SIX Scottish Youth Arts Agencies have received a share of £401,444.00 funding to support the development of a series of youth-led digital arts and cultural projects.
From intergenerational digital projects for early year audiences in West Lothian, to digital themes being created around landscape and seascape in Argyll & Bute, this funding will provide access and participation opportunities for young people aged 0-25yrs, across Scotland.
Awards of between £50,000 and £100,000 were made through Phase Two of TTS.Digital – a programme strand of Time to Shine, Scotland’s National Youth Arts Strategy, designed to inspire digital creativity and experimentation in young people through a series of youth-led projects working with arts organisations in collaboration with technology partners.
Colin Bradie, youth arts programme manager at Creative Scotland, said: “Through Phase Two of TTS.Digital we are delighted to be supporting six significant arts and cultural projects designed to inspire digital creativity and experimentation in young people.
“The diversity of partnership, range of art from and innovation of project approach will ensure that a very wide range young people will take the lead in pioneering new and exciting approaches to digital creativity.”
TTS.Digital is built around two phases. The first phase saw £50,000 awarded to ten experimental pilot digital arts project projects that tested methodology and ways of working – from youth fiddle ensemble, the Fochabers Fiddlers experimenting with digital artists in Moray, to digital-led workshops in North Ayrshire and Dundee, and the creation of digital graphic novels in Argyll & Bute.
Phase One awards were made in June 2015, full details of which can be found here: http://www.creativescotland.com/what-we-do/latest-news/archive/2015/05/new-funding-announced-for-youth-led-digital-arts-and-culture-projects
The successful Phase Two applicants are:
WEST LOTHIAN
Company: West Lothian Council
Project Title: Teenagers and Toddlers
Funding awarded: £57,190.00
Project description: Teenagers and Toddlers is a digital intergenerational project where young people have the opportunity to create a product with, and for, an early years audience.
Fiona Low, at West Lothian Council Community Arts, said: “Community Arts is delighted to have been awarded this funding which will give young people from the area the opportunity to work with the innovative company, Hippotrix.
“Using music and visual arts to bring together teenagers and toddlers to explore how they can create a new digital product is a new way of working for us and a partnership we hope will be fruitful and that we can replicate in the future, allowing children and young people to express their creativity.”
EDINBURGH
Company: Imaginate
Project title: livescore
Funding awarded: £65,793.00
Project description: livescore is a year-long project bringing together young people, artists, digital specialists, hubs and organisations who specialise in working with young people and audiences – in Scotland and internationally – to work together to make a piece of live performance and an interactive website.
Fiona Ferguson, creative development director at Imaginate, said: “With livescore we are delighted to be working with lead artist Greg Sinclair and young people through our five fantastic partners (Argyll & Bute Youth Arts Hub, #artcore, Lyceum Youth Theatre, After the News and Kopergietery) to create a new piece of digital performance for young audiences.”
GLASGOW
Company: Sense Scotland
Project title: Sensatronic lab
Funding awarded: £99,590.00
Project description: Taking music as an entry point to creativity with technology, Sensatronic lab is a digital project for young people overcoming barriers of disability, and or social and economic exclusion. It enables them to create a unique ‘Sensory Orchestra’ of tactile electronic instruments and sound sculptures that can then be shared and used by a wide audience through a range of mediums, including live performance and audio and visual distribution.
Alison Sommerville, arts manager at Sense Scotland, said: “At Sense Scotland we are continually looking at new and different ways to encourage creativity.
“The Time to Shine Digital fund will open up a whole new world of expression for our young people who will be able to use technology to create and communicate through music.
“We are excited to have the opportunity to embrace new media and look forward to working alongside young people to discover what is possible. We would like to thank Creative Scotland for awarding us the funding which will enable the people we support to have their own and unique time to shine.”
ARGYLL & BUTE
Company: The Templar Arts and Leisure Centre Trust
Project title: sparks, drifts and rain
Funding awarded: £50,000.00
Project description: The project sparks, drifts and rain enables young people from Argyll and Bute to take the lead on digital media cross over projects. The young people have chosen to create digital works on themes around the landscape and seascape, they are surrounded by.
