Category Archives: Expressive Arts

Dance, Developing the Young Workforce, Drama, Music

Opportunity for creative school leavers! – Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund

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Sky Arts is offering five young artists £30,000 each to fund their work for a full year as part of the Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund – in association with IdeasTap.

Sky Arts recognises that there’s an incredible amount of young talent in the arts today – but finding a way to get your work made is an ever-present challenge. The fund is designed to help bridge the gap between formal education and becoming a working artist.

So, whether you want to direct a piece of theatre, choreograph a new dance piece, write a novel, record an album, create a sculpture or produce a live art performance, Sky Arts will give you the time and money to make it happen. We’ll also pair you with a mentor from Sky to help you develop your networks, skills and knowledge in the arts and the commercial sector.

The Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund is open to individual artists working in visual art, theatre, performance art, film, music, dance orliterature. To apply, you must be an IdeasTap member aged 18-30 on 19 September 2011 and be based in either the UK or Ireland. It’s free to become an IdeasTap member and just takes a few minutes – sign up here.

Tell us how the Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund bursary can help take your work to the next level and you could be in with the chance of receiving one of five £30,000 bursaries, as well as an opportunity to showcase your work on Sky Arts – be it on TV, online or on demand.

Two winners will be selected during this round of funding. The next round will open in early 2012 from which three further winners will be chosen.

The Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund is part of the Sky Arts Ignition Series, which seeks to collaborate with six arts organisations over the next three years in the creation of brand new works, and further expanding Sky’s support of the arts in the UK and Ireland.

About Sky Arts

Sky is the only broadcaster in the UK and Ireland with channels dedicated solely to the arts, with 48 hours of the best arts content from around the world across Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2 daily. Recent highlights include the latest season of the Met Opera, Chekhov Comedy Shorts, a season of brand new plays starring the cream of British comedic talent, Tim Marlow on Sculpture 3D and The South Bank Sky Arts Awards.

Sky Arts also seeks to connect with culture on the ground; creating and collaborating with the best of the arts in the UK and Ireland to bring new experiences to life.

For more information on Sky Arts, please visit www.sky.com/arts.

Download the terms and conditions here.

Read an interview with Sky Arts Channel Director James Hunt.

Applications close at 5pm on Monday 19 September 2011.

Drama

Gaelic speaking primary pupils now serve as Junior Guides at Edinburgh Castle

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Historic Scotland

Gaelic Junior Guides at Edinburgh Castle http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/index/news/news_article.htm?articleid=32313

Gaelic medium education pupils from Tollcross Primary School in Edinburgh have seen the culmination of weeks of training to become Historic Scotland’s Gaelic speaking Junior Guides at Edinburgh Castle. The pupils gave a costumed performance in Gaelic of a 16th century royal banquet scene for an invited audience in the Great Hall at Edinburgh Castle on Monday 13 June.

At the end of the performance they were presented with their graduation certificates as fully-fledged Edinburgh Castle Gaelic Junior Guides.

During the past few weeks the pupils have also become film stars.  Their guided tour of the Great Hall, delivered as a costumed performance, has been filmed to produce an educational DVD about the Great Hall at Edinburgh Castle for both Gaelic learners and Gaelic speakers, whatever their age.

Developing the Young Workforce, Drama, Music

RSAMD becomes Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

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On 1 September 2011 the RSAMD changes its name to become the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

This is a significant new chapter in the story of one of Europe’s leading conservatoires. Founded in 1847, the RSAMD now provides specialist learning to the highest professional level in dance, drama, music, production, screen and education. As these can’t all be listed in one name the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland better expresses this unusually rich breadth of artistic disciplines.


http://www.rsamd.ac.uk/ <http://www.rsamd.ac.uk/>

Alongside undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, the Academy is rare in that tuition is provided across all disciplines to people of all ages and stages. The range of evening, weekend, short courses, summer schools and Continuing Professional Development available is extensive and will be further developed. The well-reputed Junior Academy of Music for talented 9-18 year olds will become part of the Junior Conservatoire which will also embrace Modern Ballet. Contributions to Youthworks music centres across Scotland will continue.

As part of this evolution towards a new-model of conservatoire, one which is fit for the 21st century, in 2012 an innovative new curriculum will be introduced, which is designed to meet the need felt by professional companies round the world for confident, reflective, adaptable artists. The curriculum will create the space for disciplinary excellence, choice and transdisciplinary co-creation. This has been supported through ongoing investment which sees facilities becoming the best in Europe.

