Youth Arts Bursaries on offer in Orkney

Over 30 opportunities for early career artists and creative practitioners aged 18-24 are being supported across the country thanks to a new Youth Arts Bursaries scheme.

Among these is The Pier Arts Centre, which received an award of £30,000. It will offer a three-month opportunity with a two-week residency aimed at allowing an 18–24-year-old artist to engage with Pier Arts’ modernist art collection, network and meet with other professionals and experience Orkney’s unique environment.

From Inverness to Fife, twelve organisations across the country have been awarded a total of over £270,000 to enable them to offer early career creatives the space, support, and platform to research, instigate, develop and share their creative projects.

Culture Minister Jenny Gilruth said: “The Scottish Government is pleased to provide further support to young artists and creative practitioners through Creative Scotland’s Youth Arts Bursaries. This funding will help talented young people across Scotland who have been significantly impacted by the challenges they’ve faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Supporting young people is central to our approach to COVID-19 recovery and it’s good to see that these bursaries have been shaped by the young people themselves to develop specific projects to advance their artistic careers.”

The National Youth Arts Advisory Group (NYAAG) have been closely involved in the development of the programme. Youth Arts Bursary panellist member Laura Walker said: “It was a great experience as a young person to be a part of this decision-making-panel, knowing too that other young people had been involved in the assessment process before us. Not only does this allow us as assessors and decision-makers to build skills and be introduced to a professional process, but it means that we have crucial youth representation throughout.”