Listen
Funding for children's festival
08/04/2008
The Scottish Government's Expo Fund is to provide £26,400 towards an international showcase of Scottish theatre for young people. The Bank of Scotland Imaginate Festival - the World's Best Theatre for Children and Young People will take forward their project bringing high quality performing arts to young audiences.
This is the second successful project from the Edinburgh Festival Expo Fund, launched on March 27, which supports new productions, events or exhibitions involving Scottish-based participants that premiere at any of the Edinburgh Festivals. The fund can also be used to support touring of events or performances after their premiere at the festival and allow successful work to reach new audiences.
Culture Minister Linda Fabiani said:
"Edinburgh is the principal destination for festival lovers everywhere, and I am glad that this Expo funding for Imaginate will inspire that love of the performing arts in our young people.
"It's important that children have opportunities to experience high quality arts and culture, allowing their own creativity, imagination and appreciation to grow. The Edinburgh Festivals make a significant contribution to our economy and attract visitors from around the world, but of course they mean so much more than this. The joy and wonder that performances invoke is evidenced so clearly when young people are in the audience.
"I am very proud of all the Edinburgh Festivals and that is why I launched the Expo Fund in March to help them maintain their global competitive edge.
"I am delighted that Imaginate has successfully bid for Expo funding of £26,400 to develop an international showcase of Scottish theatre for children and young people. I look forward to the project which will include the creation of We dance wee groove - a new dance and music experience for those aged four and under. This project will help inspire Scotland's best and brightest talent for the future and ensure our wonderfully creative arts scene is enjoyed from an early age."
Tony Reekie, Bank of Scotland Imaginate Festival Director, said
"Over the past decade, theatre made in Scotland for children and young people has enjoyed incredible success, at home and across the world, from Sydney Opera House to Broadway.
"The Scottish Government Expo fund arrives at a perfect time for us, allowing the Bank of Scotland Imaginate Festival the opportunity to present world class Scottish work and enhance the support of hundreds of producers from all over the world keen to see just how good our work is."
The planned expenditure for the Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund is £6 million over three years (2008-2009 to 2011-2012).
Resources of £1.308 million have been allocated in 2008-09. The assessment process and funding is administered by the Scottish Arts Council.
The Expo Fund is available to all 12 Festivals in Edinburgh to support the development of Scottish-based work.
The main role for co-ordinating and delivering the portfolio of Expo projects falls to Festivals Edinburgh, led by Faith Liddell. A panel comprising members of the Thundering Hooves steering group and Festivals Forum has recommended the projects for funding in 2008-09.
As announced last week, the Edinburgh International Festival successfully bid for £277,000 from the Expo Fund. This will help enable Scottish Opera to perform Smetana's opera 'The Two Widows'. The remaining successful projects will be announced shortly.
Imaginate is an arts organisation that promotes and develops the performing arts for children and young people in Scotland.
The 2008 Bank of Scotland Imaginate Festival (previously the Bank of Scotland Children's International Theatre Festival) runs from Saturday May 24 to Monday June 2, 2008 at venues across Edinburgh and then tours Scotland until Tuesday June 10. The Festival offers over 14,000 children and young people in Scotland the opportunity to experience some of the best theatre in the world.