Creative Scotland has said it will continue to fund Tasgadh, a scheme which offers grants of up of £1,000 to organisations and individuals involved in Scottish traditional arts.
Since its inception in 2015-16 Tasgadh has dealt with 330 applications, 204 of which were awarded funding totalling £126,000 for projects worth nearly £600,000.
The funded projects have involved more than 30,000 people between audiences, participants and those delivering the projects.
Fèisean nan Gàidheal chief executive Arthur Cormack welcomed the ongoing commitment from Creative Scotland: “Tasgadh has confirmed there is a need within the traditional arts sector for access to small grants which are relatively light touch and offer a fast decision-making process.
“Creative Scotland continues to support traditional arts directly and can deal with larger projects through other routes, but we are very happy the organisation has undertaken to continue funding Tasgadh in 2019-20 with £31,500 available to disburse to Scottish traditional music, dance and storytelling projects.”
Kirsty MacDonald, traditional arts officer at Creative Scotland said: “We are delighted with the strength and range of applications to the Tasgadh fund from all over Scotland, and commend Fèisean nan Gàidheal on their ongoing work in promoting and administering the scheme.
“We strongly encourage individuals and groups working in the traditional arts to look at this fund for support and particularly encourage projects working in Gaelic, Scots and hard to reach audiences.”
The fund is supported by Creative Scotland, and managed by Fèisean nan Gàidheal.
It is available to provide support for traditional artists and organisations to create, perform, tour and showcase work.
Professional development applications can also be supported though the fund.
There are three deadline dates for Tasgadh applications during 2019-20, the first being July 26.
Guidelines and application forms are available at feisean.org/tasgadh and a new online application form has been introduced.
There is also a range of case studies of successfully completed projects to give applicants a flavor of the kind of initiatives Tasgadh will support.