So as one observant correspondent predicted on this blog just a few weeks ago, the closure of Plockton School of Traditional Music has been averted in the nick of time.

Education minister Michael Russell galloped in this morning with a cheque for £200,000 for 2012/2013 and 2014/2015 when the facility had expected to close.

The deal is based on a partnership with the West Highland College UHI (University of the Highlands and Islands) and on a number of cost-cutting measures which would save the centre up to £50,000 a year.

If the college agrees, and accepts the grant, it would then run a national certificate in traditional music.

And what about Highland Council, whose withdrawal of their £300,000 annual funding, caused all the hoohah in the first place?

They must still approve the new agreement, and may still have their share of responsibility for the centre.

Highland Council leader Michael Foxley says the whole situation has been positive - showing the extent of the support for the centre, including an internet petition, and a noisy campaign by musicians and music lovers across the world.

Many of those supporters will now be asked to put their money where their mouths are, to support the continuing upkeep of the centre.

Speaking on Good Morning Scotland today, Mr Foxley said the campaign had thrown up lots of previously overlooked options for funding, including weekend staffing and travel costs. A silver lining amongst a lot of black clouds.

And while a cause for celebration in the traditional music world, you can't help wondering whether the wider and more aggressive cuts to music and arts education across the country will be as much of a cause celebre.

Or indeed as simple to resolve.

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Charles Rennie Mackintosh is an unlikely knight in shining armour, galloping to the rescue of the Glasgow Art Club.

As a young apprentice, he applied for membership and was turned down.

Then his carefully crafted wall frieze - of purple swirling thistles on a sage green background - was plastered over by club members at the turn of the 20th century. Why?

Theories abound but perhaps the frieze overshadowed the work hanging on the gallery walls?

Artist's impression of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh frieze

James MacAulay, who recently published a biography of Mackintosh, wonders if the artists who ran the club simply didn't look after it well enough.

"Artists aren't known for their level of care and once it was damaged by water, they may have thought it easier just to paint over," he says.

Wouldn't anyone have protested?

"Mackintosh wasn't widely liked in Glasgow art circles, so I don't think they would have cared too much."

Add to the mix the fact that his colleague John Keppie, who was a member of the Glasgow Art Club, may have had a strained relationship with Mackintosh - professionally and personally (Mackintosh broke off an engagement to his sister Jessie) and you begin to see why no one stepped up to save the frieze from a layer of plaster.

Design rescued

More than a century later, it's a different story. According to recent research, the frieze is still carefully preserved beneath the plasterwork.

It can't be removed without further damage but the details of the design have been rescued and it's hoped the club can recreate the simple A/B pattern on top of the existing plasterwork.

"It would put us on the Mackintosh trail," says the club's Vice President Connie Simmer. "People would come from all over the world to see that."

It may also help the club's attempts to modernise for the 21st Century with a £1m makeover. They still have £200,000 to raise - and are hopeful that the frieze and plans to throw their doors open to the public will help with that.

Meanwhile, the original frieze will remain dormant beneath the plasterwork - at least until techology develops.

"The reason for stopping where we are is we could cause damage, says Ranald MacInnes, Principal Inspector for Historic Scotland.

"It's possible we will develop the technology which will allow us to bring back this frieze without damaging it. Not now, but perhaps in the future."

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Food and art have always been interlinked in the Glasgow restaurant, The Ubiquitous Chip.

It was there in 1971 that a 26-year-old Alasdair Gray turned a blank wall into a canvas, famously accepting food and drink, rather than cash, as payment.

So when the restaurant wanted to mark its 40th birthday with a new artwork, he seemed the obvious person to ask.

Except that, instead of a static mural, painted onto the walls, the restaurant now had more ambitious plans.

"I imagined deer galloping through the restaurant," says Carol Wright, who runs the restaurant with her partner, Colin Clydesdale.

"Animals interacting with the diners as they ate their food. It was one of those conversations you have after a glass of wine and everyone thought it was a bit mad and then we realised there were people who could help us actually do it."

The people, in this case, were event producer Neil Butler of UZ and digital artist Deborah Norton.

Deer proved impossible, but alongside the real pond is a digital rock pool. Dip your fingers in and the fish circle.

During courses, diners put on 3D glasses and salmon leap through the restaurant. Morag the Highland cow heralds the arrival of the beef course (no room for sentiment here!).

There's no dramatic unveiling. The Alasdair Gray mural - a digital work which takes up a whole wall of the restaurant - is revealed slowly through the course of the evening.

Last night's opening night was a low-key event, with the creators in the midst. There's no formality, no-one announces when to put on the 3D glasses - but every so often, someone spots activity and the whole restaurant follows suits.

This is of course a neighbourhood well used to eating, and indulging in artistic pursuits at the same time.

Oran Mor has successfully offered theatre at lunch and dinner and every meal in between.

And art in restaurants is not unusual, except in this case when it's interacting with the customers.

It's also Gray's first foray into digital art, and, if he seems unconvinced by the process, he thinks the final result "should be entertaining".

Deborah Norton says she tried to develop a process which allowed Gray to work in ways in which he was familiar, controlling colour and shape before adding it to the projection.

For Gray, it's not that new. "To me, it's just lanterns, transformed into slides and projected onto the wall," he says.

"I wish we had more time to concentrate on that, without other projects, but we did what we could and I think it's quite good. People will be entertained by it, I think."

Up to 70 diners a night are expected to sample the work with their dinner between now and the end of March.

Carol is aware it won't appeal to everyone, but she says they're keen to try something new, which continues their long-running interest in art.

And the benefit of a digital mural is that it's not fixed to the wall. So there's every chance that the new artwork could be on display elsewhere in the near future.

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