Participants will be supported by a number of collaboration partners in various digital arts.
Mary Y. Smith, chair of Trustees at Templar Arts and Leisure Centre, said: “It is a superb result to get the opportunity to explore and expand the digitally creative minds of young people in such a remote, visually stunning and environmentally stimulating location as Argyll.”
DUNDEE
Company: Hot Chocolate Trust
Project title: Unlock Digital
Funding awarded: £69,260.00
Project description: Over 12 months, Unlock Digital will engage young people with high-quality digital arts opportunities, encourage collaborations between young people and artists across multiple disciplines and provide them with access to the arts, cultural activities and practitioners around Dundee and beyond.
The young people will be resourced as contributors to, rather than consumers of, digital technologies promoting self-expression, collaboration, learning and creative play.
Claudia Richardson, of the Hot Chocolate Trust, said: “Unlock Digital will bring together the creativity and self-expression of talented young people, Hot Chocolate’s skills and experience in supporting them, and the rich resources of digital art and design in Dundee: we’re really excited to see what happens next and just what TTS.Digital has started here…”
Company: Shaper Caper Limited
Project title: cmd__v.2 (Command Shift Version 2)
Funding awarded: £59,611.00
Project description: cmd__v.2 (Command Shift Version 2) is a dance, multi-arts and projection mapping project that places young people at the heart of curating, organising, creating and delivering digital art works.
Thomas Ward, artistic director at Shaper Caper Limited, said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive funding from the TTS.Digital Phase 2 fund to develop our 12 month project cmd__v.2 (Command Shift Version 2) working with partners Fleet Collective and Factory Skatepark in Dundee and Youth Arts Collective North East in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
“We will provide access to some of the best digital artists and technology companies in the world to inspire our young participants into creating a game-changing fusion of live and digital art work.
“We look forward to being part of a creative journey through digital discoveries with young people leading the adventure.”
Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, said: “Culture, the arts and creativity play a vital role in tackling inequality, while encouraging personal development.
“This funding, as part of Time To Shine, Scotland’s first national youth arts strategy, is helping to ensure no-one’s background is a barrier to taking part in cultural life. It also gives young people all over Scotland the chance to enjoy, be challenged and stimulated by the arts.
“The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring enhanced access opportunities for all of Scotland’s young people who hold the key to our digital future. Time to Shine is helping support meaningful career pathways for our talent of the future; be it on stage, the screen, behind the scenes or in our world-leading creative industries.”
The full strategy and accompanying documentation can be accessed here.
ENDS
For all Media enquiries please contact:
Sophie Bambrough
Media Relations & PR Officer
Creative Scotland
E: sophie.bambrough@creativescotland.com
T: 0131 523 0015
M: 0774 760 6146
S: 0330 333 2000
Notes to editors:
Digital is a fund to support projects which will inspire digital creativity in young people as part of Time to Shine – Scotland’s National Youth Arts Strategy. The fund will be delivered in two phases:
- Phase One will support up to ten pilot projects.
- Phase Two (from Aug 2015) will then support larger scale projects. In both cases, the projects are led by young people, and delivered through a partnership of arts organisations in collaboration with technology partners.
For further information and to read the full guidelines, please visit: http://ow.ly/PhajP
In shaping this programme, TTS.Digital has worked closely with Youth Arts Voice Scotland, a group of young people aged 14-20yrs who are working with Creative Scotland and Young Scot to shape the future of arts for young people in Scotland. Youth Arts Voice Scotland were part of the application assessing process and were included as part of the selection and decision making panel for this fund.
The Time To Shine Strategy was launched in 2013 and centres around three key themes of creating and sustaining engagement; nurturing potential and talent; and developing infrastructure and support. The strategy set out a vision and key recommendations to enable Scotland’s children and young people to flourish and achieve, in and through the arts and creativity.
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. We enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life. We distribute funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery. For further information about Creative Scotland please visit creativescotland.com. Follow us @creativescots and www.facebook.com/CreativeScotland
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