Published: 01 Mar 2018
Creative community projects across Scotland have received funding from National Lottery Awards for All Scotland, supported by Creative Scotland.
Grants of between £300 and £10,000 are awarded to community, arts and sports groups on behalf of Big Lottery Fund, Creative Scotland and sportscotland. A total of £1,116,821 of grants were announced in the most recent awards published by Big Lottery Fund this week.
We are delighted that Awards for All continues to benefit communities across Scotland. The range of supported projects further demonstrates the creativity of our communities and the important role of arts and culture in bringing people together.- Gary Cameron, Head of Place
Some of the creative projects to be supported include:
Syn Festival Edinburgh, which has received funding to deliver its 2018 Festival programme. Under the theme “Odysseys”, it aspires to introduce a creative dialogue festival on diversity, multiculturalism and symbiosis. A wide range of events will be hosted, including a multi-arts exhibition, music & theatre performances and short films screening, and more than 100 emerging and established artists, filmmakers, performers, musicians will have the opportunity to present their work to a larger audience, as admission to all events is free.
Events will be held between 8 -16 March at Teviot Row House, Adam House and George Square Lecture Theatre, with an art exhibition at the Upper Church, Summerhall from the 9 - 22 March.
ice&fire theatre is dedicated to exploring human rights concerns through performance. With Awards for All funding they will produce Detention Dialogues - a documentary script which will reflect the experiences of people who have been through the immigration detention system in Scotland.
Working in collaboration with Scottish Detainee Visitors, and their Life After Detention support group, we will establish relationships with men and women associated with the group, and conduct ten in-depth 'life history' interviews, which lead to the current point and will explore how immigration detention has affected and shaped their lives here. From edited transcripts of these interviews we will create a new piece of documentary theatre. These first hand accounts will address a very pertinent subject in an immediate and powerful way, providing an opening for discussion and debate in the community and elsewhere.
ice&fire's Steven Ritchie said: "We have witnessed the often cathartic experiences that participants have had attending our performances. When considering how alienated and isolated people who have been in detention can feel - the effect of having their stories told by actors and appreciated by audiences who are often moved to tears is not to be underestimated."
Dirliebane Theatre Company will present SPACE, a clown theatre performance for children aged 9-12 about making mistakes, picking yourself back up and going somewhere new. It will be developed with Primary 7 pupils in partner schools and performed in schools and venues across Edinburgh, Fife, Perth & Kinross and Easterhouse.
It is the first show created by Dirliebane Theatre Company building on the success of their project BIG which toured nurseries and venues in 2016, based around moving from nursery to primary school. A member of staff at one participating nursery said: “I’ve worked in this nursery for nine years and I’ve never seen the children so engaged for so long".
The creative projects supported include:
Gary Cameron, Head of Place, Partnerships and Communities at Creative Scotland, said: "We are delighted that our partnership with the Big Lottery Fund and sportscotland on Awards for All continues to benefit communities across Scotland. The range of supported projects announced this week further demonstrates the creativity of our communities and the important role of arts and culture in bringing people together."
A National Lottery Awards for All spokesperson said: “This is National Lottery money in action, reaching into communities across Scotland making a real difference to the people who live there. The groups receiving funding showcase the range of projects that can be funded through this programme and the difference that the smallest amounts of money can make.”
National Lottery Awards for All Scotland is now more straightforward to apply to and faster to get funding from. Applications are received on a rolling basis and can be received at any time. To find out what National Lottery Awards for All Scotland could do for your community visit the Big Lottery Fund website or phone 0300 123 7110.