MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: AMBITION SCOTLAND

Fifty-five Arts organisation have been accepted onto the Scottish Arts Council’s £1million Ambition Scotland programme.

Members will receive support for digital development and sustainable change to encourage and improve levels of public engagement. Ambition Scotland will enhance organisation resilience and effectiveness whilst increasing the overall level of the digital technology base in the arts sector across Scotland.

Two new partnerships developed through the Ambition Scotland programme were also announced today, Thursday 28 January, further enhancing the offer to organisations. These developments involve the Scottish Centre for Enabling Technologies (SC4ET) and a number of Higher Education institutes across Scotland.

The initiatives were launched at an Ambition Scotland introductory event at the Scottish Book Trust in Edinburgh. The event will be repeated on Thursday 4 February at the Centre for Contemporary Arts.

The event outlined the Ambition Scotland programme, which has admitted organisations across two levels, engaging 40 ‘associate’ members and 15 ‘partner’ members. Members will benefit from access to a series of events, networking opportunities, access to a wide knowledge base about the use of digital technologies in the arts and creative industries and advice at a strategic level on the use and development of digital technologies.

A series of publications will be produced on the subject of Getting Digital alongside other themed events in 2010 and a bespoke Ambition Scotland website will provide an online resource to disseminate a growing knowledge base about the use of digital technologies in audience, organisational, artistic and business development.

Iain Munro, Co-Director of Arts, Scottish Arts Council said:

“The arts sector in Scotland is using technology to communicate differently with audiences to create innovative artistic content and the partnerships and new ways of working that Ambition Scotland presents is extremely exciting. Ambition Scotland aims to enable arts organisations to utilise technology in a more effective, integrated way and to support sustainable approaches to public engagement. Encouraging resilience and supporting sustainable organisational development in the arts is essential and we look forward to seeing digital technology in the arts sector become an integral element to future working.”

Free events, case studies and publications can be accessed by any arts organisation or creative business through the Ambition programme, by visiting www.getambition.com or joining the social network www.getambition.ning.com.

Partner organisations include:

• Edinburgh Printmakers
• Horsecross Arts Ltd
• Artlink Edin & Lothians
• Promoters Arts Network
• RSAMD
• Arika Heavy Industries
• Craftscotland
• Scottish Poetry Library
• Taigh Chearsabhagh Trust
• Stellar Quines Theatre Company
• Cumbernauld Theatre Trust Limited
• Woodend Arts Association
• Helmsdale Heritage & Arts Society (Timespan)
• Catherine Wheels Theatre Company
• Cove Park

Associate organisations include:

• Peacock Visual Arts
• Traverse Theatre (Scotland) Limited
• North East Arts Touring
• Tron Theatre
• Smallpetitklein Dance Company Limited
• Y dance (Scottish Youth Dance)
• The Travelling Gallery
• Collective Gallery
• Citizens
• Stills
• Glasgow Photography Group
• Booth Scotland Ltd
• Deveron Arts
• Greenock Arts Guild Limited
• Dance Ihayami
• Promote YT (Scotland)
• The Work Room
• Visible Fictions
• Scottish Music Information Centre
• Dundee Contemporary Arts
• Giant Productions
• An Lanntair
• Aberdeen Performing Arts
• Shetland Moving Image Project
• Dance Base Ltd
• National Youth Orchestra of Scotland
• Aberdeen International Youth Festival
• Theatre Cryptic
• Wee Stories
• Wasps Artists’ Studios
• Scottish Youth Theatre
• Puppet State Theatre Company
• Macrobert
• Dundee Rep Theatre
• Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
• Out of The Blue
• Regional Screen Scotland Ltd
• Glasgow Women’s Library
• Poor Boy Theatre Company
• New Moves International Limited

Partnerships
Scottish Centre for Enabling Technologies (SC4ET)
Working with SC4ET, Ambition will offer ‘associate’ members additional free and impartial advice on adopting a wide range of technologies, through up to 10 days access to information, advice and guidance. In addition, some organisations may apply for SC4ET’s ‘Feasibility Study Grant’, and could potentially receive up to £5000 or match funded support.

Higher Education Institutes
Edinburgh Napier University, University of West Scotland, Robert Gordon University and the University of Abertay have joined the Ambition programme to facilitate a series of internships. The internships will offer Ambition ‘associate’ organisations the opportunity to host students, from their Computing/Digital Media, Creative Industry, Business and Arts and Media & Computer Games schools respectively. The internships are available from summer of 2010 and will extend student learning beyond traditional academic environments and offer organisations access to young, cutting-edge skills and talents from this newly-emerging industry.