£750,000 has been awarded to 61 organisations and freelance artists through the Youth Arts Open Fund, supporting youth-led arts projects that will benefit an estimated 3,762 children and young people across Scotland.
The awards, totalling £749,793, have been made to projects in 18 local authority areas, prioritising children and young people who face barriers to accessing creative opportunities due to poverty, geography, disability, care experience or social isolation.
Administered by YouthLink Scotland and funded by the Scottish Government through Creative Scotland’s wider support for children and young people, the fund supports free, high-quality, community-based arts activity delivered over up to 12 months.
The projects funded through this round of the Youth Arts Open Fund demonstrate the range and originality of youth-led creative work taking place across Scotland. Supported activity includes pop-up public performances where primary-aged children create and perform their own political manifestos in bold, large-scale costumes; youth-led film projects exploring themes such as homelessness and care experience, using filmmaking to influence attitudes and engage decision-makers; and creative programmes that combine visual art, digital media and analogue processes, giving children and young people access to professional studios, darkrooms and maker spaces that would otherwise be out of reach.
Other funded projects include circus and physical theatre for children and young people experiencing social isolation, spoken word and theatre shaped by lived experience panels, and nature-based creative work where children and young people grow plants, make natural dyes and design textile artworks connected to their local environment. Across all projects, children and young people are not only participants but decision-makers, shaping themes, artforms and how their work is shared with their communities.
A defining feature of the Youth Arts Open Fund is its commitment to youth voice. All funded projects are youth-led, and final funding decisions were made by a trained panel of children and young people, following an initial assessment by an expert panel. This approach ensures that investment is directed towards projects that reflect their lived experience, priorities and creative ambitions.
“The Scottish Government is proud to enable these youth arts projects with an investment of £750,000 to ensure that young people of all ages and backgrounds can access free, high-quality arts activity in their communities.
“My warmest congratulations to everyone who enables these projects for the invaluable work they do to introduce the joy of culture and the arts to so many young people across Scotland – and to the young people themselves for embracing their creativity and playing a key role in the award process.”
“This round of the Youth Arts Open Fund was by far one of the hardest to assess, giving youth-led opportunities to children and young people across Scotland. This round covered many different art forms such as dance, circus and visual arts, giving them the opportunity to explore areas in the creative sector that may otherwise have been inaccessible to them. The panel was blown away by the number of applications which will have such long-lasting and impactful benefits on those participating, and I hope that those involved will find a love for new art forms that will help them in their future.”
“These awards show the strength, imagination and ambition of youth-led arts practice across Scotland. From film and performance to visual art, circus and spoken word, the projects funded reflect what happens when children and young people are trusted to shape creative work that speaks to their own lives and communities. Importantly, these funding decisions were made by children and young people themselves, helping to ensure that investment reaches projects that are inclusive and relevant to them.”
“The Youth Arts Open Fund is supporting another outstanding cohort of projects enabling children and young people across Scotland to access a vibrant range of creative opportunities from theatre, dance and visual arts to film, digital innovation, crafts and multi‑artform work. By placing children and young people at the heart of decision‑making, the fund empowers them to shape opportunities for their peers nationwide, uphold their right to have a meaningful voice in the creative landscape, and help ensure ambitious and inclusive projects can flourish across Scotland.”