Free Highlands Cultural Assembly opens to Inverness artists
Artists and cultural organisations from across the Highlands are being invited to help shape a new regional arts strategy at the first Highlands’ Cultural Assembly.
The free gathering will take place on Wednesday 16 September at the Drumossie Hotel in Inverness. It is intended for artists, creative practitioners, arts organisations and cultural bodies working across the region.
Highland Council says anyone interested in participating can register by emailing [email protected]. Creative practitioners who attended the Cultural Conversation in Strathpeffer in June have also been invited.
Artists will have a direct role in the new strategy
The Assembly is being established as a permanent forum rather than a one-off meeting. Its priorities include developing a new arts and cultural strategy for the Highlands while giving the sector a stronger collective voice.
Organisers want the membership to reflect the breadth and diversity of the region’s cultural community. The planned forum will provide space for collaboration, knowledge sharing and collective action among people and organisations that may otherwise work across widely separated communities.
Fiona Dalgetty, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Fèis Rois, has been confirmed as the Assembly’s first Convener. She said artists’ voices must be central to the forum and encouraged people who believe they can contribute to come forward.
“There’s an opportunity for new voices within the cultural sector to become heard,” Dalgetty said, describing the first meeting as an opening step for wider participation.
A Creative Highland board will support the Assembly and help turn discussions into action across the cultural sector.
The forum grew from the Strathpeffer conversation
The permanent Assembly follows the Cultural Conversation held in Strathpeffer in June 2026 as part of Beò! 2029, the Inverness-Highland bid for UK City of Culture. Although connected to that campaign, the new forum has been designed to continue beyond the bidding process.
The Beò! 2029 team submitted its detailed City of Culture proposal in August. Inverness-Highland is the competition’s only Scottish entry and the first bid in its history to represent both a city and a wider region.
It is competing with Blackpool, Ipswich, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Swindon and Wrexham. Judges are expected to announce a shortlist of up to four places in October 2026.
That timetable gives the September Assembly a role beyond the bid itself: participants will begin considering how artists and cultural organisations can work together through a lasting regional structure, regardless of the competition’s outcome.
How to register for the Inverness gathering
Attendance is free, and interested participants should register by emailing [email protected]. Limited financial support is available to offset lost earnings for full-time self-employed artists, although the council has not specified the amount or application arrangements.
No start time, transport guidance or accessibility information was included in the published announcement. Prospective attendees who need those details can raise them when registering their interest with the organisers.
Source: Highland Council
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The date, venue, attendance arrangements and purpose were checked against Highland Council’s announcement published on 8 September 2026.
- Confirmed the gathering is scheduled for Wednesday 16 September at the Drumossie Hotel in...
- Confirmed attendance is free and registration is by email.
- Confirmed limited loss-of-earnings support is available for full-time self-employed artist...
- Confirmed Fiona Dalgetty of Fèis Rois is the first Convener.
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- Highland Council
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- Inverness
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- 2026-09-08 13:30
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