A new £1million fund offering direct support to artists was been launched this month. Creative Scotland has committed £1 million from its £5m innovation Fund for the ‘Vital Spark’ awards to enable new collaborations by creative practitioners.
Individual awards of between £20,000 to £100,000 will be offered to encourage work that goes beyond the boundaries of creative disciplines and will support collaborations between artists and practitioners working across all the disciplines. The Vital Spark awards will encourage experimentation, radical new work and innovative approaches to engaging with audiences. It will be open to collaborations between creative practitioners and those from other sectors, including the wider creative industries, science and education. This is the first project to grow from the Innovation Fund recently announced by Culture Minister Michael Russell.
The Vital Spark awards will be an opportunity for projects between practitioners based in Scotland and their international colleagues, as well as being open to creative professionals at different stages in their careers. A panel of international practitioners will be appointed in December to select the Vital Spark winners.
Ewan Brown, Chairman, Creative Scotland 2009 Board, launched the Vital Spark awards and commented:
‘These new awards are an exciting opportunity for Scotland’s creative professionals to collaborate, develop innovative new work and to support projects with an international dimension. Creative Scotland will stretch and challenge creative boundaries and the Vital Spark awards are a demonstration of our ambition. These awards are about radical new work, different approaches to creativity and putting our investment directly into the hands of artists.’
Minister for Culture Michael Russell said:
‘As Creative Scotland’s first initiative, Vital Spark mirrors the unrivalled ambition and innovative approach that will lie at the very heart of this new organisation. I am looking forward to seeing the multi-disciplinary work that will grow from these awards and the international collaboration that will further demonstrate the well known talent of Scotland’s creative practitioners.’
The ‘Vital Spark’ awards are an important part of the Innovation Fund, a £5M initiative in the sector, to encourage new work and collaborations.
The ‘Vital Spark’ awards will be open for application from 14th September 2009
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Notes to editors
1. The ‘Vital Spark’ awards will be open for application from 14th September 2009. The deadline for applications 30 November 2009 before the winners are announced in March 2009. The £1 million fund will be split over two years, with £500,000 offered in 2009/2010 and a further £500,000 in 2010/2011.
2. The £5 million Innovation Fund - the first Creative Scotland branded initiative, announced last year - will bring to life new partnerships that cross traditional boundaries, supporting and sustaining the artistic and creative community during this economic downturn, by offering new ways of getting funds into the hands of artists and creative practitioners.
3. The role of Creative Scotland is to:
Encourage and sustain artists and creators of all kinds
Ensure that their work is accessible to all
Ensure that as many people as possible can participate in creative activities
Extend and increase the wider benefits of arts and culture, including their contribution to the promotion and development of our unique national cultural and its wider place in the international sphere.
Creative Scotland aims to break new ground in delivering practitioner engagement and through that and other means provide the information and intelligence that will help to develop the sector. This includes market and competitor intelligence, the development of Scottish talent, and the identification of commercial opportunities and barriers to growth. The new organisation will address issues such as skills, intellectual property and business support.
In summary, Creative Scotland will be an enabling strategic body with four main roles that are firmly directed at and centred on artists and creativity: advisor, champion, investor and broker.
Contact email(s)
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Issued by: Scottish Arts Council