Across Scotland, 55 culture projects have received £1,123,800 from The National Lottery in the latest round of Creative Scotland’s Open Fund awards

Across Scotland, 55 culture projects have received £1,123,800 from The National Lottery in the latest round of Creative Scotland’s Open Fund awards.

Gary Melville and Osama Yassir for Up2stndrd. Pictured: Eyve.

This round of awards spans music, theatre, visual arts, crafts, literature, Scots and Gaelic culture, traditional and interdisciplinary arts, into communities from the Highlands to Fife, Ayrshire to Aberdeen and beyond. 

From emerging singer-songwriters getting support to produce their debut EPs, to fiction writers finding the time and space to finish their manuscripts, to artists collaborating with peers at international workshops, and community festivals offering a rich and diverse array of activities, the latest round of Open Fund awards showcases creativity in all its forms, providing inspiring opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to engage in the arts. 

WayWORD’s dynamic youth-led, intergenerational, literary cross-arts festival by the WORD Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Aberdeen returns on 21 and 24 – 29 September 2024. Featuring a vibrant lineup of workshops, community activities, panel discussions, author readings, art exhibitions, film screenings and performance nights, the festival is also dedicated to providing mentoring opportunities for young people from diverse backgrounds and fostering community partnerships. 

Helen Lynch, WayWORD Creative Director says: “Thanks to the Open Fund, we will be able to offer WayWORD for the fifth year to audiences from across the North-East and beyond! We’ll be able to live up to our tagline of ‘celebrating unconventional forms of expression’ yet again and involve more groups than ever before, so we’re totally delighted!”

Up2Standard’s Be the Standard programme is a one-year initiative creating a safe space for producers and writers to collaborate and create freely through a range of studio sessions and writing camps. Focussed on supporting emerging talent within the Scottish hip-hop music industry this programme provides a platform for collaboration and creativity, aiming to contribute to the industry’s growth and development.

Applications are now open for Scotland-based music makers to join the songwriting programme, offering writers, producers and artists the opportunity to gain mentoring, networking opportunities and feedback from established industry professionals.

Project Manager, Mobolaji Agoro says: “We recognised a significant gap in the development of rap, pop, and RnB talent, arising from the limited access to quality music-making experiences. There are talented producers and writers within these genres, and our programme aims to nurture this talent through an immersive year-long experience.”

Further awards in this round of the Open Fund include:

• The 27th annual HebCelt Festival, 17 to 20 July, showcasing emerging artists, Gaelic arts and a variety of local talent within its packed programme.
• The return of Scotland’s international crime writing festival Bloody Scotland, held in Stirling, 13 – 15 September.
• A celebration of the 10th birthday year of The Cumnock Tryst, running from 2 to 6 October 2024, bringing a diverse programme of music to the heart of East Ayrshire.
• A US-wide tour for award-winning Highland indie folk-band The Elephant Sessions. 
• The full list of awards in this round of the Open Fund can be downloaded in xlsx format.

Paul Burns, Interim Director of Arts at Creative Scotland commented: “Expanding the reach of creative work across Scotland offers profound benefits to our diverse communities. The inspiring initiatives funded in the latest round of our Open Fund will provide essential opportunities for people throughout the country to engage with an exciting range of enriching artistic activities, all made possible with vital National Lottery support.”