, but in his capacity as head of Scottish music for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Item six: Across Scotland, musicians of all sorts collect paychecks from the country's largest brewer.

What's going on here? It's called the arts, and few places on the planet are doing as much to promote homegrown talent as Scotland. Unlike North America, where the arts seem perpetually on the budgetary chopping block, Scotland is promoting the arts as a key component of ethnic and regional pride. Everyone is getting in on the action: schools, community centers, foundations, the government, corporations, and common folk acting on their own initiative.

Some are finding out that promoting the traditional arts is actually lucrative as well as inspiring. There's little doubt that Scots are excited by developments in the arts, or that their efforts are altering the cultural landscape. Brian McNeill remembers hearing a Dave Swarbrick album back in 1968. "I knew that some of those songs were Scottish," says McNeill, "but I looked for months and couldn't find anyone who could teach me to play traditional fiddle. The music was almost dead. When bands like Battlefield and Silly Wizard formed, they had to hit the road because it was impossible to make a living in Scotland. When Donald Shaw [of Capercaillie] was in school, he was seen as a geek for playing the accordion. Now, you're cool if you play traditional music and kids all over Scotland are learning it."

As a frequent visitor to Scotland, I can attest to the truth of McNeill's remarks. In 1994, I had to call around to find traditional music in Edinburgh. When my

wife and I found the venue we swelled the audience by 20% to hear Tony Cuffe, whose tours with Ossian were sold out in the States. A decade later I found a different reality. Folk acts abounded on the Edinburgh Fringe Festival lineup, and several clubs sported additional folk action. Pubs in small towns like Fort William and larger cities like Inverness and Glasgow were teeming with activity, and McEwan's Ale sponsored sessions that brought live music to some places for which the term "town" would be grandiose. Everywhere I went I found listings for dance societies, sessions, music classes, concerts, and arts of all sorts.

Which brings me back to Peg Leg Pete. The Return of Peg Leg Pete is a David Cairns film not likely to be playing in a theater near you. First of all, it's just eight minutes long. Secondly, it's only on DVD, and third, Cairns is a novice filmmaker. The cello score was written and performed by Matt Wands, also not a household name. Cairns and Wand came together at the Tolbooth in Stirling, a place that once functioned literally as a toll booth gateway to the town castle, which used to be about the only reason to go to Stifling. The Tolbooth now functions as a community arts center and its programs are among the most-innovative around.

Peg Leg Pete came out of Tolbooth's "Filmworks" project in which budding filmmakers create short films that are then shown to aspiring composers. The latter get one week to create a score and rehearse it with the professional chamber orchestra that person will conduct. A slate of six films then gets an annual showing at the Tolbooth, an event that invariably sells out. Brian Irvine, a well-regarded Belfast composer, runs a similar project in which he assembles a 25-member orchestra comprised of some professionals and amateurs as young as 12 to work on improvised music that integrates acoustic instruments with brass.

Alasdair Campbell, the music development officer at Tolbooth, says it's all part of a plan to make "arts the focal point of community life." To that end, there is a public gallery, monthly informal music sessions, scores of courses and classes, and all manner of special festivals, including a "Blast Off" extravaganza that includes everything from juggling to puppetry and theater. There is an ambitious and diverse concert series featuring Scottish traditional musicians like Alasdair Fraser, Fiddlers' Bid and Karine Polwart, but also African music, rhythm and blues, jazz and classical music. The center also works with the criminal justice system; offenders aged 12 to 16 attend classes at the Tolbooth, where they learn to work in groups and create music. "If you want [taxpayers] to spend on the arts, you have to show them the benefits," says Campbell. "People in Stirling are starting to see that the arts are a way to bring the community together."