The First Minister Alex Salmond has given a parting gift to secure the future of Scotland’s national youth theatre. He announced a £1 million package of public and private funding to engage more young people in culture and the arts.
The three-year investment will support Scottish Youth Theatre, the National Youth Choir of Scotland, National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and YDance to deepen youth arts participation in the run up to Scotland’s Year of Young People in 2018.
The funding will strengthen and support the national youth arts companies’ work to deliver the ambitions set out in Scotland’s first ever youth arts strategy, ‘Time to Shine’.
The First Minister said:
“The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and the accompanying cultural programme was an incredible showcase for our country, and in our glittering Games the Scottish Youth Theatre were one of the true stars of the show.
“I am delighted to announce that with generous private sector support from Clyde Blowers, the Scottish Government will provide £1 million over the next three years to secure the future of the Scottish Youth Theatre and to support our other talented national youth companies as we count down to the 2018 year of Young People.
“Our national youth performing arts companies deliver incredibly important work and have helped to identify and nurture some of Scotland’s greatest cultural talent. This funding will ensure we continue to deepen our young people’s engagement with culture and the arts, providing a pathway to professional arts careers – with all the benefits that such participation can bring in terms of education, confidence and self-esteem.
“It will enable our national youth arts performing companies to play an even greater part in the implementation of Scotland’s first ten-year youth arts strategy, which will establish Scotland as an international leader in children and young people’s art by 2023.
“Our ambition is for Scotland to be the best place in the world to grow up. One of the ways we can achieve this is by creating the conditions in which all our children and young people have the opportunity to access and engage in culture and the arts.”
Today’s funding will support Scotland’s four national youth performing arts companies – Scottish Youth Theatre, the National Youth Choir of Scotland, National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and YDance – to sustain and extend the breadth and depth of their engagement across Scotland and internationally. It will support each company to build on the legacy of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, engage with the Scottish First World War centenary commemorations programme, and work more collaboratively with the rest of the sector and each other.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