To find out more, please visit www.rsamd.ac.uk <http://www.rsamd.ac.uk>

Drama

Shetland Schools Road Safety – animation, performance and presentations

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Junior Road Safety – fun with a serious message http://www.shetland.gov.uk/news-advice/PR-JuniorRoadSafety-funwithaseriousmessage.asp

Primary pupils from across Shetland gathered on Friday 10 June at the Town Hall to mark the end of a year of hard work promoting road safety in Shetland’s schools. At the event this afternoon, Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs) from 16 primary schools presented a mixture of power point presentations, animated films and live performances to their friends and peers, all with the message of staying safe on the road.

Dance, Drama, Music, Religious and Moral Education, Social Studies

Pupils use art, music, dance and drama to illustrate their political hopes and dreams

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Young people set to create their Holyrood vision
More than 200 teenagers from across Scotland will use art, music, dance and drama to illustrate their political hopes and dreams for the future, thanks to an innovative Parliament education project to be held at Holyrood on Friday 17 June.
The ‘Political Voices’ event will see 17-year-olds from 31 Scottish schools take part in a series of creative activities – from spray-painting an 8ft high wall in the Scottish Parliament garden with political ‘street art’ to designing a cartoon with the award-winning animators behind the Dennis the Menace TV series.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/news/news-11/pa11-021.htm

Music

Simple Acts – Share a Song – Glow Meet

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Wednesday 8 June, 11 am – 12 pm

It is impossible to sing without smiling so we invite you to share your songs and your smiles with us.  Songs are passed down from generation to generation and have the ability to unite people across countries.  We look forward to hearing your songs. To sign up for this Glow Meet, click here. (Glow password required)

https://portal.glowscotland.org.uk/establishments/nationalsite/Simple%20Acts/Hidden%20Pages%20Store/Share%20a%20Song.aspx?PageView=Shared&IDSIP=EXT&dm_i=LQE,FXCF,3GU5HR,1AHR9,1
Health and Wellbeing, Music

Scottish Opera Seeks School Sports Anthem

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Primary school pupils are being asked to flex their musical muscles for Scottish Opera.

Two of the world’s biggest sporting events are coming to the UK within the next 4 years – the London 2012 Olympic Games and Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games – and we’re working with both events to find a sporting anthem to celebrate.


Primary schools who’ve taken part in our current tour Scotland, our Scotland! are eligible to take part. We want pupils to use the show – which is all about the fun of sport and teamwork – as a starting point for composing their very own School Sports Anthem.

The song can be about any aspect of sport, be it favourite games, what’s most enjoyable about getting involved, or even hopes for Scotland’s future as an international sporting nation.

A panel of experts, including Scottish Opera’s General Director Alex Reedijk, and Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill, will choose the winner.

Scottish Opera will arrange the winning entry for live instruments, and visit the winning school to rehearse the final version of the song. Singers and musicians from the Company will then perform alongside pupils in a special world premiere performance of the song as part of their own School Sports Day.

The winning entry will also feature on Scottish Opera’s website throughout June 2012.

So get on your marks, get set…and go compose!

All entries must be submitted by 1 September 2011. For full entry details go to www.scottishopera.org.uk/schools

Drama

“Taking the Drama out of Drama Delivery” Basic Drama Activities and Exercises – CPD Glow Meet

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Join Lyceum Drama Artist Christie O’Carroll and Youth Theatre Producer John Glancy to learn how to lead your class in easy-to-use and effective drama exercises including warm-up and cool-down exercises, as well as more in-depth drama activities

This Thursday 4.15 – 5pm. Just turn up if you don’t manage to sign up in advance.

All exercises and activities can be adapted for different age-groups and we will show you how to adapt some of the activities to support topics or themes that you are working on in class.

Instructions on leading the exercises will be able to download following the Glow Meet.

Sign up and join us at bit.ly/glowingthursday

Dance, Health and Wellbeing

So, you think you need funding for dance?

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Yes, that’s right folks, for the first time in the history of the BBC Performing Arts Fund, we will be funding dance in 2011 via two brand new schemes – Community Dance andDance Fellowships.

To celebrate this, we held a reception before the live recording of BBC One’s So You Think You Can Dance a few weeks ago where we caught up with dancer, choreographer and judge on the show, Arlene Phillips.

Arlene Phillips Blog Picture
If anyone knows about how challenging and rewarding a discipline dance can be, it’s Arlene. Here’s what she had to say:

“Dance was always my dream, and I know for many people out there it is a dream for them too.

It takes hours of hard work and practise, but can also bring great joy and happiness into people’s lives. As well as being a fantastic way to stay in shape, it also helps with coordination and focus.

Whether it’s your job for life or a hobby for fun, dance is accessible to all no matter what your age so find your nearest dance centre, gym or community centre and see what you can get involved in!”

The Community Dance scheme is now open for applications and Dance Fellowshipswill launch on the 7th June so check back for more information!

If you have any questions or comments on our plans for dance then please get in touch at performingartsfund@bbc.co.uk Alternatively you can join in the conversation on ourFacebook page or on Twitter.