Impact Arts

With the Fringe Festival fast approaching, a group of enterprising young people from Edinburgh have seized on the opportunity to provide theatrical costumes and sets to city’s production companies.

The group of young people aged 16-19 have come together through Impact Arts’ Creative Pathways programme, a 16 week employability programme with creativity at its heart. Learning the skills needed to help them embark upon a career in the creative industries, young people have been taught what it takes to be successful in costume design and set design disciplines. Now they are offering these skills just in time for Edinburgh to come alive for its most famous annual festival.

Lisa Edwards, Programme Manager for Impact Arts said:

“Before joining Creative Pathways none of the young people were in employment, education or training, and they’ve been working extremely hard in the workshop. By offering a commissions service, young people are able to gain practical experience of working to a client’s specifications. Creative Pathways is centred round helping young people build up both creative and soft skills which are transferrable into the workplace.

“We’ve got an amazing group of young people, each of them imaginative and hardworking, ready to take on the most random of commissions – they’ve already got a living room and some pirate costumes under their belts amongst other things!”

Impact Arts offers the service each year, and last year clients included New Town Theatre, Jabuti Theatre Company, Portobello Youth Theatre, Sault and Sauce Productions and a host of individual performers.