Published: 30 Jan 2017
36 Open Project Funding awards of between
£1,250 and £125,000 made in December 2016
Creative Scotland has awarded over £800,000 through the Open Project Fund in December 2016 to 36 recipients, including individual artists, musicians, dancers, writers, community arts hubs, festivals and organisations working across the arts, screen and creative industries. Over £750,000 of these awards are supported through National Lottery Funding.
Funding towards the Look Again Festival in Aberdeen will support the next edition of this showcase for contemporary art and design, enabling it to consolidate its position as a significant event in the cultural calendar of the city.
Support towards Ullapool’s An Talla Solais will include a participatory art project and group exhibition exploring artists’ responses to climate change and a formal professional development programme for artists, staff and volunteers within the local community.
The Scottish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN) will produce a second edition of their Curatorial Studio project - a framework for peer to peer learning for emerging curators.
The contribution that artist run initiatives make to the visual arts in Scotland is significant and valued by professionals working across the sector. Funding from the most recent round of awards will enable the continued development of two artist-run spaces in Edinburgh - The Number Shop and Rhubaba Gallery and Studios. Both initiatives provide artists with essential space for the development and making of work alongside a regular and dynamic programme of public exhibitions, talks, and other events.
“The quality, ambition, reach, and diversity of the visual arts in Scotland is reflected in the most recent awards made through the Open Project Fund which will support a range of opportunities for artists and curators to research and develop their work and to reach new audiences."- Amanda Catto, Head of Visual Arts at Creative Scotland
A number of artists, at different stages in their career, have been supported to develop their work within a range of contexts, and through different forms of creative collaboration. The artist Aileen M Stackhouse will undertake extensive research into the River Ericht in rural Perthshire in order to inform future work. Holly Keasey will take part in a three month residency at the Art Institute of Santa Fe exploring laws regulating water and the idea of ‘water rights’. Rob Churm will establish a series of creative collaborations to develop his skills in drawing, animation, performance and film-making. Marissa Stoffer will take part in a four-week residency in Finland in order to develop a new body of work.
Luke Fowler will develop new work for presentation within a series of national and international festivals, including the Geometry of Now Festival in Moscow and the Tektonics Festival in Glasgow; and Anneli Holmstrom will produce her first solo exhibition in Scotland at Edinburgh’s Summerhall, developing video and installation works that will explore ideas of presence and absence.
Amanda Catto, Head of Visual Arts at Creative Scotland said: “The quality, ambition, reach, and diversity of the visual arts in Scotland is reflected in the most recent awards made through the Open Project Fund which will support a range of opportunities for artists and curators to research and develop their work and to reach new audiences.
“There are many more good applications than we have the funds to support and we will continue to work hard to address this. In the meantime, these latest awards will provide invaluable support to the successful applicants and we look forward to seeing their work develop as a result.”
Among the awards made towards music is Scotland’s festival of new music, the north-east based soundfestival (26 Oct–11 Nov 2017). The funding will contribute to the development of this year’s programme which will showcase new commissions and sonic adventures from Scotland and around the world from electroacoustic to contemporary classical, sound art to jazz experimental, cross-art form and folk.
Traditional Music & Song Association of Scotland (TMSA) has received funding to deliver The TMSA Young Trad Tour 2016. The finalists of the 2016 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year Competitions will be offered recording and touring opportunities guided by top professionals, to collectively give workshops and performances to audiences in their home communities.
Glasgow-based electro future-pop band, Bdy_Prts, international ensemble La Banda Europa and pianist, singer and composer David Paul Jones have all received funding towards the recording new work.
Bdy_Prts said: “As Bdy_Prts, we're excited to be getting this chance to release our first record. We're incredibly proud of the music we've made and we're keen now to let others hear it. We're also excited to further explore the visual aesthetic of our live performance."
In Literature, Edinburgh-based Black & White Publishing has received funding to expand the company by developing a dedicated Young Adult imprint, specialising in producing fiction for 12-18 year olds.
Ullapool Book Festival (5-7 May 2017) and Skye Book Festival (31August- 2 September 2017) have received funding towards this year’s programmes. While writer Jenni Fagan has received funding towards her latest novel The Small Clam & The Anvil.
Campbell Brown, Managing Director at Black & White Publishing said:“We're hugely excited to be starting our new Young Adult imprint and delighted to have support from Creative Scotland. The best way to get young people reading is to publish books that resonate with them, capture their interest and imagination and which they can't put down. That's our aim with every book we'll be publishing in the new imprint and we hope this will make a very positive contribution towards getting young people reading more."
In a multi-artform award, charity, Sense Scotland has received funding to deliver a year-long programme at their new Sense Scotland resource centre base, TouchBase Lanarkshire. Sense Scotland work with children, young people and adults who have communication support needs and multiple disabilities and use arts as a way of supporting a range of skills including communication, social interaction and decision making as well as providing arts activities and development, exhibition and performance opportunities to disabled artists and those who wish to further explore their creativity.
Edinburgh-based Theatre Objektiv has received an award to enable them to stage On the Radical Road: Enacting Hamish Henderson,a theatre production built solely from the poetry and songs of Hamish Henderson (1919-2002). Theatre-maker, Clare Duffy has received funding to support The Big Data Show, an interactive digital production connecting audiences - through their own phones - with their identity as digital citizens.
Raymond Raszkowski Ross, Artistic Director, Theatre Objektiv said: "On the Radical Road is a radical theatrical fusion enacting the poems and songs of Hamish Henderson. Aisual, choral, lyrical and declamatory, personal and political, the piece will take us on a journey through Highland, Lowland and industrial landscapes into the challenging theatres of war in the Desert Campaign and the Invasion and Liberation of Sicily and Italy. It will tell of the consequent struggles for a new self-knowledge and cultural alignment in a modern-day Scotland and Europe and offer a fresh and vital perspective on who we are, where we came from and how we might move forward.” Starring Alastair McDonald with Corinne Harris, Isabella Jarrett and Gavin Paul.
In Dance, production company Open Road have received funding to support Angel - a project led by dancer and writer Michael Sherin which fuses dance, live music and creative writing.
Dancer Karl Jay-Lewin has received funding to collaborate with composer Matteo Fargion on a new contemporary dance performance Extremely Pedestrian Chorales,taking inspiration from the harmonies of Johann Sebastian Bach's Chorales.
Lesley Anne Rose, Director at Open Road said:“Angel will be told with humour, wit, pointe shoes and sensitivity, revealing truths about loneliness, loss and the inability to love. The narrative is inspired by Michael’s own experiences as a young man and we are delighted to have received funding support from Creative Scotland. This support will enable us to work with The Workroom, Imaginate and the wider creative team to shape the artistic vision and potential of this exciting project.”
In an award made to Screen, animation and visual effects studio Interference Pattern has received funding to create Move Summit, an event which aims to bring together animation professionals and students, to discuss, connect and share their love of commercial animation. Interference Pattern hopes that this event will foster an environment where work can be shared and celebrated; new connections and collaborations forged; and emerging talent found and nurtured.
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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