News

Our Cashback to the Future programme in Ayrshire came to a spectacular end on Friday evening
at Irvine’s Scottish Maritime Museum!

A group of young people proudly showcased all they had achieved over the past four weeks in a series of live musical performances, film premieres and art exhibitions.

This marked the end of Cashback to the Future, which has offered free workshops to 14-19 year olds since the beginning of July. It was funded by the Scottish Government’s Cashback for Communities initiative.

Upon entering the stunning industrial venue, the audience
was greeted with striking artworks the young people had been working on since
the beginning of July, including paintings, drawings, photographs and printed
textiles.

Musical performances followed, including a mixture of covers
and original compositions involving drum solos, rapping and skilful piano
pieces.

The evening ended with the premiere of three short films the
group have been working on since the beginning of the school holidays. These
had comedic elements, drawing huge laughs from the audience, while other areas
were more thoughtful and touched on issues such as loneliness and teenagers’
mental health.

The programme has given the young
people the chance to work closely with high-calibre professional artists,
including filmmaker Douglas King, performer Rachel Rostock, visual artist Laura
Frood and musicians Finn LeMarinel and Anna Sweeney.

It was specifically aimed
at young people who may not normally have access to similar full-time creative
programmes.

Participants were referred from a number of support
agencies, including local community centres, social care charities and the
NHS’s child and adolescent mental health support teams.

Aileen Lynn, co-ordinator of the programme for Impact Arts
in Ayrshire, said it was a fitting end to the summer workshops.

“It was a fantastic end to the programme and showed just
how far the young people have come in a short space of time.

“At the beginning of the programme, it would have been
unimaginable for some of these participants to have performed in front of an
audience. Tonight, they have done so while showing great talent and exhibiting
some very personal material.

“Giving this opportunity to those who may not ordinarily
have had access to such programmes has been a hugely positive way of
channelling money seized from crime.

“The confidence and sense of achievement the young people have gained will be truly invaluable.”

The Cashback to the Future programme is funded by Cashback
for Communities for the summers of 2018 and 2019 as well.

Impact Arts are one of 17 Scottish organisations benefiting
from the initiative, which has a strong focus on tackling Scotland’s
inequalities through youth work.

You can find a lot more of what has been going on this summer as part of Cashback to the Future on our dedicated Cashback Blog. For more about the work Impact Arts does with young people please this section of our website.