What We Do

Culture Collective: Artist Call-Out

Five place based residencies across Caithness and Sutherland. The Caithness and Sutherland Culture Collective Partnership invites applications for five artist residencies, each rooted in a different locality and hosted by a partner organisation.

Mimesis in Action

Through a new series of paintings developed during his residency, Jack reflects on the layered histories of Caithness and how the legacy of Dounreay continues to shape ideas about the region’s future. Drawing on archival research, conversations with local people and materials connected to the land itself, the work considers how the past informs what might come next.

CAIR 2026

Caithness Artists in Residence (CAIR) is a durational, community-led residency programme supporting creative cultural activism in Caithness.

Summer Sessions 2026

We cannot wait to welcome you back to the Rosebank once again for our annual Summer Sessions. We’ve got some wonderful workshops lined up for during the week followed by a long weekend of music starting on Friday evening!

Caithness Comics Club with Aimee Lockwood

CYC Comics Club is an opportunity to be creative and learn new ways of storytelling through Comics. Come along to Wick or Thurso Library for our monthly Comics Club sessions with illustrator and comics maker Aimee Lockwood.

John O’Groats Mill Exhibition

LAC Drama Drop-In

Drama Drop-in is a space to discover the possibilities of drama and performance in a safe and inclusive environment.

CAIR | 2024

CAIR: Community Artist in Residence (formerly Caithness Artist in Residence) has returned for 2024! We have a brand new cohort of artists working across Caithness and North Sutherland specialising in various different art forms.

Remembering Together Highland

TOLL is a response to the past and present impact of the pandemic on a range of different communities in the Highlands, led by Sinéad Hargan, Cat Meighan and Hector MacInnes, and forms part of the wider Remembering Together project.

MORE THAN A HALF LIFE | ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

More Than a Half-Life explored the unique and specific social and geographic context of Dounreay Nuclear Plant, which is currently being decommissioned.

YOUNG MUSIC MAKERS

Lyth Arts Centre are pleased to announce the launch of the Young Music Makers Programme. Funded by the Youth Music Initiative Access to Music Making Fund the programme will include monthly ‘come and try’ music workshops aimed at 5 – 12 year olds.

Dunnet Forest Festival

The LAC team set up the stretch tent in Dunnet Forest this Spring! Creative workshops, walks, talks, tacos, puppets and performances were all part of this Spring celebration among the trees...

Duncansby Lighthouse Centenary

On the 15th of March 2024, Duncansby Head Lighthouse celebrated its 100th anniversary and to mark this occasion, LAC teamed up with many different partners to bring you Duncansby Light at Night!

SUMMER SESSIONS 2024

During the week we held banner making workshops and drop in art classes leading into a full long weekend of gigs including bands such as Miracle Glass Company & The Niche Family!

Between Two Beaches: INFO

Lyth Arts Centre sits between the beaches of Dunnet Bay to the north and Sinclair’s Bay to the east. Caithness itself points towards the meeting place of the North Sea and the Atlantic. This unique geography, shaped by tides, weather, wildlife and deep time, has provided the setting for our Between Two Beaches programme, which now culminates in this special weekend of gathering, listening and exchange.

Unexpected Garden

Our mobile growing space toured the Caithness countryside bringing the plants to the people!

Northern Stories Festival

Part of the Visit Scotland's Year of Stories, Northern Stories Festival brought myth, folklore and fun to the people of Caithness.

CAIR: Phase 2

A new team of locally based artists working across the Caithness community, bringing the art to the people!

Out Of The Blue

The Out of the Blue was an exciting new project co-developed by LAC with the local community looking at the benefits of 'Blue Health' amongst young people in Caithness.

Caithness Young Creatives

We're delighted that our Caithness Young Creatives programme will continue in 2024 - keep an eye out on our socials for upcoming opportunities throughout the year!

Folding Flowers for the Community: Karlyn Sutherland with Caithness Community Connections

LAC collaborated with Caithness Community Connections to devise a project that would support the wellbeing of young people and provide an uniting, intergenerational activity.

Caithness Artists In Residence

CAIR: Caithness Artists in Residence was a brand new community arts initiative that connected artists and creative practitioners with distinct Caithness communities.

Climate Beacons

Col Gordon is a researcher and farmer’s son who’s based near Invergordon in the Easter Ross, where he grows heritage grains and helps his father raise livestock. He narrated and co-produced the podcast series “Landed” with Farmerama Radio, which investigates the past, present and future of the family farm model through the lens of colonialism.

Caithness, Through My Window

In June 2020, we released ‘Caithness, Through My Window’, a creative activity pack for families and children in our community.

Northern Lights Festival

Northern Lights Festival was a brand-new arts festival celebrating Wick Harbour and the Caithness Coastline.

Environment Artist in Residence: Morag Currie

A new collaboration with Morag Currie, Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS) and their People Ocean Planet initiative, University of the Highlands and Islands Environmental Research Institute in Thurso and NatureScot, Scotland’s Nature Agency. 

Bower Art Garden

We kicked off our Climate Beacons county-wide film tour in Bower Hall at the end of January! We screened films about land ownership from across the globe and dreamt up our biggest visions for the Bower Art Garden, alongside gathering information from the community consultation.

LAC Commissions 

Lyth Arts Centre's past cohort of commissioned artists. 

SKETCHES Film Project

During a tour of SKETCHES live show in May/June 2023, Katie worked with people local to Caithness to learn about places and locations which are iconic important and meaningful to them. 

The People’s Palace of Possibility

The Palace is an outdoor installation which asks how we find energy for change, despite our fear and anger about the future. It is rooted in utopias.

Durty Beanz Residency

DB will be in town to investigate the role and sociocultural functions of global cuisine takeaway outlets in the Scottish Highlands. From their base at LAC, they will explore takeaway outlets in Caithness offering Scotland's three most popular global takeaway cuisines (Chinese, Indian and Italian).

LAC LGBTQ+ Art Club

LAC LGBTQ+ Art Club is a new safe creative space for LGBTQ+ young people aged 13 – 19 living in Caithness and North Sutherland.

Caithness Through Your Windscreen

For Christmas 2020, Lyth Arts Centre produced a new drive-in festive experience for all the family to enjoy.