£750,000 National Lottery support for cultural activity across Scotland

Published: 30 May 2017

Maryhill Heritage Choir
Maryhill Heritage Choir

46 Open Project Funding awards of between
£1,785 and £75,654 made in April 2017

Creative Scotland has awarded over £750,000 National Lottery funding through the Open Project Fund in April 2017 to 46 recipients, including individual artists, musicians, dance hubs, writers, poets, theatre makers, festivals and organisations working across the arts, screen and creative industries.

Multi-Artform

Among the multi-artform awards, Eilean Eisdeal, the Easdale island community development group, has received funding to support Easdale Island's Community Hall Arts Programme 2017, which will deliver a diverse programme of creative events and improve access to arts provision to a rural island community and its visitors.

Iain Shamus McPhee has received funding to support Hidden Treasures, a celebration of Gypsy Traveller art taking place as part of the Tummel and Tay Festival at the Festival Theatre Pitlochry. Glasgow Life has received funding to support the Glasgow Mela in 2017 and 2018. Caithness-based Lyth Arts Centre has received funding to deliver its 2017 cultural programme. YES Arts Festival 2017, 14-17 September 2017, has received funding towards its programme of contemporary arts events, exhibitions and installations designed to celebrate the distinctive character of Yarrow, Ettrick and Selkirk.

Dance

Farah Saleh
Edinburgh-based dancer and choreographer Farah Saleh has received funding to research and develop Gesturing Refugees, an interactive performance lecture 

Skye-based dance hub SkyeDance,has received funding to widen its provision and improve access to dance to groups including those with dementia, older people and those in hard to reach areas.

Sue Cooper, Chair, SkyeDance said: “SkyeDance is delighted to have received funding from Creative Scotland which will enable us to continue our provision of dance for all ages and abilities across Skye.”

Screen

Funding for Take One Action Film Festivals will go towards its 2017 10th-anniversary edition. Events will include the 10-day festival in Edinburgh and Glasgow, 13-24 September 2017, and regional weekend festivals in Aberdeen, 17-19 November 2017, and Inverness, 24-26 November 2017.

Cromarty and Resolis Film Society have received funding to support the 2017 and 2018 editions of the Cromarty Film Festival, 1-3 December 2017.

Literature

Edward Ross
Edward Ross

Writers including poet Chrys Salt MBE, writer and storyteller Ian Stephen and novelist Cherise Saywell have all received funding towards the research and development of new works. Writer and artist Alasdair Gray has received funding to create a new, fully illustrated version of Dante’s masterpiece, Divina Commedia.

Stirling-based Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival, 8-10 September 2017, has received funding towards its 2017 and 2018 programmes.

Comic Book creator Edward Ross has received funding to complete Gamish: A Graphic History of Gaming, a graphic non-fiction book that will explore the complex and increasingly important role that video games play in modern society.

Edward Ross said: “I’m absolutely honoured to receive funding from Creative Scotland for my next graphic novel, Gamish: A Graphic History of Gaming. The book will explore our fascination with video games, and the role they play in shaping the world we live in. Games are at crucial point in their history, finally regarded as an artform with huge potential to move and inspire us. My hope is that Gamish will help shine a light on this exciting artform, and give people more confidence to think critically about the games we play."

Music

Quiet As A Mouse
Quiet as a Mouse

A host of acts have been awarded funding to support the creation of new works including Edinburgh-based Indie-alternative rock band, Quiet as a Mouse, viola and accordion duo, Duo Van Vliet, Gaelic Singer Gillebride MacMillan,bass trombone and piano duo, The Nicolson Duo, piper Ross Ainslie and composer Kenny Inglis.

Elsewhere among the music awards, Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust has received funding to create The Maryhill Songbook.  This project will involve collecting and making accessible the local heritage of the Maryhill area. The trust will work in partnership with Maryhill Heritage Choir to compose music inspired by historic poems in the Trust’s collection which relate to Maryhill.

Theatre

Sylvia Dow
Sylvia Dow

Glasgow Repertory Company has received funding to stage These Headstrong Women as part of Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens’ 16th season of new productions of Shakespeare’s plays, Bard in the Botanics. This summer's productions will place female characters at the heart of their stories, including both figures written as women and others cross-gendered to be female.

Stage Designer Becky Minto has received an award made towards theatre to attend the World Stage Design Exhibition, 1-9 July 2017, where Minto's design for The 306:Dawn for The National Theatre of Scotland has been selected for exhibition. The Exhibition will take place at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts at the Taipei National University of the Arts in Taipei.

Playwright Sylvia Dow has received funding to support the development of her new work, STUFF, and theatre maker Ben Winger has received funding to support the research and development of Empty Pockets, a new theatre production for children with complex disabilities.

Visual Arts

Glasgow-based visual artist Georgia Horgan hasreceived funding to undertake a residency on the SOMA Summer programme. While visual artist Tessa Lynch‘s funding will enable her to develop and produce a new art work for a major solo exhibition, L-Shaped Room, at Spike Island, Bristol.

Funding to visual artist Kate V Robertson will support her research and development of ideas for a new body of artworks for a forthcoming solo exhibition at DCA, December 2017.  During the project, Robertson will undertake a residency at Scottish Sculpture Workshop and receive tuition at Glasgow Print Studio.

Iain Munro, Deputy CEO at Creative Scotland said: “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.”

“From the YES Arts Festival in the borders, Lyth Arts Centre in Caithness and Easdale Island’s Community Hall Programme to SkyeDance’s new programme that will improve access to dance across Skye, we are delighted to have been able to fund such a range of practice throughout Scotland through Open Project Funding.

“While, as always, there are many more good applications than we have the funds to support, these latest awards do provide invaluable support to the successful applicants and we look forward to seeing their work develop as a result.” 

Open Project Funding Awards April 2017

Details of 46 Open Project Funding awards made in April 2017.

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 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 (attached) 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 andwww.facebook.com/CreativeScotland

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