Nurturing Talent Fund – bringing young people's creative ideas to life
Pictured is Jody Mulvey, who was awarded funding to facilitate a live Q + A with industry experts.
The National Lottery funding distributed through Creative Scotland's Nurturing Talent Fund supports creative 11 -25-year-olds to develop their chosen mediums, passions and talents. These include short film making, recording songs in professional studios, producing music videos and attending masterclasses.
The Nurturing Talent Fund is a fund designed by young people for young people. It aims to support young people's creative ideas and ambitions, no matter whether they have lots of experience or they're just developing their interest in the arts. It was designed by the National Youth Arts Advisory Group (NYAAG). NYAAG is a group of 14–24-year-olds from across Scotland who work with Creative Scotland to represent the voices of young people within the arts and culture in Scotland.
Thanks to the generosity of National Lottery players, who raise £30 million for good causes across the UK every week, the Fund has supported hundreds of exciting and creative ideas led by young people since 2014 – including film-making, music production, publishing, poetry, photography collections, recording demos and hosting dance shows. The latest recipients include young people developing their passions for dance, sculpture, short film, fashion and theatre – alongside a community-building platform to support graduates who had their degree shows cancelled due to COVID-19.
This round of the Nurturing Talent Fund sees 26 projects led by young people receiving nearly £20,000 of support. The young people showcase the wide range of creativity and interests of young people across Scotland, including:
Aimee Friel, Dancer, developing choreographic practice and exploring ways of creating contemporary thematic dance. The funding will support Aimee to research and develop her idea of choreographing a piece about climate change.
Alasdair Robertson, Musician, creating a multi-artform music video for the title track of their debut EP 'Losing Sleep'.
Ben Hall, Filmmaker, making their"What are we really looking for when we look for aliens?" short film location in the Highlands.
C-Jay Quiqley, Emily Harle, Wiktoria Orlicka, Literature, working on a children's book on unconventional families, to teach children it's okay if other people's families are different from yours.
Sarah Gillespie, Chenoa Beedie, Amy Dare and Miriam Seddon, Books N But's Art Collective, collaborating on a newly formed collective with the aim to inform, create and disseminate.
Claire Hammond, Art Collective, creating an online creative space for young people to engage with cultural heritage and arts in a meaningful and engaging way.
Dexter Stokes-Mellor, Musician, creating Noise HZ – a multi-media experimental experience. Focused around the genre harsh noise, Noise Hz be presented virtually through a 3D environment.
Doug Stevenson, Three Pound Coin Theatre, forming a collective of four queer undergraduate students coming from diverse backgrounds to create their own Edinburgh-based theatre company to uplift young queer voices.
Dylan Esposito, Sculptor, creating a new body of sculptural work for the RSA New Contemporaries 2021 show, which will explore the experience of being on the autism spectrum and represent the wider neurodivergent community.
Eleanor Walker, Tangent Dance Theatre, making an inclusive dance film to support, highlight and demonstrate the breadth of emerging young dancers' talent.
Emma Duncan, creating activity packs for children who have had to leave their homes in Scotland.
Hannah Benassi, Artist, Art Events/Curation, producing an exhibition that celebrates the transformation and progression of emerging painters across Scotland during a time of restriction and isolation.
Helen Ochoa, Artist, responding to ideas of migration, displacement and refuge to create a piece of physical and digital work to be shown at Hidden Gardens in Glasgow.
Jack Bestow, White Novels, a 3-piece Energetic Scottish Rock band from all over Scotland.
Jody Mulvey, Art Collective, facilitating a live Q+As with industry experts via Instagram to help their audience, most of whom are recent graduates.
Jon Hill, Photographer, taking aerial photography shots of Scotland from a plane.
Kieran Smyth, Photographer, creating a photography series about the town Stonehouse.
Madeleine Flint, Theatre maker/director, creating dynamic and intimate work that forces you to take a deep breath and dive in headfirst.
Maisie Farrah, Textile artist, upcycling textiles and creating a portfolio of work.
Max Aspen, Filmmaker, devising and film 6 short performance experiences using a 360-degree camera that a participant would watch using a VR headset.
Nathania Douglas, Fashion/Textiles designer, creating 'Waste Revisualise Redefine' – a fashion collection with aims to magnify issues of consumption, waste and over production in the fashion industry.
Ryan Hay, Writers collective, establishing a non-hierarchical collective of writers and theatre-makers who want to investigate theatrical form and the ethics and politics of making plays in the present.
Sarah Vallance, Sculptor, creating a body of work using bronze/metal casting - exploring the forms of hands and feet as well as shells and terrestrial form. These sculptural forms will engage with notions of embodying knowledge of place and making.
Taylor Han, Dancer, working with a musician and a dramaturg to create an adaptable performance piece called With Catastrophic Consequences, that will connect to audiences in the time of Covid-19.
Toby Mills, Rabbitt Dove, Game Designers, creating 'Salmonopticon 2050' – a mystery game, following the story of a salmon farm worker, in a not too distant future where human systems of domestication have filtered down into the species they wish to domesticate.
Yulene Hird, Filmmaker, creating 'Feeding Squirrels' – a short film set in Glasgow, exploring the relationship between a young girl and her older sister, who has found herself in the unlikely position of reluctant caretaker.
