Fifteen arts organisations supported to LEARN

Fifteen of Scotland’s leading arts organisations have been awarded funding to develop their education activity through the Scottish Arts Council’s LEARN Fund.

LEARN is a new £300,000 National Lottery fund designed to assist arts organisations to plan and deliver high quality education work. The fund has been developed from evidence gathered by the Scottish Arts Council in 2007 into the education provision of our Foundation funded organisations.

The successful projects include research, training for artists and staff, testing of new models of practice and producing new resources for learning.  These awards will produce a legacy of national models of best practice and learning.

Scottish Arts Council Chief Executive Jim Tough commented

“High quality arts education can inspire a lifelong passion for the arts. It develops confidence, helps with communication skills, it nurtures skills and talents and provides a framework for experiential learning that is accessible and effective. This fund will support arts organisations to develop their expertise and capacity to offer quality experiences that will engage and enthuse learners of all ages throughout Scotland.”

The LEARN Fund supports the Scottish Arts Council’s aims of placing the arts, culture and creativity at the heart of learning and increasing participation in the arts. The successful projects are:

Catherine Wheels Theatre Company £30,000 for ‘Second Stage’, a project to develop an education strategy for engagement with secondary schools in Scotland. Exploring ways in which theatre can be used to stimulate and illuminate Curriculum for Excellence, expanding beyond a drama based workshop into creative writing, expressive visual arts and other curriculum areas.

Scottish Book Trust £30,000 for a year long online ‘Teacher in Residence’ project forming the centre of an accessible web resource for educators, providing teaching resources, best practice examples, CPD and peer support.

Scottish Youth Dance (YDance) £30,000 towards the ‘Aim Higher’ programme, Y Dance’s capacity to assist schools to deliver Higher Dance and to encourage more students in Scotland to take the subject at Higher Grade.  Aim Higher will work on three levels: directly delivering the Higher Dance syllabus in schools, development work with S3 and S4 pupils and in service training for teachers.

Artlink Edinburgh and Lothians £28,530 for an ‘art in a social context’ development for carers and relatives of people with complex learning disabilities. Artlink aims to create an environment for this group to work with international curator Mary Jane Jacob, exploring ways in which a creative voice can address or highlight concerns

Drake Music Scotland £27,500 towards the creation of a training programme with supporting interactive resources to enable class teachers to use the latest music technology to deliver inclusive music making for those with additional needs.

Scottish Storytelling Forum £27,500 for a national programme, ‘STORYRICH’ to support probationer and first year teachers with creative skills for narrative teaching and learning.  The project includes taster sessions at teacher training institutions, workshops for probationers and early-in-post teachers and mentoring.

Dundee Rep Theatre £28,739 to create and evaluate a unique training and skills development programme involving artistic, technical and marketing staff. The project will include training for staff and work experience and work shadowing opportunities for young people.

Glasgow International (Culture and Sport Glasgow) £24,637 for a new project to develop the Gi – The Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Art as a unique learning resource working across the city.

Pier Arts Centre (Orkney) £18,375 towards costs of developing the Pier Arts Centre as a centre for research and learning, promoting the potential of the facilities as a visual arts resource to local and national partners.

The Edinburgh Mela Ltd. £17,880 towards the appointment of an Engage Development Officer to develop a strategy and sustainable framework for culturally diverse arts learning activity.

Platform @ the Bridge (Great Easterhouse Arts Company) £13,425 to develop a learning plan which links to curricula based activity in both formal and informal settings centred around developments in Glasgow East and working with local partners.

Birds of Paradise Theatre Company £10,000 for a training project to equip the Company’s disabled and non-disabled workshop leaders to consolidate their knowledge and skills as well as training less experienced disabled arts practitioners to a level where they can work for Birds of Paradise, as well as other companies engaged in education and outreach work, on a regular basis.

Indepen-dance (Glasgow) £10,000 towards ‘Education Matters’, a project developing education strategy through researching and engaging with other arts organisations

Dance House (Glasgow) £9,000 towards review / research for developing future education strategy.

Dance Base (Edinburgh) £6,945 to provide training to support dance teachers to work with disadvantaged and disabled children.  The training package will draw on the experts in behavioral difficulties, signing, moving and handling and disability awareness. 

Notes to editors

1. The Scottish Arts Council is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) which was established by Royal Charter in 1994 and is also a Lottery distributor. The organisation serves the people of Scotland by fostering arts of excellence through investment, development, research and advocacy. Our corporate aims are: to support artists to fulfil their creative and business potential; to increase participation in the arts; and to place the arts, culture and creativity at the heart of learning. We invest £60m each year, including £15 million of National Lottery funding. For more information visit: www.scottisharts.org.uk

Contact email(s)

media.office@scottisharts.org.uk

Issued by: Scottish Arts Council