Published: 28 Nov 2023
Artists and creative practitioners across Scotland are being empowered to share theirs and Scotland’s stories with £820,994 of National Lottery funding through the latest round of Creative Scotland’s Open Fund awards.
DLÙ, photography by Somhairle MacDonald.
Providing people with the ability to use their voice and their words in a creative space has a huge impact on groups and communities in Scotland and beyond.
Head of Literature & Publishing at Creative Scotland, Alan Bett said: “Each of these recipients demonstrate how even small funding boosts like the Open Fund awards can make a big difference to writers and the communities that connect with their work on the page and in live settings. Hearing a variety of stories from different creatives across Scotland gives us representation and a reflection of ourselves, our society and our history.”
Power & Word: The Arbroath Town Writers Programme from Arbroath Festival is a new and ambitious 8-month cultural programme taking place in The New Scriptorium in Arbroath Abbey. Focusing on the power of literature and illustration in Arbroath and Angus from the 13th century, the varied programme is packed with content supporting writers with the time, space and resource to create new work. Including residencies, public workshops, community storytelling, events for young people, publishing and public gatherings of new writing and artistic work.
Also inspired by the past, Julie McNeill will shed new light on the lives of Paisley’s mill workers with her latest poetry collection.
Julie said: “Paisley’s mill tales deserve to be told and I’m excited to have the opportunity to give voice to the community, the mill workers and their families who shaped Paisley and the wider industrial world. I’ll be exploring social histories, family, economics, industry and its impact on this part of the world and beyond. I look forward to discovering the hidden stories, the personal and universal, and to chart the changes in the fabric of this community. I’m immensely grateful for the space and opportunity to write it and to chart this important part of our industrial and social history.”
Multilingual writer, scholar and educator, Esa Aldegheri’s travel-writing anthology, There She Goes, will give voice to 17 women writers of nonfiction commissioned to share their experiences of moving through the world in women’s bodies.
Esa Aldegheri, image credit: Samuel Dyer.
Editor Esa said: “There she goes will challenge and expand the canon of travel writing to include those ‘stories we never see’ – the tales so often shared verbally between women about travelling with grief and loss, with children, with the menopause, with periods, with joy and fear, with desire, with magic and humour, with bodies that are ill or disabled or seen as foreign and ‘other’. These stories are rarely recognised as part of ‘Real Travel Writing’. It is high time to change that.”
The collection will be published in March 2025.
Empowering children to hone their voice through song and composition, Indie Gaelic trad band, DLÙ, are combining the production of their second album with workshops designed to inspire the next generation of Traditional Music composers.
Zach Ronan, accordion player, composer & manager of DLÙ said: “Tha ‘The Open Fund’ air cothrom air leth a thoirt dhuinn airson ar ceòl a thoirt gu ìre phroifeiseanta. Ri linn an Open Fund, tha an cothrom air a bhith againn ùine a chosg air ar ceòl fhèin a leasachadh agus planaichean nas làidire a chur an gnìomh airson ar ceòl a' sgaoileadh. Le dùil beòshlaint a dhèanamh bhon chòmhlan agus obair làn-ùine a chur a-steach ann, tha seo deatamach. A bharrachd air seo, tha sinn cho toilichte an cothrom fhaighinn a dhol air ais dhan t-seann sgoil againn, Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu, airson bùithtean-obrach a' lìbhrigeadh don òigridh. Tha fìor deagh chuimhne againn air a bhith gabhail pàirt ann an diofar thachartasan ciùil nuair a bha sinn anns an sgoil, oir 's ann bhon leithid a thòisich Dlù. Mar sin, tha e uabhasach cudromach dhuinn na dh'ionnsaich sinn a thoirt air ais.”
*English: “The Open Fund has given Dlù an invaluable opportunity to grow as a band and take our music to the next level. It has allowed us to spend focused time purely on making music which has not only increased the quality of work but set us up for more professional release strategy. With the ambition of making this a full-time endeavour, this is exactly what was needed at this stage in our careers.
“We’re also delighted to be given the opportunity to work with young musicians at the Glasgow Gaelic School - our old school where the band was formed. Passing on what we’ve learned to the next generation is so important to us as we have extremely fond memories of taking part in all different types of musical activities in school which ultimately led to the formation of Dlù.”
The album will be launching 28 June 2024 at The Warehouse, SWG3 in Glasgow.
Further highlights from this latest round of awards include funding for:
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
Jacqueline.Munro@creativescotland.com+44 (0) 7967 822 266
