Next year, Scotland's world famous festivals will be joined by another major event, an inspiring and ambitious annual festival of the arts for, by, with and about older people organised by Creative Scotland and Age Scotland, in partnership with The Baring Foundation.
The new festival, based loosely on the Welsh Gwanwyn and Irish Bealtaine festivals, will be launched specifically to engage older members of society. It forms part of Creative Scotland’s drive to encourage those who have not engaged with the arts to connect more with cultural events and activities. The 2008 "Taking Part" study on attendance and participation in the arts found that older people are less likely than many other groups to be involved in the arts.
In addition to being a creative cultural experience, the festival will bring other social, economic and health benefits to older people and the wider community, and should encourage intergenerational connections.
Earlier this year, a celebration of arts and ageing was held in Perth Concert Hall, organised by Creative Scotland with the National Forum on Ageing Futures group. 200 arts participants discussed the benefits of creativity for the ageing population.
Recruitment for the Festival’s director is now in progress. The new artistic director will be tasked with increasing opportunities for involvement by older people in high quality arts programmes as artists and performers, participants and consumers whilst simultaneously ensuring that content addresses issues such as ageism and actively promotes positive representations of those in later life.
An equalities emphasis is essential and the festival will target different groups of people, including the ageing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community, disabled people and those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
The first festival is expected to take place in October 2012, and will last a month.
Maggie Maxwell, development officer for Creative Scotland, said: "It's a very exciting proposition, a national and international arts festival focusing on older people. Like many countries, Scotland has an ageing population, and although this festival will principally address ageing and the arts, we are keen to stress it is an inter-generational event, after all people don't lose their interest is new things just because they are getting older."
Age Scotland spokesman Lindsay Scott said: "We are extremely excited about this festival and we want to ensure that the festival will have a distinctly contemporary Scottish and international flavour. We envisage it as a moveable feast, changing venues from year to year, with the main events taking place in Inverness for example one year and the next in the Borders."
Further information on this exciting and ambitious new national festival on creative active ageing in Scotland today, and details for the Festival Director post can be found at on our opportunities page.