Scottish Arts Council invests £8m for more, wider, better participation in the arts

The Scottish Arts Council has today (12 February) launched Inspire, a major new Lottery fund for the development of exciting, innovative projects to inspire and encourage the people of Scotland to participate in the arts and become creative, imaginative members of a confident, cultured nation.

The £8 million fund has been developed as part of the Scottish Arts Council’s commitment to increasing participation and aims to provide more, wider, better engagement with the arts:

• More – increasing the number and range of people enjoying and taking part in the arts, particularly arts activity for and by children and young people.
• Wider – making the arts available to those who have had little opportunity to participate in the past; ensuring a fair geographic spread of activities; and supporting projects across artforms and technologies.
• Better – increasing further the quality of arts activities by supporting creative, ambitious projects.

Inspire is a unique opportunity for a wide range of organisations, including arts organisations, voluntary and community groups, to apply for Lottery funding.  Priority will be given to applications which demonstrate that they extend the reach and nature of engagement with the arts, ensure quality artistic engagement and create potential for new, creative cross sectoral partnerships. 

There is no minimum or maximum funding level and the application has been designed to be a simple open process to encourage proposals for imaginative and transformative projects.  The project must be for the public benefit, meet all or some of the aims of Inspire and demonstrate lasting outcomes to inspire arts, practice and people.

One of the key priorities of Inspire is to remove barriers and engage groups who may not previously have had access to the arts.  For example research by the Scottish Arts Council has shown that elderly people or people with disabilities are 13% less likely to participate in any form of culture, and that overall attendance and participation amongst people in deprived areas is below the national average.  Participation and attendance levels are also significantly lower for people living in rural areas (85% compared with the national average 90%).  It is hoped that Inspire will encourage projects which will address some of these issues, to ensure that more people have the opportunity to take part in the arts.

Jim Tough, Acting Chief Executive at the Scottish Arts Council said: ‘The launch of the Inspire fund is an exciting opportunity for organisations to unleash their creativity and develop projects which will inspire and encourage the people of Scotland to take part in the arts.

‘The flexibility of the new fund will allow us to support the new and innovative and we hope to encourage collaborative creative exchanges and new partnerships to ensure more, wider and better participation.  I look forward to seeing some of the exciting project proposals that we receive.’ 

Culture Minister Linda Fabiani said: ‘Culture has the intrinsic power to evoke joy, inspiration and fulfilment. That is why the Scottish Government is committed to widening access and participation to culture for everyone in Scotland, and has a manifesto commitment to do just that.

‘I am particularly excited about the flexibility of this new Inspire fund, which will cultivate the best of Scottish arts, allowing creativity to flourish and reaching out to those not normally engaged in the arts. I would encourage all those with an interest in culture to come forward with imaginative proposals which will inspire and add colour to our culturally cosmopolitan landscape.’

Notes to editors

1. The Scottish Arts Council serves the people of Scotland by fostering arts of excellence through investment, development, research and advocacy. Our corporate aims are: to support artists to fulfil their creative and business potential; to increase participation in the arts; and to place the arts, culture and creativity at the heart of learning. We invest £60m each year from Scottish Government and National Lottery funding. For more information visit: www.scottisharts.org.uk
2. The deadline for applications to Inspire is 5 May 2008.
3. A series of Inspire roadshows will take place across Scotland later this month and during March. For further information and details of how to apply visit: www.scottisharts.org.uk/inspire

Contact email(s)

media.office@scottisharts.org.uk

Issued by: Scottish Arts Council