“Time to Shine” Youth Arts Strategy

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 14 May 2014.

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Photo of Fiona Hyslop Fiona Hyslop Scottish National Party

Between Neil Bibby’s dancing and Patricia Ferguson’s rapping, members can see that we can express ourselves in different ways.

A number of important points have been made. It is clear that across the chamber there is a shared passion about, and commitment to, ensuring that all our young people are given the opportunity to experience culture. The joy, the challenge, the energy, the expression, the understanding and the opportunity to question that the arts give to young people must be core to our story. Therefore, I am pleased that there is a consensus on how important culture is to our society and our young people. However, important points have been addressed, to which I will come.

Youth arts help young people to develop skills that are needed in the modern world: the ability to be flexible, to solve problems, to communicate, to learn new skills, to be creative, to be innovative and to strive for excellence. The enrichment that the arts provide for our young people is important.

There are also wonderful examples of culture making a difference to our young people. I stress again that the cashback for creativity programme is engaging with young people who are at risk of turning to crime and antisocial behaviour and is making a real impact on their lives.

Access has been a running theme. We should consider what Scottish Ballet is doing with its innovative project, the close, which provides a first-time ballet experience for young adults, some of whom are excluded from mainstream education. The project

“aims to empower participants by welcoming their creative ideas and building their confidence, communication, self-expression and creative skills”.

Liam McArthur talked about Orkney. He will be aware of the wonderful example of the Orkney peedie schools orchestra. Next month, for the third year, all the pupils in Orkney’s smallest schools will come together to form an orchestra with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra musicians in a project that is delivered in partnership with Orkney Islands Council. The real challenge that we have in the youth strategy is to ensure that we can reach all geographical areas and the different groups in society.

I will address a number of other issues that were raised in the debate. There were questions about how we advance the Sistema project. Aberdeen City Council wants to do that. As part of our funding from across the different Government departments, we have also helped Sistema Scotland to think about what it should do next, in terms of development. We are also supporting the aspire Dundee programme, which involves different art forms. I am sure that Parliament will want to take a close interest in that.

Colleges and universities have also been mentioned, which is important. I will address the issue of the demand that we are creating collectively through the consequences of the YMI. The young people who have had the opportunity that the initiative provides in the early years now want to take it up in secondary school, which is creating demand. It is not always necessarily a demand for qualifications, although I am pleased to see that, in the last year for which we have figures, the number of advanced highers for expressive arts went up 8 per cent and, for music, 12 per cent. That demand means that orchestras are growing in terms of schools, different experiences and the demand to play different instruments. Sometimes, travel to another school causes problems with tuition payment. I will ask Alasdair Allan to update at the earliest opportunity members who inquired about tuition fees .