£3 million Inspires more to take part in the arts

The Scottish Arts Council has today awarded more than £3 million of National Lottery funds towards inspiring ‘more, better and wider’ participation in the arts

Characterised by fresh, inventive and unique presentations, performances or partnerships, these eleven Inspire projects offer pioneering opportunities to experience the arts, which will leave lasting legacies on the communities involved.

From lace-inspired light shows in the Shetlands, to free-running in Glasgow, alongside seasons of dance staged on Highland waters, or an ambitious online digital project blending social networking with debate and discussion about creativity, as well as a project bringing trades and art together, these awards represent a significant investment in promoting the benefits of arts experiences on diverse communities across Scotland.

Using a mixture of traditional artforms and new technologies, Inspire projects focus on highly original and collaborative programmes which create or commission high quality arts and work with participants to spark their creativity and enthusiasm for the arts. Artists in a range of disciplines will also be supported to create new work.

Iain Munro, Co-Director of Arts, Scottish Arts Council congratulated the successful projects and added:

‘We are thrilled to support such wide ranging, far reaching and high quality projects. The imagination involved in them is testament to the fertile arts sector that exists in Scotland today.  Each of these unique projects will contribute a distinctive programme for long-lasting participation in the arts for those who take part, stirring their creative imaginations for years to come.’

Minister for Culture Michael Russell said:  “Widening access, as I said last week at The Traverse, is vital. These innovative projects will open the doors to the arts for many people in communities across Scotland. I am particularly excited about the use of technology in many of these projects and the potential to reach new audiences and inspire new generations to be creative.”

Each project was awarded development funding in July 2008 to turn their initial idea into a full project proposal.

Launched in 2008, the Scottish Arts Council’s Inspire Fund encourages long-lasting links between people, places and creative ideas to provide more, wider, better participation in the arts.

• More – increasing the number and range of people enjoying and taking part in the arts, particularly arts activity for and by children and young people
• Wider – making the arts available to those who have had little opportunity to participate in the past; ensuring a fair geographic spread of activities; and supporting projects across artforms and technologies,
• Better – increasing further the quality of arts activities by supporting creative, ambitious projects.  

The eleven Inspire projects are:

1. macrobert (Stirling): young people aged between 12 and 17 years old will work with national and international artists in film, music and other artforms to plan and programme their own festival; commissioning new work, as well as learning from the ‘backstage’ technicians who create spectacular special effects. As part of the development process, the young people involved have identified a famous film director they wish to approach as patron. Inspire award: £712,500; total project cost £1.1 million.
2. Eden Court (Inverness / Highland): a large scale project to galvanise communities in the Highlands to experience for themselves dancing in its myriad forms and styles, culminating in a season of dance, staged on and inspired by water within the spectacular landscapes of the area. The project will work across generations and in four distinctive Highland communities: Dornie within Skye and Lochalsh,  Loch Morlich within Badenoch and Strathspey ; Neptunes Staircase, Fort William within Lochaber and Lybster Harbour within Caithness. Inspire award: £475,000; total project cost £631,750.
   
3. Puppet Animation Festival (nationwide): in partnership with The Puppet Lab, Big Man Walking is a 25ft puppet who will stride through Scotland to unlock our stories of mythology and provoke celebrations in the communities he visits.  Equipped with an on-board camera, the Big Man Walking’s online journal will provide a glimpse of a different Scotland…a country re-imagined by the nation’s puppeteers. Inspire award: £450,000; total project cost £612,243
   
4. Imaginate (nationwide): building on Scotland’s global reputation for excellence in the performing arts for children, the Starcatchers project will introduce very young children, aged 0 – four years-old to work which engages and inspires them. In partnership with a number of local authorities across Scotland, the Starcatchers project will develop the skills of artists through a series of residencies. Inspire award: £442,541; total project cost £590,336.
   
5. Arts Extreme (Aberdeen): a partnership between Aberdeen City Council and Transition Extreme Ltd to introduce a team of Creative Catalysts to young people and communities throughout Aberdeen.  Led by the Creative Catalysts, the shared experience of participating in extreme sports such as climbing or skateboarding will provide the stimulus for creating participatory arts activities and a large-scale, site specific spectacle.  Inspire award: £225,000; total project cost £300,000.
   
6. ISO Organisation (nationwide): an ambitious online digital project blending social networking with debate and discussion about creativity, artists and their work. Central Station (working title) fuses visual art with design and experimental film-making. As well as the online portal, it features live events, provides mentoring and offers creative opportunities through briefings and awards. Central Station’s partners include Channel 4’s 4IP initiative, Scottish Screen, Tate Media, British Council and Glasgow School of Art amongst others. Inspire award: £200,000; total project cost £800,000.
   
7. Shetland Arts Development Agency (Shetland): Mirrie Dancers* will fuse the 21st century art of light work with the traditional craft of Shetland Lace knitting through experimental lace and light laboratories. It will bring people together from all over Shetland to create a series of temporary illuminations that will form a festival of light across the islands throughout winter 2009-10. These works will form a permanent legacy of the project by relocating to create a landmark at Mareel, Shetland’s new cinema and music venue. *Mirrie Dancers is Shetland dialect for the Aurora Borealis. Inspire award: £165,000; total project cost £338,433.
   
8. Ankur Arts (Glasgow): inspired by graphic novels and computer gaming, the project will combine free-running and parkour, alongside drama, film and animation, urban music and chase sequences to develop a performance and installation. The project will work with young people from the South Asian communities across the city of Glasgow. Inspire award: £158,828; total project cost £211,828.
   
9. Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art (Dundee): Nine Trades of Dundee is a project engaging those who would not normally participate in the arts by bringing trade and art together. Nine Trades of Dundee will commission nine artists to work with trades people in their work places across the city to collaborate on new work. Each selected artist will share the same trade skills as the group they work with. The project also offers nine apprenticeships to students from the art college as artist assistants. Inspire award: £112,500; total project cost £197,726.
   
10. The Fruitmarket Gallery (Skye / Edinburgh): a Gaelic language project, bringing together schoolchildren in Skye and Edinburgh to share their experiences of their language, culture and environment using the medium of drawing and other artforms, culminating in exhibitions of the young people’s work in the world-class The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh and Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Skye’s Gaelic college. Children across Scotland will be able to follow the progress of the project using the schools-wide intranet, Glow. Inspire award: £96,000; total project cost £194,395.
    
11. Drake Music Scotland (nationwide): Using Figurenotes©, the revolutionary music notation system developed in Finland, this national project aims to transform access to music education and performance for people of all ages and abilities, including those with learning disabilities.  The system uses colour and shape to convey the same musical information as conventional music notation and can be used by children and adults alike to read music, play an instrument and compose.  Through the creation of music notation software and online resources, the project will take Figurenotes into the digital domain. Inspire award: £62,757; total project cost £125,762.
    

Notes to editors

1. Contacts for each of the successful projects are available from the Scottish Arts Council media office.
   
2. A full schedule of each project’s milestones is currently in development for future media planning.
   
3. Inspire projects reflect communities or groups that, in line with our Taking Part research, have had few opportunities to participate in the arts.
   
4. For further details on the Inspire fund, see: http://www.scottisharts.org.uk/inspire
   
5. 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.

Contact email(s)

media.office@scottisharts.org.uk

Issued by: Scottish Arts Council