A series of four Creative Scotland Roadshows will take place in the coming weeks to coincide with various other events and launches.

At the first of these in Edinburgh, Chief Executive of Creative Scotland Andrew Dixon will be joined by Fiona Hyslop, the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs.

The second, in Inverness, will be part of the goNORTH Festival and will have a focus on music and publishing in the Highlands and Islands.

The third, in Glasgow, will have an emphasis on national events and the opportunities ahead for promoting Scotland through culture.

Finally, the fourth roadshow in Dundee will have a focus on the cultural economy.

All the roadshows will involve:

• A presentation on Creative Scotland, our new budget and major new policy developments;
• A preview of cultural highlights in the Year of Creative Scotland;
• Progress on our work with Scotland’s Creative Industries Partnership (SCIP);
• A summary of the recently commissioned Economic Impact Study on the Arts and Creative Industries in Scotland;
• Case study/studies from creative success stories in Scotland; and
• An opportunity for questions and answers.

Further roadshows will follow in the autumn.

The roadshows will be held in four cities from 3pm until 5pm, followed by a networking reception and entertainment until 7pm.

Thursday 31 May, Edinburgh, Inspace – BOOK NOW ⇒

Wednesday 6 June, Inverness, Mercure Hotel – BOOK NOW ⇒

Wednesday 20 June, Glasgow, The Lighthouse – BOOK NOW ⇒

Thursday 28 June, Dundee, Hannah Maclure Centre – BOOK NOW ⇒

Please note that places are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Book via the links above to register.

TRACS – Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland came into being in March 2012. Based at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh, TRACS is a new umbrella organisation incorporating the newly formed Traditions of Dance Forum, The Traditional Music forum, and the Storytelling Forum. TRACS will work in partnership with cultural organisations across Scotland to build, strengthen and support grassroots networks and is at the forefront of the SSC’s plans to open its doors to artists of all kinds, interweaving storytelling, dance, song and music.

At the core of this new vision are TRACS’ courses and workshops programme Connecting with Culture. Offering a mix of CPD training workshops, creative conferences, and practical courses, Connecting with Culture offers resources and strategies through which a dynamic fusion of storytelling, music, song, and dance can be utilised by educators, artists, organisations, and individuals.

From May till December 2012 over 60 courses/workshops will be offered, including in the next month:

Your Voice in Song led by Amy Lord and Steve Byrne, Scottish Social Dance through the Ages led by Stan Reeves, Gaelic Song led by Maeve Mackinnon and Gillie Mackenzie

Full details in the full Connecting with Culture programme.

or email Gica

The English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) has launched a new scheme offering creative residencies at its London base. The EFDSS library includes a lot of Scottish material and applications are also open to Scottish musicians.

The initiative is open to individuals or groups who want to explore their creative potential and the English traditions by undertaking a residency at Cecil Sharp House to research and develop new work.

The creative residencies are open to professional artists across all sectors – from classical composers and contemporary dancers to poets, musicians or visual artists – not just those working within the folk arts.

EFDSS is keen to hear from artists who are interested in exploring the potential of working cross-genre, cross-arts, or cross-culture to create work that has the potential to go on tour.

Successful applicants will be offered bursaries in the region of £2,000 to cover fees and expenses, together with rehearsal space and the opportunity to share the outcome of their work at Cecil Sharp House, as well as support and guidance for the future development of their work.

Applications opened on May 1 and must be submitted by June 30. The residencies will run from September 2012 to March 2013. It is envisaged that three awards will be made.

Neil Pearson, EFDSS’ Artist Development and Programming Manager, said: “We hope to attract applications from artists working within all art forms who wish to explore the creative potential of the English folk arts.

“Our funding decision will focus on the quality of the application and how well it meets our main criteria, which are strength of the artistic vision, impact on the artists’ professional development and the potential for future performances and development.

“We know that there is a wealth of talent out there and sometimes artists need the support of a scheme like this to bring their ideas to life. We would be interested in hearing from both emerging and established artists.”

For more information or to apply for a creative residency, go to www.efdss.org.

Completed application forms can be returned to via email to neil@efdss.org or to Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent’s Park Road, London, NW1 7AY.

Annlaug Borsheim and Rannveig Djonne

CROSSOVER, ANYONE?

Guest blog by Clare Button

Clare Button is a singer, archivist and writer. She is National Secretary of the TMSA as well as committee member of the Edinburgh and Lothians branch. The views expressed here are her own.

School of Scottish Studies Archives and Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin

Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin has won the support of Creative Scotland through the Youth Music Initiative to bring young people (aged 16-25) into the School of Scottish Studies Archives and create innovative new traditional music as a result. The School of Scottish Studies houses a treasure trove of recordings including traditional songs, music, and stories. It’s a fantastic resource and an important asset to Scottish heritage. EYG wants to inspire new people to use the Archives and break down barriers young people and the wider community might have with visiting or using them.

“We are keen to bring new users into the Archives, especially young people, and welcome the opportunity to collaborate with Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin,” said Cathlin Macaulay, Archives Curator at the School of Scottish Studies.

