News

Young People are Given the Chance
to Shine in Ayrshire with £399,000 Funding from Creative Scotland

Impact Arts will work in partnership with Ayr
Gaiety Partnership and several other youth and arts providers to deliver the
Youth Arts Hub for Ayrshire through Ayrshine. Ayrshine is a youth-led arts initiative connecting artists, young
people, public organisations and the voluntary sector across Ayrshire. Its key elements include Ayrshine TV, new and
existing events, a youth arts circuit and innovation projects. The main focus for Ayrshine activities is to
support and extend youth arts activity outside formal schooling and education.

Youth Arts Hub partners for this area include URTV,
North, South and East Ayrshire Councils, University of the West of Scotland and
Ayrshire College.

Lynne Carr, Chief Executive Impact Arts said:

“We’re so happy to be one of the lead partners in
this initiative. We’ve had a presence in the Ayrshire region for nearly 10
years and in that time we’ve worked with hundreds of young people. This joined
up approach with key partners is going to ensure that we can enable hundreds
more to change their lives through the arts.”

Jeremy Wyatt, Executive Director, Ayr Gaiety
Partnership said:

“We are delighted that Creative Scotland have
decided to back the Ayrshire partnership. There are already productive new relationships forming and I expect the
funding to be a catalyst for many more. Our first step will be setting up the youth panel to lead on the key
decisions going forward.”

Leonie Bell, Director of Arts & Engagement,
Creative Scotland, said:

“Through making connections and developing new
projects these Hubs will enable more children and young people to take part in
creative activities close to where they live.

“These Hubs will not only create opportunities for
young people to shine and express themselves creatively; but also by placing
them at the heart of the creation and delivery of the new work, the young
people will develop skills and expertise which will be invaluable to their
futures.”

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Sectary for Culture
Secretary, said:

“The Scottish Government is committed to supporting
all of Scotland’s children and young people to flourish and achieve in the
arts, and to make Scotland an international leader for creativity for children
and young people. The Youth Arts Hubs
will build on the well-established links between culture, education, youth
employment and personal development, and will help us to deliver a step change
in our youth arts provision in Scotland.”

-Ends-

Notes to
Editors:

Time to Shine: The Hubs are a key element of Scotland’s National Youth
Arts Strategy, Time to Shine. The strategy sets out a vision and key
recommendations to enable Scotland’s children and young people to flourish and
achieve, in and through the arts and creativity. For further information please see:
creativescotland.com/time-to-shine

The £3.1m announced today is part of £5m funding awarded to Creative
Scotland from Scottish Governments Young Scots Fund over the next two years to
support initiatives based on key objectives of Time to Shine, Scotland National
Youth Arts Strategy.

The Young Scots Fund was a significant initiative launched in the
2012-13 budget worth £50m that would invest over the following four years in
emerging young talent in sport, enterprise and creativity. This investment in
our young people is an investment in a better future for Scotland. It will range
across a number of projects. It will provide opportunities for developing,
encouraging and building talent, for Young Scots to excel and realise their
potential as our future entrepreneurs, creative practitioners and sports
champions.

Creative Scotland is the national organisation that funds and supports
the development of Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries. Creative Scotland has four objectives: to
develop and sustain a thriving environment for the arts, screen and creative
industries; to support excellence in artistic and creative practice; to improve
access to and participation in, arts and creative activity; and to deliver our
services efficiently and effectively. For further information on Creative
Scotland please visit www.creativescotland.com. Follow us @creativescots and
facebook.com/CreativeScotland

Impact Arts

At Impact Arts we believe that
everyone can be creative so we use the arts to help people make positive
lasting change in their lives, whether they are 3 or 93 years old. Across our
flagship programmes, we work with young people to help them increase their
future life prospects, and older people to prevent isolation and loneliness and
encourage social inclusion. Established in 1994 from our base in Glasgow we now
operate across Scotland. www.impactarts.co.uk contact mail@impactarts.co.uk.