l The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has announced the appointment of Dr Mieko Kanno as its new Head of Strings.

As well as overseeing the full range of string disciplines, Dr Kanno will work alongside visiting specialists and Fellows including Nicola Benedetti, Ilya Gringolts and the Brodsky Quartet. Dr Kanno comes to the RCS from Durham University where she is currently Head of Performance. She takes up the post in January 2013.

l The Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival in Hawick, whose theme this year is Traversing the Wild, has commissioned Sarahjane Swan and Roger Simian – aka The Bird And The Monkey – to create a video art installation. Their short film, In The Dark I Sat, will be screened from October 26 to 28.

l The winner of the 2012 RIBA Stirling Prize for this year's best building will be announced on Saturday. The prize, in its 17th year, is the UK's most prestigious architecture prize. In the running is the Maggie's Centre at Gartnavel, Glasgow, designed by Netherlands-based agency OMA.

l Blythe Duff, better known as a crimefighter on Taggart, is to play a woman behind bars in Firebrand Theatre Company's Iron. Written by Rona Munro, the drama will run at the Tron Theatre from November 6 to 10 as part of its tour. Iron tells the story of a young woman visiting her mother in prison for the first time in 15 years and her attempt to unravel the mystery of what happened the night her father was killed.

l A new painting of Sir Walter Scott's Abbotsford home by Richard Schmid, one of the leading figures in American realist art, has gone on show for the first time in the US. The 24inx47in oil on canvas artwork was commissioned by Kansas-based charitable organization, the KT Wiedemann Foundation and has been donated to The Abbotsford Trust. It will be displayed at the Wichita Centre for the Arts in Kansas before being transported to the Scottish Borders next year where it will hang in the newly opened Abbotsford Visitor Centre.