New funding announced for youth-led digital arts and culture projects

Published: 01 Jun 2015

Ten Scottish Youth Arts Agencies receive £49,850

Funding awarded across eight local authority areas: Argyll & Bute, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Highlands, Moray, North Ayrshire and Stirling

Ten Scottish Youth Arts Agencies will receive a share of £49,850 funding to support the development of a series of youth-led digital arts and cultural projects. From the acclaimed 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, this funding provides access and participation opportunities for young people aged 0-25 across Scotland.

The funding has been awarded through phase one of TTS.Digital - a programme strand of Time to Shine, Scotland’s National Youth Arts Strategy. The strategy sets out a vision and key recommendations to enable Scotland’s children and young people to flourish and achieve, in and through the arts and culture.

The purpose of TTS.Digital is 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. For more information on Time to Shine visit our website.

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop, said: “We must support and encourage our young people and our children to develop a love, a curiosity and a value for culture, regardless of their class, background or where they live. Our work with young people under the umbrella of Scotland’s youth arts strategy, Time To Shine, is designed to ensure that no-one’s background is a barrier to taking part in cultural life.

“It’s important that we and the sector develop new partnerships and seek new and creative ways to engage and reach out. These innovative new projects, led by young people and delivered by a partnership of arts organisations in collaboration with technology partners will help enable more children and young people to take part in culture and creativity across our communities in Scotland.”

Colin Bradie, Youth Arts Programme Manager at Creative Scotland, said: “We are delighted to be delivering TTS.Digital through the implementation of the National Youth Arts Strategy. Young people are in many instances leading the way with digital creativity and these pioneering first phase projects will enable young people to co-create with arts and technology partners to explore new and exciting ways of engaging.”

Delphine Dallison, Studio Co-ordinator at MAKLab, said: "At MAKLab, we're really excited about this opportunity to collaborate with Craft Town Scotland and explore the possibilities that open up when you combine traditional craft with digital technologies. Our two organisations have been hoping for the opportunity to work together for some time now and the funding from Creative Scotland has finally allowed us to do so. We hope this project can be a first spark in encouraging more young people to experiment with craft and engage with Craft Town Scotland thanks to this new approach using digital technologies."

Dave Close, Director at Hot Chocolate Trust, said: “TTS.Digital has lit a fire amongst our team and young people – connecting us with local digital artists and together getting increasingly excited about learning and sharing skills, and turning the stuff of everyday life in and around Hot Chocolate into something beautiful to share publically. It’s really got the ideas flowing.”

Jacqueline Bennett at Wildbird, said: "Wildbird are excited about leading a digital arts project in the musical heart of Moray. Starting this weekend the hub of our community, Milne's Primary School in Fochabers, will see acclaimed youth ensemble, the Fochabers Fiddlers, and experimental musician Martin Low, experiment freely to combine the deep traditions of their music with the new innovations of digital technology."

TTS.Digital is built around two phases. The first phase set out to fund 10 pilot projects of up to £5,000 which test methodology and ways of working.

The successful Phase One applicants are:

ARGYLL & BUTE
Company: The Templar Arts and Leisure Centre Trust
Partner: in the fields and Ken Cockburn
Project Title: A (digital) visit from Boswell and Johnson
Amount Awarded: £4,850
Project Description: A digital art project for young people in Argyll & Bute to discover the double-narrative of authors Boswell and Johnson (A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland / The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides) – to create their own travel journal as a graphic novel and interactive installation.
Artform(s): Multi-artform, Design, Literature, Visual Arts, Digital

DUNDEE
Company: Hot Chocolate Trust
Partner: Malath Abbas and Tom DeMajo
Project Title: Inside / Outside
Amount Awarded: £5,000
Project Description: Exciting digital arts taster sessions will give young people the chance to experiment and develop new skills in multiple media and disciplines; these will build towards a fast-paced, creative jamming event in which young people work intensively with artists, designers and programmers to produce artworks of projection. Young people will be mentored in subsequent weeks to complete and prepare their work for a public showcase event in Dundee city centre.
Artform(s): Multi-artform, Film, Music, Visual Arts, Digital

