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 |
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.
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