Fresh Start: Youth Arts Learning Journeys..

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New horizons are opening up for young people from across Dumfries and Galloway who will benefit from four special mentorships.The Youth Arts Learning Journeys arts mentorships, each worth up to £2,000, are part of the Fresh Start initiative.

The successful proposals are highly distinctive and imaginative. In each case mentors from D&G will help young people develop their artistic and creative skills. They will also enable them to experience examples of best-practice by working with high-quality practitioners or organisations at a national level.

One successful application will see Jordan Chisholm, aged 19, and Electric Theatre associate director Justin Hyslop, taking part in the world’s largest celebration of youth theatre. Jordan and Justin will go on residencies where they will work with renowned writers and directors to create two new pieces of theatre. When they return they will share their new skills with others in D&G.

Aerialist and arts educator Cate Ross will mentor two talented young Stewartry people, Chloe Briggs and Alasdair Hulatt – helping them develop solo acts and pick up experience in teaching and production.

Cate Ross

Alasdair, aged 17 from Kirkcudbright, who already shows amazing promise in circus arts like stilt walking and stunt unicycling, wants to teach others and to learn tightrope walking. Chloe, a promising singer, wants to learn dance trapeze after being inspired by seeing pop star Pink perform while on a flying trapeze.

Emma Louise Barrass, who teaches dance in the west of the region, will mentor 16-year-old Kelly Whiteside from Newton Stewart. The project will give her wide-ranging experience, including the chance to learn from world-class teachers at Pineapple Dance Studios in London. Kelly will then lead a small group of other dancers, aged 12 to 16, to create a new piece of work which they will perform in Newton Stewart and Stranraer.

The fourth project involves Centre Stage Youth Theatre, Langholm, which is creating a play to commemorate the centenary of World War I. The performance will be inspired by archive material, music and social history of the period – a time when the largest munitions factory ever built was sited near Gretna and employed thousands of local people, mainly young women, as a core part of the war effort. 

Gretna during WW1

Kathleen O’Neill, Fresh Start project manager, said she is very much looking forward to the outcomes of the learning journeys and their impact on future arts planning in the region.

Fresh Start is ambitious to find ways in which the region can promote artistic excellence and opportunity for its young people and the mentorships are part of this vision.

If anyone wants to have a chat with Kathleen to find out more about Fresh Start they can send her an email at culturematters@BTinternet.com and she’ll get in touch.