Nominations Announced for Scotland’s celebration of creative endeavour taking place within smaller communities

Winners to be announced at Awards Ceremony:

The Byre Theatre, St Andrews, Wed 23 Jan, 2013

Today, Friday 23 November, 2012, Creative Scotland announced the nominations for the country’s Creative Place Awards.

Now in its second year, the Awards were established to celebrate and recognise the hard work and imagination that contributes to the rich cultural life of a community, as well as its social and economic well-being.

From Unst Fest on the most northerly inhabited island in the UK, to the stunning shores of Rosneath Peninsula, the vibrant festivals of East Lothian to the inspirational musical scene of the Pathhead Music Collective, a total of nine Scottish communities have reached the final nominations stage and the winners will be announced at the Creative Place Awards ceremony on Wednesday 23 January, 2013 at The Byre Theatre, St Andrews.

Nominations have been made across three categories:

Places with less than 2,500 residents

Places with less than 10,000 residents

Places with less than 100,000 residents

Nominees have been selected for the wide involvement of the whole community, as well as the track record of their existing plans. The winner of each category will receive a cash prize which will enable them to enhance and promote their future activity.

For places with under 2,500 residents, the five nominees are Gatehouse of Fleet, The Glenkens, Pathhead, Rosneath Peninsula (Cove, Kilcreggan, Peaton, Ardpeaton and Portkil) and Unst. The winner of this category will receive £50,000.

For places with under 10,000 residents, the only shortlisted nominee is Huntly. The prize money for this category is £100,000.

For places with under 100,000 residents, the nominees are Kilmarnock, Orkney, East Lothian. The winner of this category will receive £150,000.

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

“The Awards offer a chance to celebrate and reward creativity within Scotland’s diverse communities. Congratulations to all of the shortlisted places – we were extremely impressed by the creative vitality and energy which is taking place across Scotland. The shortlist offers a terrific example of how embedding arts and culture within the foundation of a community strengthens and improves people’s lives.”

The Creative Places Awards judging panel is made up of individuals with expertise across the arts, media, tourism and community development including: Marie Christie, International Events Director, Culture, EventScotland; Andrew Dixon, CEO, Creative Scotland (Chair of Jury panel); Janice Forsyth, Broadcaster; Pat Kane, Writer, Musician and Activist; Fiona Logan, CEO Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park and Andy Milne, CEO, SURF – Scotland’s Independent Regeneration Network.

Fiona Logan, CEO Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park, and one of the judges, said:

“I’m always hugely impressed by the amount of drive and passion shown by communities to showcase the very best of their local area and it’s great that we have such a wide range of applications to consider. I’m delighted to be involved and hope other communities take some inspiration from what has been achieved.”

Winners will be announced at an Awards Ceremony on Wednesday 23 January 2013 at The Byre Theatre, St Andrews.

St Andrews received a 2012 Creative Place Award. Commenting on the impact the award has had, Project Director, Jacqueline McKay, said: “The award has provided a real focus for the arts in St Andrews and has brought festivals together to work in partnership to tell our creative stories with enhanced impact. We now have a Creative hub that projects and festivals can work out of, and we’ve attracted additional support for our year round calendar of projects. Importantly we’ve established new opportunities to collaborate with the business and tourism community and are confident that this way of working is here to stay.”

NOMINATIONS LIST

For places with less than 2,500 residents (£50,000), the nominees are:

Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries & Galloway, has a range of arts organisations supported by local residents. For these to thrive and benefit the wider business community, Gatehouse of Fleet aim to attract increased numbers of visitors to their small Georgian town set in a National Scenic Area. A Creative Place Award would be used to achieve this through creative programming, investment in marketing and a new Business-Arts partnership.

Rosneath Peninsula: Cove, Kilcreggan, Peaton, Ardpeaton and Portkil, Argyll and Bute. These villages sited in locations alongside Loch Long in Argyll and Bute are home to artists and creative organisations whose work is rooted in the local community and area. Rosneath plan to use a Creative Place Award to stage a series of year round events and festivals celebrating their coastal environment.

The Glenkens, Dumfries & Galloway – a series of small villages with a population just over 2,000 spread over 300 square miles – is celebrated for its natural beauty but faces challenges due to its rural nature. A Creative Place Award would allow them to create new art works reflecting the area’s rural and cultural identity, these include, for example, installations and 3D images being projected onto the six local hydro dams/plants.

Pathhead, Midlothian is home to 15 acclaimed musicians including Martin Green, Tom Bancroft and Karine Polwart. A Creative Place Award would support Pathhead Music Collective in its aim to make Pathhead internationally renowned as a centre of musical excellence through a range of activities, including increased performances, education outreach projects and three one day festivals.

Unst, Shetland Islands: The UK’s most northerly festival, Unst Fest, has seen the community come together with visitors to enjoy a range of events including music, dance, and workshops annually for the last five years. A Creative Place Award would help secure the festival’s future success.

For places with less than 10,000 residents (£100k), the nominee is:

Huntly has developed world-wide creative community links through its ‘Town is the Venue’ programme. Several projects, including the town re-branding, have been led by artists initiatives involving the community. A Creative Place Award would enable Huntly to create a roaming initiative, ‘Walks of Life’, bringing together physical walking initiatives with creative and cultural opportunities. In addition, over three years, including the Year of Natural Scotland and Homecoming Scotland, local arts groups and individual artists would be able to collaborate on a new initiative ‘Hospitality in Huntly and District’.

Places with less than 100,000 residents (£150k), the nominees are:

Kilmarnock and East Ayrshire’s thriving arts venues and their year round series of festivals including Kilmarnock Edition Festival, Kilmarnock Fair Festival, Summer Symphony, Harvest and Imprint Festivals, present an ambitious range of cross art form programming. A Creative Place Award would enable the East Ayrshire Festivals to expand their programmes, including new work based in vacant shops in Kilmarnock as part of on-going work to regenerate the town centre.

Orkney: Tourists drawn to Orkney by its vibrant cultural landscape and rich natural heritage bring around £35m annually to the local community. A Creative Place Award would be used to help attract increased numbers of visitors through a series of projects such as addition of creative strands to the new Orkney Nature Festival in 2013, run by RSPB and Outdoor Orkney.

East Lothian’s four recently established festivals offer individual success stories. These include: Fringe by the Sea, Lennoxlove Book Festival, Lammermuir Festival and Dunbar Science Festival. A Creative Place Award would be used by each individual festival to programme ambitious new site specific work, and support the creation of a new organisation tasked with co-ordinating ways in which they can work and grow together.

For more information about the Creative Place Awards visit: http://www.creativescotland.com/explore/projects/creative-place-awards

Source: Creative Scotland