Time to Shine was launched by the Scottish Government in 2013 as Scotland's National Youth Arts Strategy (PDF). It set out a ten-year vision for youth arts in Scotland.

At Creative Scotland, the Time to Shine team work on:

• The National Youth Arts Advisory Group, which supports children and young people to be involved in and influence cultural decision making.
• The Nurturing Talent Fund, which supports children and young people with funding for their own creative projects and ideas.
  Please note: The Nurturing Talent Fund is currently closed. The fund will relaunch in 2022. We are working to ensure that the Nurturing Talent Fund supports young people looking to take their next steps in their creative development.
• UNCON, which celebrates and showcases work by and for children and young people.

In 2021, we worked with National Youth Arts Advisory Group members and organisations from across the children and young people’s arts sector on the following programme of work:

• UNCON 3.0, held online in January 2021: UNCON 3.0 (ttsuncon.com)
• The Youth Arts & Culture Recovery Jam hosted by National Youth Arts Advisory Group members in February 2021, with support from Young Scot
• The Nurturing Talent Fund, providing funding of up to £1,000 for children and young people aged 11-25 for their own creative ideas and projects.
• Nurturing Talent Fund: New Routes, a series of smaller scale approaches to funding children and young people who are under-represented in the Nurturing Talent Fund.
• A series of Time to Shine workshops, exploring how we improve how we work together with children, young people and the sector to influence youth arts strategy in Scotland.

We heard about how the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to have a big impact on the lives of children and young people. We also heard about some of the things that children, young people and the sector feel are important. This included:

• The impact of the closure of spaces and groups over the past year. This has made it more difficult to access equipment, resources and support.
• The impact of the pandemic on children and young people’s mental health.
• The need for dedicated funding support for children and young people.
• Being more inclusive of children and young people from all kinds of backgrounds.
• People felt that having dedicated spaces, in communities and online, where information and opportunities can be shared was important.

Time to Shine in 2022

In 2022 the Time to Shine team want to support children, young people and the youth arts sector to work together in the recovery from the pandemic and to influence youth arts strategy locally and nationally.

We’re inviting people to get involved in:

• National Youth Arts Advisory Group Forums, which will support children, young people and the youth arts sector to come together to share ideas, learning and skills.
• UNCON events, which will provide opportunities for children, young people and the sector to come together to share and celebrate work for and by children and young people.

We’ll be sharing the work from the Forums and UNCON events at our digital UNCON, which will take place in January 2023.

NYAAG Forums

In 2022 the Time to Shine programme will support locally led National Youth Arts Advisory Group (NYAAG) Forums, which will give more people a chance to be involved in this strand of work and to be heard on what is important to them.

A NYAAG Forum will provide support for groups to come together to share ideas, learning and skills. They should give people a chance to work together on new ideas and challenges. Each Forum will be different depending on who is involved, but it should contribute to at least one of the purposes of NYAAG:

• Spaces for listening to children, young people and the sector on what is important to them
• Opportunities for children, young people and the sector to work together on shared ideas or challenges
• Opportunities for children, young people and the sector to be involved in cultural decision making.

NYAAG Forums can take any format that works best for who will be involved, but these are the principles we will use to help us to make decisions:

• Children and young people can influence and lead in the planning and delivery of the Forum.
• Forums provide opportunities to listen to children, young people and organisations who are not being heard within youth arts strategy.
• Forums bring together groups of children, young people and partners to work together to decide what to share from the event.

The Time to Shine team at Creative Scotland will work with current members of the National Youth Arts Advisory Group to make decisions. We will also be visiting any Forums that we can to meet groups and hear from you all.

We’ll be working with groups hosting NYAAG Forum activity to share learning from their events as part of UNCON 4.0, which will be held online in January 2023.

UNCON

UNCON is an event designed to showcase and celebrate work by and for children and young people in Scotland. Since 2016, it has been held every two years. Previous UNCON programmes have included opportunities for showcasing work, discussions, activism, and skills sharing for children, young people and the sector.

UNCON 3.0 was held online in January 2021. You can see more about this event at ttsuncon.com

A complete list of resources relating to the delivery of Time to Shine to-date, including the original strategy document, can be viewed on the Time to Shine Resources pages.

Latest Stories from Time to Shine