Published: 30 Nov 2016
Creative Scotland has awarded over £800,000 National Lottery Funding through the Open Project Fund in October 2016 to 40 recipients, including individual artists and organisations working across the arts, screen and creative industries.
Awards of between £1,000 and £99,445 have been made to festivals, musicians, visual artists, dancers, writers and community arts hubs.
Among the awards Greenock-based arts charity RIG Arts has received funding towards Up the Broomy, an arts project, connecting local residents and artists in collaborations to create inspiring objects, events and performances. The project will be rooted in Greenock’s culture and work will accompany the regeneration of the area. Findhorn-based Universal Hall has received funding to deliver a 12-month programme of performing arts. Leith-based Citizen Curator has received support to pilot its project Live Leith- Multicultural Music . The project will engage new migrant and established black and minority ethnic (BME) groups in communal singing and music-making workshops.
Gary Cameron, Head of Place, Partnerships and Communities at Creative Scotland said: “This latest round of Open Project Funding awards further demonstrates the vibrancy and creativity of communities across Scotland.
“While Citizen Curator will be bringing together diverse cultures and musical influences to support multi-cultural dialogue in Leith, RIG Arts will be taking an innovative approach to regeneration in Greenock by bringing artists and communities together to offer a diverse programme of creative activity and training. Further north, we are delighted to support Universal Hall’s programme of performing arts, film and workshop across Moray, and for the community led Braemar Creative Arts Festival.
“These projects reflect the strength and diversity of our creativity and the significant importance of the arts, screen and creative industries to communities across Scotland."
In music, trad singer songwriter Kirsty Law, alternative rock band Halo Tora and retro pop singer songwriter, Martha Ffion have all received funding towards new work. Glasgow-based The Glad Foundation has also received support towards its Glorious Traces Music Programme , which will include workshops, live performances, autism-friendly workshops, individual music tuition and the formation of a community band.
On receiving funding Halo Tora said: “We’ve been lucky enough to receive funding support from Creative Scotland for the costs encountered in recording, mixing and mastering of our second album. Creative Scotland do a great job of funding the creative arts. Organisations that fund the creative arts are a cornerstone of how the arts progress and are seen as a vital contribution to the economy. This funding support will allow us to release our second album which we intend to support through touring the UK and Europe. Having recently returned from our first mainland European tour, we are very excited about returning to some amazing places with new music and merchandise to expand our audience reach.”
Dalmarnock-based Baltic Street Adventure Playground (BSAP) has received an award made towards visual arts to support its Artists in Residence Programme. A child-led, wild play space, conceived by Turner Prize winning art and architecture collective, Assemble and local playworkers, this project will build on BSAP's foundation in social practice by developing a residency programme that brings together artists and children to make and play. Visual artist Arpita Shah is being supported to create Nalini - a photo-based project exploring personal and cultural issues around migration, displacement and heritage found within the South Asian Diaspora. Environmental artist Elizabeth Ogilvie’s funding will enable her to produce a multimedia 180-page publication with Black Dog Publishing, documenting her Out of Ice climate change project. . The publication will also bring together documentation of research in Northern Greenland and writing by RobertMcFarlane, Tim Ingold, Andrew Patrizio, Bergit Arends amongst others.
Visual Artist Arpita Shah said:“Nalini is a deeply personal project that explores diaspora through my own family history. I am so grateful to Creative Scotland for their support as, I will now have time to focus specifically on this project, develop my practice and create something that’s deeply personal and at the same time a very universal experience.”
In an award made to design, Scottish designer Beca Lipscombe and artist Lucy McKenzie, under their fashion label Atelier E.B. have received funding to participate in the international exhibition'33 - '29 - '36 taking place at UM Gallery, the Academy of Architecture, Art and Design, Prague Winter 2016/17.
An award made to Edinburgh-based New Inck Theatre will enable the project development of Scenes Unseen. Bringing together new and unperformed short plays and scenes from established Scottish playwrights alongside emergent writers Scenes Unseen will feature two evenings of rehearsed readings in Glasgow in November 2016, culminating in work in progress performances of two selected emergent pieces, in January 2017.
Funding awarded to theatre-makers, David Hutchison and Andy Corelli will see the development of their adaptation of Too Long The Heart; while Playwright, Iain McClure ’s award has been made towards the presentation of a double bill of visual theatre: an adaptation of The City of Free Love by the Norwegian symbolist painter Edvard Munch and a biographical piece on Munch himself, Munch's Voice.
In an award made towards digital arts, digital graphic artist John Butler has received funding to create Children of the Null, a motion captured short film set in an secure facility where two children are being conditioned to survive in a totally financialised world.
Digital graphic artist John Butler said: “This piece asks how best to prepare children to survive our "culture of metrics" Do you teach them kindness and empathy, or more practical skills? This funding will allow me to extend my ongoing experiments in synthetic narrative, which I call Solid State Cinema."
Among awards to literature, writer Ruth Thomas has received funding towards her new short story collection, The Beautiful House . The collection will centre on a Georgian house and the lives of individuals associated with it over the past century. Picture Hooks, a scheme established to help illustrators develop their work professionally has also received funding. Launching in 2016, the initiative will run over a two-year period, offering a programme of activities to include a mentoring scheme for five art graduates wishing to become book illustrators.
Writer Ruth Thomas said: “I've wanted to work on this collection for a long time, and I'm so pleased I'll be able to get going with it now. Creative Scotland's support means a great deal, as does the attention it gives to shorter fiction.”
In an award made to dance, choreographer Saffy Setohy has received funding towards the development and production of Hidden Architectures – a collaboration with sound artist Jan Hendrickse.
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 2 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 https://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 visitwww.creativescotland.com. Follow us @creativescots and www.facebook.com/CreativeScotland
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