YOU are invited to macrobert’s biggest ever birthday party. We are turning 40 this year and will be celebrating the start of the anniversary year with a big bang on Saturday 17 September. The party is a big fundraising event that will kick off a whole year of celebrations and has something for everyone. The party is free, but you are invited to pay what you think it was worth at the end.

Performances, workshops and events will be ongoing from 12 noon till 9pm, and a 70s disco and ceilidh will close the event from 9pm till late. For full details go to www.macrobert.org/40 <http://www.macrobert.org/40>  or call our lovely box office team on 01786 466666.

And please bring your friends and family too! We are looking forward to seeing you on the day. Oooh, and there will be cake!

Please help us spread the word and forward this invite to your friends and colleagues.

PS: RSVP on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/ragDA2 <http://on.fb.me/ragDA2>  or spread the word on Twitter using #macrobert40

Year of Creative Scotland 2012

Year of Creative Scotland and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, cultural programmes offer a significant opportunity over a three-year period.

Year of Creative Scotland 2012 will promote Scotland’s cultural vibrancy, shining a light on our creative assets; promoting our festivals, our performers, our writers and our great cities. It will celebrate our inspiring creative communities and inspire people across Scotland to engage with arts and culture and to explore their own creativity.

You can apply now for support through four investment opportunities:

• Culture and Tourism: we wish to encourage the cultural sector to engage more effectively with the tourism industry with a view to: increasing audiences; increasing attendances at cultural events by domestic and international visitors; and improving the trading position of cultural businesses. The first deadline for this programme is 29 September 2011, with a second deadline of 31 January 2012.
• One Step Further (Festivals Growth): as part of the celebration and promotion of 2012 as Year of Creative Scotland, we are offering opportunities for existing festivals and events to enhance their programme and generate more tourist visits to their event. The deadline for this programme is 17 October 2011.
• First in a Lifetime: Scotland is a creative nation with world-class artists and creative practitioners, but not everyone gets to enjoy or take part in creative activity. They may have been prevented from doing this because of lack of opportunity, financial constraints, social inequalities, location, access issues or just lack of confidence. We want to help exceptional artists and creative people, and organisations of quality, to increase “first in a lifetime” opportunities for people who do not normally get the chance. The deadlines for this programme are 29 September 2011 and 31 January 2012.
• Creative Places Awards: Scotland has a wealth of festivals, events and year-round creative activities that not only enhance peoples’ lives, but also act as a magnet for visitors and contribute to local economies. Much of this activity takes place outside of the big urban centres; in small towns, villages and other communities, often in areas remote from the main population centres. We want to celebrate the value of creativity to the social and economic wellbeing of communities, and to reward the hard work and imagination that lies behind the success of such places. The deadline is 28 October 2011.

Creative Identities: Dance, Film and Music

Creative Identities is part of the Scottish Government’s CashBack for Communities programme which reinvests the proceeds of crime back into communities to benefit Scotland’s young people. Creative Identities investment provides access to high quality experiential opportunities for young people in dance, film and music within communities.

Dance: YouthLink Scotland will manage a programme to provide young people with a range of opportunities to develop their dance skills.

Film and Digital Media: will provide young people from all backgrounds with opportunities to develop their skills, talent, creativity and confidence whilst also developing their knowledge, understanding and appreciation of film & digital media.

Music – Independent Music Making: will support professional recording/rehearsal studios, or organisations working in partnership with professional recording/rehearsal studios, to offer young people opportunities to record their first professional demo tracks.

For more details visit Investment Programme 15: Creative Identities

Other new investment programmes include:

Traditional Arts: there are two new programmes:

• The first will invest in new Traditional Arts Commissions of various scales that can be performed regionally, nationally and internationally – from small scale productions which can be toured regionally, up to large scale productions that can engage on an international stage.
• The second will invest in Traditional Arts Mentoring and Advanced Tutoring to develop Scotland’s traditional arts base by strengthening the transmission of skills, approaches and techniques between artists. Traditional arts is taken to encompass Dance, Music and Storytelling within the traditions which are actively practiced within Scotland.

Our Capital programme will invest in cultural facilities, refurbishments and equipment, which improve access, presentation and enjoyment of the arts and film for the population of Scotland and has a deadline of 30 September 2011.

Youth Music Initiative: To support and create access to high quality music making programmes particularly for young people that would not normally engage in music activities.

Investment Surgeries

Creative Scotland is hosting Investment Surgeries across Scotland. Meet Creative Scotland staff face-to-face to talk about your project and our Investment Programmes.  September’s surgeries will be held in:

• Tower Mill, Hawick – 7 September (1pm – 3pm)
• Creative Scotland office, Glasgow – 15 September (2pm-4pm)
• Eden Court, Inverness – 15 September (4pm – 6pm)
• Macphail Centre, Ullapool – 16 September (12noon – 2pm)

You should read the guidelines for the programme you are interested in before your surgery to ensure that you and your project meet the criteria for investment. To book an appointment, email: pmo@creativescotland.com

Arts and Older People – Festival 2012

Creative Scotland, in partnership with the Baring Foundation and Age Scotland, is planning an inspiring and ambitious annual festival of arts for, by, with and about older people. The first festival will take place in October 2012. But we need your help to plan! There is a lot of arts and ageing activity taking place throughout Scotland and we want to map this to shape the new festival. We are particularly interested in hearing about inter-generational arts activity, arts programmes in residential care homes, and existing local festivals targeting older people. If you are involved in any activity of this nature then please share it with us by emailing: maggie.maxwell@creativescotland.com

Meet, greet and hot desk

We have a number of hot-desk and meeting spaces in our Edinburgh office that are available from the beginning of September, for the creative community to work from. To book a touch down space please email:reception.edinburgh@creativescotland.com

And finally…Opportunities!

Since we introduced our Opportunities site in June, we’ve had over 75,000 hits and hundreds of opportunities have been uploaded. That’s a fantastic response and tells us it’s a useful tool for you, your organisation or your sector. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out.