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• 02 February 2012

  Sixteen Festivals take One Step Further

  

  Sixteen festivals today (02 February 2011) received a share of over £300,000 to help attract more visitors to Scotland during 2012: the Year of Creative Scotland.

  The One Step Further investment programme aims to enhance the programmes of existing festivals and events during 2012, with a focus on cultural tourism.

  One Step Further Investments include:

  Aberdeen:

  Aberdeen Jazz Festival will expand the scale and reach of the five day event of Scottish, European and international jazz musicians, by developing their digital profile and a marketing programme to increase visitor numbers. (£20,470)

  The 8th annual Sound Festival of new music will include a focus on opera. A programme of site specific commissions, masterclasses, discussions and other operatic events will look at how the boundaries of opera can be pushed beyond their current limits, and will seek to inspire more people to enjoy this artform. (£54,106)

  Dumfries and Galloway:

  Wigtown Book Festival takes on a stargazing theme this year as it delivers a series of author talks and activities in conjunction with Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park, an international initiative to bring astronomy tourism to the UK’s least light-polluted region. Book-lovers will also be encouraged to become artists through a new initiative ‘Audience as Artist’. (£17,550)

  Edinburgh:

  Traquair Medieval Fayre will transform into the Traquair Shakespeare Festival, a unique contribution to the World Shakespeare Festival and the Cultural Olympiad, in a celebration of the life and times of Shakespeare with a programme of Shakespeare related productions, workshops and master classes. (£5,000)

  The Lammermuir Festival will light up Tantallon Castle in September with a thrilling music, sound and light event to draw new audiences to East Lothian: Beautiful Music, Beautiful Places (Lamp of Lothian Trust - £53,938)

  Fife:

  The streets of St Andrews will be filled with poetry during St Anza, Scotland’s leading poetry festival, as innovative poetry sound installations and panels are erected across the town, and food and drink branded with poetic works inspired by Scotland's Year of Food and Drink will be found in cafes. The 2012 programme will see poetry webcast from Sweden, and a new photography exhibition and musician in residence.  (£12,471)

  The 2012 Inside Out festival will see international choreographer Errol White create a dance performance specifically for the festival, a Parkour performance spectacle and an extended musical programme alongside street theatre and strategic tourist marketing for the festival. (Byre Theatre - £38,700)

  While chamber music is at the heart of the acclaimed East Neuk Festival, One Step Further will enable it to extend its activities with several new initiatives including a new performance venue; outdoor performances by young musicians from Live Music Now; Pilgrims, an exhibition and labyrinth evoking St Andrews in the middle ages; and Littoral a programme introducing internationally renowned writers inspired by nature and the environment. (£45,000)

  Glasgow:

  Multi-artform festival Behaviour, based at the Arches, will develop a body of off-site work connecting Glasgow’s public spaces and history to the performances allowing the audience to see the city in new and interesting ways.  (The Arches - £37,640)

  This year’s Merchant City Festival will deliver site specific work linked to city centre transport hubs and routes around Hampden and the Merchant City will operate as a ‘Live Site’ for Olympic ticket holders, encouraging increased visits to the Festival. (Glasgow Life - £30,000)

  The week preceding the main festival Glasgow International Piping Festival, Piping Live! will tour historically significant castles and locations across Scotland that have a link with piping to bring this music to new audiences.  (Glasgow International Piping Festival - £25,950)

  Shetland Highlands & Islands:

  Award winning Shetland Folk Festival presents the best folk music from around the globe to the local community and visitors alike, investment will allow them to programme high-profile acts for the 2012 festivals attracting even more visitors. (£7,150)

  Tiree:

  Tiree Music Festival, a two-day annual music festival featuring a variety of music and entertainment on the Isle of Tiree, will use the investment to integrate the festival with the community and the existing tourist industry on Tiree, improving marketing to attract more audiences from further afield. (£22,406)

  Perthshire:

  The Callander Jazz & Blues Festival will focus on increasing the number of international performers and establish a show case for emerging musicians.  This year emerging musicians will enjoy a youth jazz and blues music workshop and offering Jump-jive dance workshops. (£9,000)

  Inverness:

  The biggest sporting event in the Highlands, the Mountain Bike World Cup, attracts more than 17,000 visitors to Fort William annually. This year spectators will enjoy a showcase of Scottish music, art and design alongside digital workshops. (Rare Management - £50,645)

  The Insider Festival 2012 will be a tongue in cheek celebration of the Olympic spirit of yesteryear. This year’s event will see an enhanced musical line-up and development of performance and audience spaces to offer a broader scope of cultural activities, including spoken word, theatrics and crafts and skills workshops. (Backwoods Productions - £9,000)

  Click here to find out more on the Year of Creative Scotland

  Category: Creative Scotland News
• 24 January 2012

  Creative Place Award Winners

  

  Five Scottish communities are today (24 January) celebrating awards, totalling £380,000, in recognition of being one of the country's most creative places.

  The Creative Place Awards celebrate and recognise the hard work and imagination that contributes to the rich cultural life of a community, as well as its social and economic well-being.

