Scotland’s Islands Announces First Round of Grant Awards

The year of events and activities to showcase Scotland’s Islands gets underway in April. The project is supporting this by coordinating the award of funds to a range of applicants. Funds are available through the Scotland’s Islands project itself as well as through Awards For All.

Scotland’s Islands has so far offered awards to more than thirty organisations across all the island groups and will be announcing successful applicants as their plans are confirmed;

• 18 new events have been offered funding in Round One
• A further 6 have been offered funding for enhancements to their usual plans
• 15  new or enhanced events will directly benefit and involve inhabitants of the smaller islands
• Successful applicants so far include brand new events such as The Orkney Literature and Book Festival, The Uist Eco Film Festival and an exhibition about Two Slate Island Communities - Belnahua & Luing - in Oban.
• Funding awarded will also support existing events such as The Hebridean Book Festival in Stornoway. 
• Scotland’s Islands will also provide funding to enable the hosting of feature events such as the Celtic Media Festival, the Lewis Chessmen exhibition and landfall by Tall Ships participants cruising through the islands to Shetland.
• Around 40 of Scotland’s 99 inhabited islands already have plans in place to hold events, festivals or exhibitions, from the smallest (Luing and Eigg) to the largest (Skye, Lewis and Shetland)
• Events are scheduled from April this year to March 2012
• Of the events currently confirmed, almost a third are musical and a quarter feature heritage, culture and the visual arts.

Scotland’s Islands, a new collaborative marketing initiative developed through a partnership of the six local authorities with island communities, aims to raise the profile of the islands, attract new visitors, bolster community and economic development and strengthen links between the islands and mainland cultural organisations.

With a recent Deloitte report currently valuing Scotland’s tourism sector at £11 billion and VisitScotland predicting an additional 30,000 overseas visitors to Scotland during 2011, the Scotland’s Islands project represents a unique opportunity for local event organisers to develop their events and highlight the people, events and produce that make island life special.

For more information on the Scotland’s Islands initiative visit: www.scotlandsislands.com

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