Nairn Book & Arts Festival

The RSAMD enjoys a reputation for producing exciting young singers, many of whom are currently performing all around the world.  The Song Studio, directed by Timothy Dean, is a new initiative designed to enhance the profile of song within the Academy and to extend its accessibility to a wide range of audiences.  The Italian Connection programme explores a variety of songs and arias both written in Italian and by Italian composers.  Mozart, Beethoven and Rossini will feature, as well as some well-known Italian opera repertoire from the 19th century, and some surprises too!

‘…Dean and his elite squad of musicians – and they are superb – threw everything bar the kitchen sink into a sensational concert that immediately stamped the initiative with credibility, authority and very high quality’  Michael Tumelty The Herald 17.10.09

Have you ever looked at a stained glass window and wondered how it was made, or even wished that you could make one yourself?

Well now here is your chance to do just that. On a one day class you will learn how to cut glass, design a small panel and make a piece of art which will be uniquely yours, in the Tiffany style (copper foiling method).There will be pattern books for those who need help to find a design

Wear old clothes as it can be messy and bring a packed lunch

A L Kennedy is a very welcome return visitor to our festival.  Her wit and self-deprecating style endeared her to audiences in previous years.  A prolific author, she makes frequent media appearances, and her books have won numerous awards.  Her fifth collection of short stories, What Becomes, was the Winner of the 2007 Costa Book of the Year, and her novel Day won the Saltire Award and the Costa Prize. A L Kennedy describes her event as ‘a reading from work in progress’: we believe it’s an event not to be missed.

Off the Peg is the community art event in Nairn High Street.  Unframed paintings pegged inside shop windows for all to see and buy.  10% of sales will be given to the Children’s Art Club. 

The exhibition is supported by Nairn Art Society whose Summer exhibition takes place at the Court House from 2nd August.

Event Information (DOC)

Following the success of last year’s inaugural competition, instigated and run by the Nairn Book & Arts Festival, and responding to popular demand, this year’s Open will be exhibiting more art works and for a longer period.  Selected works in all media from oil to gouache, photography to sculpture will be displayed in the Court House and in the Seaman’s Hall.  These East and West exhibitions will be selected by a panel of judges from the many hundreds of entries which have been received from all over Scotland and beyond.  Good prizes have ensured huge national interest in the past and this year there is a new Highland prize for residents in the Highlands and Islands.  All works are for sale but none will be removed till the end of the exhibition on 19 June.

Download more information (PDF).
Download the application form (DOC).

Smallish paintings are always a challenge to artists but prescribed sizes (exactly 16” by 16”) make for an attractive and fascinating exhibition.  The subjects and media are not specified so our artists have been able to follow their own preferences.  We invite our audiences at the Community Centre, our main venue, to allow plenty of time to visit this exhibition which demonstrates the diversity and individuality of our chosen artists. All paintings will be for sale and the exhibition continues till 19 June.

Ruth Nicol has achieved a great deal since winning Nairn’s 2009 Open Art Competition.  She has completed her degree course at Edinburgh College of Art, and travelled frequently around the North East of Scotland.  Her solo exhibition is a pictorial record of her fascination with road travel and with the surrounding landscape as it changes throughout the seasons.  Never shy of covering large canvases, Ruth has excelled herself with this dynamic and inspiring exhibition in the Community Centre.

Denise Mina took a variety of low-skilled jobs before attending university, taking a PhD and teaching criminology and criminal law at Strathclyde University, when she wrote her first novel Garnethill which won the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasy Dagger for Best First Crime Novel. Since then she has written two plays and a number of graphic and crime novels including the Garnethill and Paddy Meehan trilogies. 

Allan Guthrie is a crime novelist from Edinburgh, whose debut novel won the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year.  His latest novel is the prison-set Slammer, about which The Scotsman said, ‘he nails a universal truth about the nature of life and about the way we differentiate good and bad, sanity and madness.’

Denise Mina took a variety of low-skilled jobs before attending university, taking a PhD and teaching criminology and criminal law at Strathclyde University, when she wrote her first novel Garnethill which won the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasy Dagger for Best First Crime Novel. Since then she has written two plays and a number of graphic and crime novels including the Garnethill and Paddy Meehan trilogies.  Allan Guthrie is a crime novelist from Edinburgh, whose debut novel won the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year.  His latest novel is the prison-set Slammer, about which The Scotsman said, ‘he nails a universal truth about the nature of life and about the way we differentiate good and bad, sanity and madness.’

The Nairn Camera Club will exhibit entries for their competition, which has three categories: Under 12 (or attending Primary) 12 – 18 and Over 18’s.  The competition which is free to enter and open to all allows a choice of subject and either colour or black and white for the photographs.

Download Competition Poster
Download Entry Form

An exhibition of paintings with a broad range of styles/subjects by thirteen local artists, featuring the work of:

Sally Gunn, Adam Walker-Parker, Olive Starsmore, John Wilson, Mary Wilson,
Norma Shewan, Heloise Shewan, Chris Lane, Al Knight, Rod Verity, Chris Gaunt
Alex Webster, Chloë Furze.

Opening Times: 9.00am to 5.30pm Monday to Saturday (Closed Tuesdays/Sundays)
Phone: 01667 456126

His name and image are everywhere – from Bank of Scotland fivers to the monument in Edinburgh’s city centre – yet who reads Walter Scott these days?  In his new book, Stuart Kelly explores the enigma of Scott and the disparity between his influence and his status, his current standing and his cultural legacy in a voyage around Scotland.  Scott trained as a lawyer.  After the phenomenal success of his novel Waverley, he produced a string of novels including Rob Roy and Ivanhoe, which strongly influenced many major writers, and yet he found himself massively in debt and by the time of his death in 1832 he was still trying to write himself out of it.

Born and raised in the Scottish Borders, Stuart Kelly is the Literary Editor of Scotland on Sunday, and a freelance critic and writer.