Creative Places Award
Arran Theatre and Arts Trust, as lead in collaboration with many arts organisations(link) has made an application for this award to Creative Scotland. To the delight of everyone involved, the application was selected to go forward to the short list and the final results will be known on June 10th. This is our second short listing for the award. The first was in 2013 and the film we made for that can be seen here.
If the application is successful, Arran would benefit from the sum of £100,000 to develop the arts on the island.
As part of the final judging process we have been asked to submit a 10 minute presentation for the jury which we are working on right now. Many thanks to all those individuals and groups who have contributed in any way to the submission.
Whatever happens, this has been an extremely worthwhile venture encouraging arts organisations on the island to work together and consider how to further the development of the abundant talent on Arran in order to benefit individuals, the community and the island economy and we are appreciative of the opportunity afforded to us by Creative Scotland.
After several years of planning and overcoming many difficulties, we are delighted to announce the publication for the very first time of the Collected Works of Robert McLellan. (link) The volume contains all work which McLellan himself wished to be published, many never previously published, with the exception of The Linmill Stories which have already been published separately, both by Canongate and Luath Press. This has been a long and arduous project undertaken by Arran Theatre and Arts Trust in conjunction with Luath Press who have produced a volume worthy of this important writer in Scotland’s literary history. The editing by Colin Donati is impressive with important contributions by Douglas Gifford, Donald Campbell and Alastair Cording.
The single volume will be available from April 12th and sells at £20. This will be available on Arran as well as main bookshops.
Young People’s Film Project
Arran Theatre and Arts Trust is grateful to North Ayrshire Council for funding the Young People’s Project. The funding enabled the Trust firstly, to run a highly successful and demanding weekend course in September for 18 enthusiastic and talented Arran young people aged 15 – 17 with an interest in acting, film technology, writing and directing to learn the skills of plotting, screenplay writing, storyboarding, acting for camera, filming, sound and editing in order to create their own fifteen minute film using Brodick Castle as a location.
Led by Kate Nelson of Nutshell Theatre and Ed O’Donnelly of Arran Arts the group worked intensively over the weekend during which many script ideas were developed, and training given for camera, sound and other associated filming skills as well as training given for acting for camera.
Secondly, funding has enabled ten sessions to take place following the initial training weekend, during which all the filming tasks (concept, screenplay, performance, production, camera, sound, storyboarding, continuity and editing) have been entirely undertaken by the young people themselves to an astonishingly high level. The final shooting of the film took place at Brodick Castle during the weekend 10th/11th November, and, after editing, had a public showing in February and is now available on Youtube. Arran Theatre and Arts Trust is grateful, not only to North Ayrshire Council but also The National Trust for Scotland for its help in allowing the use of Brodick Castle and the Victorian costumes used in the production and to Robin Fisher of Arran Events for lighting expertise.