  The Awards are part of the Year of Creative Scotland 2012, a year-long celebration of our nation’s cultural and creative strengths.

  Broadcaster Dougie Vipond hosted today's ceremony with awards presented by the judges to communities of different sizes across three categories. The winners are:

  Wigtown received £50,000 in the category for places with fewer than 2,500 residents. The runners up were Creetown and Kilmartin Glen.  Each year over 15,000 people flock to Wigtown for its hugely successful Book Festival, the award will allow this to be developed into a year-round programme - including a residential creative writing course and a high-profile Wigtown Lecture. 

  West Kilbride received £100,000 in the category for places with fewer than 10,000 residents.  The runners up were Huntly and Prestonpans.  The award will allow Craft Town Scotland, a community initiative, to develop a new series of exhibitions for The Barony Centre and develop new programmes to involve younger, and older, members of the community in their creative programme.

  St Andrews received £150,000 in the category for places with fewer than 100,000 residents.  The runners up were Irvine and Perth. St Andrews will be hosting its own Year of Celebration in 2012 and the award will allow the town to promote its already rich cultural programme to the UK and international visitors and to support a new community musical theatre production as the year’s centre piece production. 

  In addition, the judges made two Special Awards of £40,000 to Creetown and Huntly who impressed with their long-standing creative programmes which involve the whole community. 

  Creetown won a Special Award for community engagement and high levels of participation in quality arts and creativity.

  Huntly received a Special Award for its creative use of artists.  Huntly has re-branded the town through the use of arts; many of its projects have been led by top international artists.   
  
  

  Category: Creative Scotland News
• 10 January 2012

  First in a Lifetime experiences for the Year of Creative Scotland

  

  Creative Scotland has invested over £1.2 million to create First in a Lifetime opportunities for people to enjoy, or take part in, creative activity.

  Ten projects have been supported, stretching from the Shetland Islands to Dumfries, which will offer unique inspirational experiences for thousands of people.

  First in a Lifetime projects include:

  •    Dancing Voices 2012 will bring together older dancers and singers in a large-scale dance and choir project. The participatory project will end with two high profile events in London and Glasgow and will use experienced older performers to inspire their peers.

  •    Giants in the Forest is art, technology and the natural environment, combined to inspire creative activity. Giant organic masks created with participants from a range of under-participating groups will be constructed, seeded and suspended in forests across Scotland, where they will hang from April to November 2012, growing and changing with the seasons for audiences to engage with.

  •    Ignition is a project for the Shetland Islands to be produced and delivered by the National Theatre of Scotland in association with Shetland Arts Development Agency.  Over nine months they will work with the Shetland community to create an original piece of ‘event theatre’, facilitated by several renowned professional theatre artists to explore the impact of the imminent transformative change that will sweep the Shetland Islands when the oil supply diminishes.

  •    ‘The Port’ is an exciting new multi-arts collaboration aims to connect new young people and their wider communities with the changing landscape of Aberdeen City and Harbour. Using exciting community based street performances, large sculptural pieces, dance and music opportunities to develop high quality local first experiences.

  •    Northern Lights is a nation-wide documentary film project that provides members of the general public with an opportunity to make films about their Scotland. Through a series of short film commissions, community workshops and online tutorials, participants will be encouraged and supported to make original contributions towards the overall project. The final constellation of films will be combined to form a unique immersive installation that will tour Scotland in autumn 2012.

  •    Scottish Book Trust will create a programme of seven events over a 12 month period bringing the best children’s authors and illustrators to schools across Scotland. The events will be filmed, in conjunction with their broadcast partner, and streamed live over the internet. Building on the successful Authors Live programme, the project will expand its work with teachers.

  •    Scottish Ballet will visit Arran, Mull, Islay, Perth, Fort William, Dumfries and Greenock for four days and nights in each area in autumn 2012. During the spring the company will invite each community to consider the dance activity they’d like to see using a mix of behind-the-scenes and performance activity. The project will serve as a catalyst to dance participation in each of the key areas and will be produced with partners including the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s BA in Modern Ballet course.

  •    Olympic Impulse is a six-month historical and contemporary arts event that uses the inspiration of London in 2012 to engage people who have rarely or never participated in cultural activities. Providing exhibitions, workshops and combined art/sporting events in North East Scotland, Olympic Impulse is a celebration of the Classical Greek Olympics, in which the arts was as prominent as sport.

  •    Mission: Possible will give children and young people living in the West and North West of Dundee an opportunity to try dancing, through tasters, weekly groups, a boys only group, a week long intensive experience, the development of a new youth dance piece, the opportunity to go and see quality dance performance and the opportunity to perform both locally and nationally.

  •    Fife Music Hub is a year-long project working with communities in central Fife to participate, play and ultimately perform.  High quality creative musicians will work to create sustainable community music groups. The project will be delivered and managed through a partnership of ON at Fife and Jazz Scotland, working closely with Fife Council.

  Click here to find out more on the Year of Creative Scotland

  Category: Creative Scotland News