Cashback for Communities helps young filmmakers

Scotland’s Culture Secretary was in Glasgow yesterday to see how cash confiscated from crooks is supporting young people to develop their creative skills.

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, visited the Glasgow Media Access Centre (GMAC), where young people from targeted areas of the city are benefiting from Mad About Movies – a programme of free activities designed to boost their knowledge and understanding of filmmaking.

The centre has been awarded £39,205 in Cashback for Communities funding through Creative Scotland.

The funding is supporting GMAC’s Mad About Movies programme which includes regular movie clubs and a filmmaking summer school.  A training programme, also delivered through the project, will give teachers and youth workers the knowledge and skills to set up film projects for young people in their own communities.

Ms Hyslop went to an acting workshop at GMAC today, where Scottish actor Atta Yaqub, star of ‘Ae fond kiss’, was talking to the young people involved in the Mad About Movies project about his own skills and experience.

She said:

“Through Cashback for Communities, the Scottish Government has reinvested more than £46 million recovered through the Proceeds of Crime Act, back into communities to benefit Scotland’s young people.

“In particular, the creative strand of Cashback is helping thousands of young Scots to access life-changing opportunities to boost their skills, improve their employability and reach their full potential through engagement with creativity and the arts.

“Today I was proud to meet some of the young people whose lives are being impacted by this important work.  The Mad About Movies project is an excellent example of how Cashback funding is making a real difference to their enthusiasm, confidence, outlook and skill base.”

Iain Munro, Director of Creative Development at Creative Scotland, said:

“During the Year of Creative Scotland 2012, the creative strand of the CashBack programme will allow over 8,000 young people across the country to create a film, choreograph or perform in a dance production or record their own piece of music.

“Taking part in creative activities can make a real difference to the lives of our children and young people.  It provides an opportunity for young people to shine and express themselves and learn how work as part of a group.  We look forward to the continued success of this life-changing programme for years to come.”

Beth Armstrong from GMAC, said:  “GMAC has a proud 30 year history of championing diversity and equality within the Scottish film industry.  We are delighted to be part of Cashback for Communities  which allows us to offer this amazing  programme of free film activities  for young  people from all over Glasgow.  If you’re 10 – 19 and Mad About Movies then get in touch and get involved”!

Creative Scotland bring VOICES to Glasgow

With the cityscape of the ‘Dear Green Place’ as its backdrop, Voices is four days of contemporary theatre, dance, street and live arts, with more than 70 performances by over 30 companies presented as part of IETM Glasgow.

IETM (International network for contemporary performing arts) has chosen the city as the venue for its international plenary meeting and artistic showcase during 4-7 November 2010. Up to 600 performing arts practitioners from 45 countries will roam Glasgow for an intensive four-day programme of talks, performances, networking tours and events.

The theme of ‘voices’ encompasses everything from communication, argument, noise, identity and many other ways to express ourselves as individuals, groups and nations

One of the most strategically significant cultural events in Scotland’s 2010 calendar, IETM Glasgow integrates Creative Scotland’s ambition to increase the country’s capacity for international working with showcasing the country’s creative talent: on stage; in found spaces, newly inhabited by artists; and across the dinner tables of its host city.

New productions commissioned for the IETM Glasgow artistic programme include Bridging by Laika (Minty Donald and Nick Miller), a unique site-responsive performance situated on the banks and waterway of the River Clyde and Fish and Game’s Alma Mater, which will take the audience on a performative tour of Scotland Street School.  Many of Scotland’s leading arts organisations will be presenting work, including: Roadkill, Ankur Art’s site specific production on the complex realities behind sex trafficing; Midsummer, David Grieg and Gordon McIntyre’s weekend to remember; and Janice Parker’s Private Dancer.

Keynote speaker at the conference is Todd Lester, the founder of freeDimensional (fD) and more recently the Creative Resistance Fund. Before launching freeDimensional he served as Information & Advocacy Manager for the International Rescue Committee in Sudan.

Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive, Creative Scotland: ‘IETM Glasgow is an outstanding showcase for the best of Scotland’s performing arts talent, the city of Glasgow as a creative place and as a catalyst to promoting the country’s contemporary culture internationally.’

Mary Ann DeVlieg, Secretary General of IETM, says of IETM Glasgow 2010:  ‘Let’s meet Glasgow as it is today with its nuanced historical, demographic and contemporary cultural mixes.  Let’s let Glaswegians see how a few hundred incoming arts professionals see their richly layered city and let the meeting’s participants hear how Glaswegians ‘live’ their city.

‘Glasgow also marks a turning point for the IETM network: an energetic three-year commitment to proving the value of arts to our societies by making visible the hundreds of amazing projects throughout Europe which allow people to think, see, feel, touch, taste, be critical and be confident… in other words to be alive and be human in this century.  Starting with Glasgow!”

According to IETM Glasgow’s Producer, Steve Slater: ‘It is an opportunity to change the way people think about Scotland. It’s also about how we think of ourselves, our own creativity, imagination and culture.

‘This project has re-kindled in me an excitement for the potential of Scottish work to hold its own on the international stage. It’s made me see the work and the city a-new again, fresh and sparkling in its commitment to new ideas and creativity.’

For more information see:   http://www.ietm-glasgow.eu