Besides giving the opportunity to explore the Archives, the project will enable young musicians to make a genuine creative contribution to the living tradition of Scottish music. EYG wants to get back down to what it means for music to be ‘traditional’ – not just so old we don’t know who the composer is, but part of a vibrant living tradition. The aim is for the participants to both create new tunes and songs inspired by traditional material, and unleash modern and exciting arrangements of pieces found in the Archives. At the end of the process they’ll record an album and perform gigs with a Big Band made up of younger musicians aged 12-18.

“This is an incredibly exciting opportunity,” said Charlotte Murray, project co-ordinator. “I can’t wait to start working with the young people and see the material they come up with.”

Applications are open now, and more information can be found on their website.

To get discussion going we welcome guest blog posts from members. Download the guidelines and send us your article.

Guidelines for TMF guest blog posts

We’d also love your profiles to add to our newsletter. See the guidelines below.

Guidelines for TMF Organisation Profiles

Guest blog by Charlotte Murray

© Mhairi Law 2012

The Easter spree of youth music events is just about over, and frankly we’re all exhausted! But what of the participants? When you’re organising any kind of event, one of the main things on your mind is ‘who’s all going to come?’ There are quite a lot of youth music organisations in Scotland now, all doing brilliant things and hoping we can stay afloat in the troublesome economic times. But who’s coming?

Catching and keeping regular participants is the challenge we all have to embrace. Waves of strong participants come in cycles: ‘golden years’ where it seems like everyone in a certain age group is a mustard-keen musician. We get used to them being there, but when they grow up and move on we’re left with a gap and realise we’re back to the recruitment drive again.

Having been involved with a couple of different youth music events taking place in different parts of the country (Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin, Tinto Summer School and Fèis Rois), though, it seems to me that there’s quite a lot of overlap when it comes to participants. Not all the time, obviously; but if a big youth music event was happening and we took a look at who was going, we could probably all list the likely suspects. This presents a problem because pretty soon they’re going to be moving on.

So, new participants – how do we look for them? How do we get more? Do difficulties arise because we’re trying to persuade people to do something they don’t want to do/can’t afford, or are we just not advertising in the right places? We can bring new small people in, but how do we keep that key age-group 16-18 interested?

The thing about 16-18-year-olds is that they’ve got important things like Highers to worry about. Easter can be a bit of a tricky time when they’re mired in exam preparation. They also start thinking of themselves as being too old for non-residential events. And they’re too busy for year-round activity. EYG has tried to get around this by inviting them back as volunteers, but is this just perpetuating the image that once you turn 16 you are not a participant any more, but a helper?

Residential events, so long as they’re at the right time of year (summer holidays, October break when academic pressures haven’t quite taken their grip), don’t seem to face the same age-issue. Participants are desperate to go back year after year. Tinto Summer School sold out in about a second last year and a good number of those participants were in their last years of school. I spoke to some of our 16-18s, who told me that there are just too many different youth music events vying for their attention each year, especially during the summer. They’re worrying about whether or not their friends are going, if they can afford it; and with all that choice, where will they find the time?

So what is the role of youth music providers? Are we creating opportunities for young people who might not otherwise have them, or fighting over the same few participants who are spoilt for choice? Are our core youth over-catered-for and do we need to have a look at how we target things? One question we’re always asking at EYG is how we can help those benefitting from valuable and successful outreach work to make the transition to those largely self-funded main events, and whether that sort of transition is appropriate. Is it just a matter of subsidised places or are there bigger issues at stake? Who are we benefitting and how does this match up with who we’d like to benefit?

There are a lot of questions here and I definitely don’t have the answers to all of them. It may be that in the fickle old dilemma of where to find participants, we need to accept that the pool of regular youth music event-goers is finite, and that there are many of us competing with each other for their attention. The challenge now is to find a way of bringing in new people year on year in a way that’s sustainable and affordable for them. Tricky one! Answers on a postcard please.

Charlotte Murray works for TMF members, Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin (www.eyg.org.uk).  The views expressed are her own.

Guest blog by Ewan McVicar

Hamish Henderson, Norman Buchan and Morris Blythman were the Big Three who brought the Scottish Folk Revival into life.  Then they were joined by Arthur Argo. He started the Aberdeen Folk Club, created and ran the massively influential Chapbook magazine, wrote some tremendous newspaper articles and made crucial BBC radio programmes and recordings.

Arthur Argo, centre (just below Hamish Henderson), at an early Inverness Folk Festival

Arthur, the great grandson of Gavin Greig, helped preserve and celebrate his predecessor’s work through his own singing and his nurturing of young performers through the booking agency he ran [unpaid!].  Sheila Douglas researched deeply and interviewed widely to write a biography of Arthur, but has been unable to get it published. I have now been permitted by Sheila and others to make her work available on the website where you will find I have split her account in two.  One covers most of Arthur’s life and work, but I have separated on the website her chapter on Chapbook, in which she details, discusses and comments more deeply on various Chapbook articles and on her own involvement in the Revival.

I have not sought to update Sheila’s text.

I recommend Sheila’s work to you.

Ewan McVicar is as an author, performer, songmaker, storyteller, publisher and project organiser.

You can hear Karine Polwart’s Trad Talk keynote speech by clicking on the following link: Karine’s talk

There is also a transcription on the Library page.

(We’ve been informed that there are issues with reading the library material, which is linked to issuu.com,  on iPad.  Please email info@traditionalmusicforum.org if you would like a copy.)