Credit: Madeline Baker
Writer
As part of Festival 2018 taking place in Glasgow this year, the organisers have set up a fund to give Glaswegian groups the chance to promote cultural and artistic activity in their community.
Festival 2018 is the cultural programme taking place alongside the Glasgow 2018 European Championships. £60,000 has been set aside to invest in community groups to allow them to put on cultural events and arts activities. The Festival 2018 Our Place Fund is to be used by the groups to celebrate the people and talent in their local area.
The aim is to bring people and places together and deliver the Festival 2018 programme directly into local communities by the communities themselves, all while celebrating the first ever European Championships.
Groups across Glasgow are invited to apply for funding to produce ambitious and diverse cultural events and activities. All art-forms are welcomed, including music, carnival, visual art, theatre, dance, film, literature and performance.
The deadline for applications is 29 January, after which the decision of which groups should be granted the funding will pass over to the people of Glasgow themselves. Residents will get to vote online and in person, to decide which activities they want to see taking place, their favourite proposals will help shape Glasgow 2018’s cultural programme.
Glasgow 2018 European Championships is the biggest sporting event to take place in Scotland since the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Festival 2018 will take place alongside the sporting action in Glasgow, as well as in other places across Scotland, to allow Scotland’s residents, the visiting athletes, spectators, tourists and the media an exciting cultural experience. This enormous union of sport and culture will take place from 2-12 August 2018.
The director of the Glasgow 2018 European Championships, Colin Hartley described the event: “Glasgow 2018 promises to be one of the most exciting sporting and cultural events ever experienced in Scotland and there will be something for everybody to enjoy.
“We want as many people as possible to be part of this historic event – the first-ever of its kind and this funding gives local communities the chance to create their own special moments during the Championships. Local groups can seize this opportunity to play a part in the action-packed cultural programme that is shaped by the people that live here.”
Local host areas of the 2018 European Championships will also be supported by an extension of the fund in areas such as Perth and Kinross, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs and North Lanarkshire, with a total of £125,000 invested in local cultural activity across the Championships.
