Open Project Funding sees 98 awards of between £1,000 and £120,000 made in March and April 2016
CREATIVE Scotland has awarded over £1.8million of Open Project Funding in March and April 2016 to 98 recipients, including individual artists and organisations working across the arts, screen and creative industries.
Awards of between £1,000 and £120,000 have been made to festivals, musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, community arts centres, dancers and writers.
A cross section of awards includes literature and publishing projects, Cuilean Craicte, the Edinburgh-based Gaelic reading group for children, and Scots Hoose Ootreach. This Scots language project – led by Scots writer, Matthew Fitt, and supported by Scots Scrivener, Hamish MacDonald – will work with schools in areas of deprivation throughout Scotland to create large-scale pieces of creative writing.
Several Scottish festivals have received awards including, St Andrews Voices, 20-23 October, Glasgow Americana Festival, 5-9 October, Stonehaven Folk Festival, 7-10 July and a new festival from Making Music called, A Festival of Making Music which will take place at Kilgraston School, Perthshire in October 2016.
Alison Reeves, manager- Scotland, Making Music: “There is a wealth of excellent musicianship in amateur groups but all musicians, professional or amateur, need continuous development and new challenges to flourish. This award allows Making Music to make the first step towards an annual event that will cultivate and enliven amateur music societies across Scotland.”
In theatre, Angus-based theatre company Poorboy received funding to support their touring production Damned Rebel Bitches. The play is based on the war years’ generation of Scottish women, who are resourceful, independent and sanguine about taking risks because they have lost everything more than once.
With an international cast aged between 75-30, the play uses age-blind casting to explore preconceptions around how age changes a person and the importance of autonomy. While Edinburgh-based theatre company, Magnetic North, received an award to enable them to run a programme of artist and project development.
Nicholas Bone, artistic director at Magnetic North said: “We’re delighted that Creative Scotland recognises the value of Magnetic North’s artist development programme and is helping us to expand its reach with this grant.
“We’re especially looking forward to running our Rough Mix multi-artform residency outside the Central Belt for the first time; this Creative Scotland funding, together with support from Aberdeen Performing Arts, enables us to run the residency in Aberdeen in July 2016.”
Glasgow-based Outspoken Arts also received an award to support their inaugural season of work by LGBT artists and communities.
Spanning two years, this work looks at LGBT asylum, trans visibility, LGBT ageing and care, the development of new voices and women writers, LGBT ethnicity in the visual arts in Scotland and exploring stereotypes in contemporary literature and fiction.
Edinburgh-based filmmaker, Steven Fraser, has received funding to support the development of his animation-documentary What It Feels Like, which looks at the experience of hearing voices.
Meanwhile, Scottish film festivals, Africa in Motion (28 October-6 November) and Take One Action Film Festivals (which take place across Scotland between 14 September-20 November), also received Screen awards.
On receiving funding, Tamara Van Strijthem, executive director, Take One Action Film Festivals, said: “Thanks to Creative Scotland funding and the support of our many partners, Take One Action will continue to inspire and empower film audiences throughout Scotland to see the change they want to be.
“We are particularly excited to be able to direct some of our energy and expertise to developing new tools and opportunities for community and volunteer engagement, and look forward to building on the significant audience growth we achieved last year.”
The Banff Preservation and Heritage Society will use their award made towards crafts to re-establish Banff as a centre of silversmithing. During the project, the town’s historic Meal House will be restored to house an incubator for silversmithing and related metalworking techniques whilst a programme of community engagement through residencies, workshops and demonstrations will also be established.
Among the awards for dance, Edinburgh-based choreographer Jack Webb received an award to support the development of new contemporary dance work THE END. Glasgow-based dance company, Marc Brew Company, received funding towards the development of MayBe – an international with Marc Brew Company, Brazilian dancer Gisele Calazans and musician Natalia Mallo. MayBe is about encounters and the inevitability of love
On receiving funding, Jack Webb said: “I am delighted to have received funding to make and tour THE END. The work will explore the dramatic notion of end points, the end of the world, the end of life as we know it, the end of good, bad and all in between.
“We are very excited to be taking this work to many venues across Scotland, including to Dundee, Inverness, Banchory, Aberdeen and Ullapool, and to be able to offer the opportunity for local people to get involved through workshops exploring THE END’s methodologies, themes and choreography and to perform alongside the professional cast.”
In visual arts, Edinburgh-based sculptor, Kenny Hunter, forager artist, Thomas Keyes, and visual artists, Steven Grainger and Robert Powell, are among individual artists who have received awards to enable them to create and exhibit new work. Kenny Hunter’s new work explores reproduction in sculpture and will debut at the 2016 Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop Exhibition as part of Edinburgh Art Festival, 28 July-28 August.
Iain Munro, deputy chief executive at Creative Scotland, said: “From new theatre productions to support for Scottish film festivals, a sonic novel to the creation of new work by established and emerging artists, we are delighted to have been able to support such a range of practice through Open Project Funding.
“Open Project Funding supports individual artists and organisations to develop and deliver arts and creative projects, widen access to their work, and enrich Scotland’s reputation as a distinctive creative nation.
“Collectively, these projects will have a major impact on the quality of the lives of people and communities across Scotland in many different ways, stimulating imagination and confidence through creative experiences.”
Over £1.5m of these awards have been allocated from the UK National Lottery funds.
Alongside funding from the Scottish Government, the UK National Lottery forms a vital part of funding support for the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland.
Notes to editors:
Open Project Funding is available to a wide range of organisations and individuals working across Scotland in the arts, screen and creative industries. It supports a broad spectrum of activity including creative and professional development, research and development, production, small capital requirements, touring and collaborations, festivals, arts programming, audience development, etc. A full list of activities supported through this route is set out in the Open Project Funding application guidance. Support is available for projects of different scale and duration with the maximum period of award being set at two years. Awards are made in the range £1,000 to £100,000 (or up to £150,000 by exception).
Details of the Open Project Fund and all other Creative Scotland funding can be found on our website at http://www.creativescotland.com/funding/funding-programmes/open-project-funding
Please note the funding awards listed remain offers of funding until such time as all terms and conditions have been formally accepted and fulfilled by the award recipient. If an award recipient fails to accept any offer, the funding award will be withdrawn and credited to future Open Project Funding Panels.
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 www.creativescotland.com. Follow us @creativescots and www.facebook.com/CreativeScotland
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