Time To Shine, Scotland’s arts strategy for young people aged 0–25, was launched today by Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs and Janet Archer, Chief Executive, Creative Scotland.
The strategy – which is centred around the three key themes of creating and sustaining engagement; nurturing potential and talent; and developing infrastructure and support - 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.
At the launch, it was announced that youth arts in Scotland will benefit from £5m new funding from Scottish Government over the next two years and that this funding will support initiatives based on key objectives of the strategy. The initiatives are:
- A major new open fund for organisations to develop new routes for young people to participate in and access arts and creative activity. Applications to the fund will open early in the New Year, via the Creative Scotland website
- The development of a new national digital platform to showcase and connect young people engaged in youth arts activity
- The establishment of a National Youth Advisory Group (NYAG). A group of young representatives from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland will be tasked with making recommendations on the make-up and role of the NYAG, working in partnership with Creative Scotland
Going forwards, individual organisations will implement additional initiatives based on objectives in the strategy, with all work co-ordinated by a new, soon to be established youth arts programme management team.
The full strategy and accompanying documentation can be accessed and downloaded from creativescotland.com/time-to-shine.