Published: 25 Oct 2023
From the Highlands to the Borders, an impressive range of creative and cultural opportunities have received £734,873 of National Lottery funding through the latest round of Creative Scotland’s Open Fund awards.
JoJo Gnome. Photography by Martin Shields.
In the latest Creative Scotland Open Fund awards, phone boxes and folk tales demonstrate the vast array of creative activity supported by The National Lottery in the heart of communities across Scotland.
Dundee-based visual artists Lada Wilson and Paola McClure are taking the famous 201 Telephone Box Gallery and new O...range exhibition from Dundee to Valencia, celebrating the cities’ shared connection of oranges. Orange marmalade having been famously made in Dundee and oranges as a fruit that is plentiful in Valencia. Invited by Fantastik Lab, they hope to establish future cultural connection and exchange between Dundee and Valencia.
O...range. Photography by Alan Richardson.
Lada explains the importance of the funding to her work and its audiences: “Having a project in such a vibrant city and working with the Fantastik Lab team has widened my network, helped forge so many connections and given me the opportunity to invite members of the local community to see and talk about contemporary art.”
Demonstrating the power of storytelling, Queer Folks’ Tales are expanding their popular bi-monthly live show from the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh to Aberdeen, Glasgow and Inverness. The mix of true and fictional stories are as varied as the range of Scottish-based speakers, including writers, poets, comedians, singer-songwriters, theatre-makers and queer celebrities.
Host and Producer, Turan Ali, said: "Getting Open Fund support for Queer Folks' Tales means we can bring these community-building events to LGBTQ+ and mainstream audiences for another year and stage them outside Edinburgh, continuing to share true stories of queer Scottish lives with wider society. We build understanding between communities by sharing our stories, and queers are great storytellers, as our audiences tell us the show is 'life-affirming, funny and bittersweet.”
Shows are available in Edinburgh from December and elsewhere in Scotland from January to July 2024.
In music, Highlands-based band, The Outside Track is hitting the road in a 12-date Christmas tour of Germany in December. Winners of ‘Best Group’ in both the Live Ireland awards, Tradition In Review awards and of the German Radio Critics Prize for their album Flash Company, The Outside Track are driving the momentum of success into their new tour.
The eclectic female quartet is looking forward to a warm reception from their growing fanbase and venue promoters, as well as establishing new connections to bring their fusion of Celtic music from Scotland, Ireland and Cape Breton to more ears. The tour has been designed with accessibility at the forefront, both for audiences and the band, to ensure their unique music blend is available for everyone.
The Outside Track. Photography by Trent Freeman.
Band member, Ailie Robertson, said: "Germany is a really important market for Traditional music so it's great for us to be able to tour and build audiences there. The funding will allow us to broaden our audience reach with powerful marketing, and also importantly allows us to tour in a way that has accessibility at its heart."
At the opposite end of Scotland in the Scottish Borders, Esther Swift is releasing her debut album alongside a series of music videos and the development of a live show, drawing on themes of womanhood, metamorphoses and nature. Recordings include collaborations with Vulva Voce, an all-female genre-defying string quartet, and visuals with Oana Stanciu, one of Edinburgh’s leading visual artists.
Image courtesy of Esther Swift.
Esther said: “This funding will allow me to work with some of my favourite female artists and musicians here in Edinburgh and develop an original way for people to experience my music. This project gives me the opportunity to continue developing my skills as a producer, collaborator and composer, as well as giving me a tool to take my touring act to bigger and more diverse places.”
The album will be launching in Queens Hall, Edinburgh on the 14 June 2024, with the first single being released at the end of January.
Another recipient making story-telling more accessible is Jo Hall, an experienced writer (former Cbeebies) and workshop leader, empowering children aged 4 – 7 across Scotland with creative story-making workshops. JoJo Gnome Eco Superhero workshops bring the magic of storytelling to children who typically may not receive as many creative opportunities, allowing them to learn about and engage with the environment they live in.
Including Additional Support Needs (ASN) schools, children taking part will work with Jo to come up with a new character and make BSL-signed short films introducing the character.
Looking forward to starting the workshops in November, Jo said: “I think young people and their families will be able to engage with JoJo Gnome as he learns about taking care of the world around him. The money from The National Lottery allows me to work with children in areas I wouldn’t be able to visit otherwise. It also gives me the time to work with teachers in Additional Support Needs schools, that allows me to become a better storyteller for different types of audiences.”
Using local inspiration from Aberdeen in her storytelling, author Emily Utter is writing a novel called The Night Room which was shortlisted for the Women's Prize Trust/Curtis Brown/Audible 'Discoveries Prize' in May 2023. Emily based the novel on her experience as a writer-in-residence at Aberdeen’s specialist palliative care hospital, Roxburghe House, helping people to write their life stories.
“The story is about two people who fall in love at the end of their lives whilst attending a day unit programme at a progressive palliative care hospital,” Emily explains, “this isn’t simply a ‘love’ story – rather, it is a ‘life’ story that explores the notion of a ‘good death’ against the backdrop of a new late-in-life romance.”
Explaining how the funding has helped her realise her work, Emily said: “I started writing The Night Room for the Discoveries Prize and was delighted to be longlisted and then shortlisted this past May. The Prize injected a real feeling of timeliness into my writing process, and I wanted to take advantage of the attention and momentum so I could finish the novel as quickly as possible. The funding from Creative Scotland will allow me to do this because I usually work 3-4 jobs at a time, but with the funding will be able to support myself financially and focus my attention on writing.”
Commenting on the vast range of awards spanning the length and breadth of Scotland, Interim Head of Arts at Creative Scotland, Paul Burns, said: “The variety of activity funded through the Open Fund, thanks to The National Lottery players, is testament to the talent and creativity of people across Scotland. This month’s awards not only include projects reaching people in all parts of the country, but also some that spread even further, taking Scottish talent and Scottish stories to audiences throughout Europe.”
Creative Scotland’s Open Fund
The National Lottery has raised more than £41 billion for more than 565,000 good causes across the UK since 1994. Thanks to The National Lottery players, up to £600 million has been made available to support people, projects and communities throughout the UK during the Coronavirus crisis.
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland distributing funding provided by the Scottish Government and The National Lottery. Further information at creativescotland.com. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Learn more about the value of art and creativity in Scotland and join in at www.ourcreativevoice.scot
Jacqueline Munro, Media Relations & PR Coordinator
E: Jacqueline.Munro@creativescotland.com
M: +44 (0) 7967 822 266