Company: Dundee Contemporary Arts Ltd
Partner: Future Fossil and Dundee Makerspace
Project Title: UNRULY: exploring new possibilities in digital creating, making and sharing
Amount Awarded: £5,000
Project Description: DCA will celebrate the UNRULY in us by providing a platform for young people to break the boundaries of what the tools suggest and to open up new possibilities which reflect how the rules these young people inherit may not be the rules they choose to set as their own boundaries for their creating, making and sharing.
Artform(s): Multi-artform, Visual Arts, Digital

EDINBURGH
Company: Hoda Productions
Partner: Edinburgh College of Art and Kaimes school
Project Title: Digital Dudes
Amount Awarded: £5,000
Project Description: To develop digital assets to populate interactive platforms using participatory games and techniques.
Artform(s): Music, Digital

Company: Electric Bookshop
Partner: Publishing Scotland
Project Title: Future Publishing House
Amount Awarded: £5,000
Project Description: Young people aged 16-25yrs will be invited to become part of a national publishing house. Across two days, the young team will design and lead creative projects that use new technologies to explore ways in which publishing of the future may look.
Artform(s): Multi-artform, Literature, Digital

STIRLING
Company: Artlink Central Ltd
Partner: Lens On Legs
Project Title: The Hidden Ward Trail
Amount Awarded: £5,000
Project Description: The Hidden Ward Trail will enable young people in health settings to transform their environment through a new digital technology platform, enabling them to reinterpret the clinical setting as a creative space.
Artform(s): Multi-artform

GLASGOW
Company: Glasgow Film Theatre Ltd
Partner: Craig Steele, CoderDojo Scotland
Project Title: Movie Mashup
Amount Awarded: £5,000
Project Description: Movie Mashup will see the development and piloting of a project that brings together the creative combination of film, storytelling, and computer programming to create a hands-on digital storytelling workshop. Participants will use computer code to rewrite key scenes from memorable films, creating new stories and different endings.
Artform(s): Film

HIGHLANDS
Company: Youth Highland
Partner: Seaboard Film Society and DUFI Art
Project Title: Digital Connections
Amount Awarded: £5,000
Project Description: Digital Connections will creatively use digital tools to express young people’s ideas and experiences, giving a voice and a digital space to rurally isolated young people.
Artform(s): Digital

MORAY
Company: Wildbird Ltd
Partner: Fochabers Fiddlers Group
Project Title: Digital Reels
Amount Awarded: £5,000
Project Description: Acclaimed youth fiddle ensemble the Fochabers Fiddlers will experiment with three digital artists from Wildbird to combine the deep traditions of their music with the new innovations of digital technology. They will create new recordings, with multi-media content inspired by sound and story, and a performance installation for Speyfest 2015.
Artform(s): Multi-artform, Film, Music, Theatre, Digital

NORTH AYRSHIRE
Company: MAKlab Limited (ex-Skirmishes Limited)
Partners: Craft Town Scotland
Project Title: Crafting Digital
Amount Awarded: £5,000
Project Description: MAKLab will host a series of workshops in partnership with Craft Town Scotland to explore the possibilities of developing a youth-led digital centre in West Kilbride which provides support and facilities for the wider area.
Artform(s): Craft, Design, Visual Art, Digital

In August 2015, TTS.Digital Phase Two will launch with an open call for largerscale projects which build on the outcomes of the Phase One pilot phase. The budget for 2014/15 will be £400,000. Applicants will be invited to apply for awards between £50,000 and £100,000.

Full details, guidelines and application forms for Phase Two will be made available by early August 2015. For more information visit: creativescotland.com/funding/eligibility.

In shaping this project 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.

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.

The full strategy and accompanying documentation can be accessed here.

Notes to Editors

TTS.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 10 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.

ENDS

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Helen Sim
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