National Youth Arts Wales expands creative talent development projects with funding via Creative Wales
NYAW has been awarded funding – over £45,000 – from Welsh Government via Creative Wales to help develop Wales’s creative talent in the film, TV, commercial music, and digital sectors.
Launched in September of last year, the Creative Skills Sector Fund was created with the intention of supporting projects that can deliver against one or more of the ten identified priorities within the three-year industry led Creative Skills Action Plan.
The Action Plan seeks to address the skills needs of the three priority sectors: music, digital content, and screen in the short term, as well as considering the long-term needs which will ensure Wales continues to have a thriving creative sector.
Earlier this month, Dawn Bowden MS, Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport, announced that over £1.5m is to be shared between 17 projects across the creative industries, she said:
“The purpose of this fund is to continue to support strategic skills partnerships across Wales and I’m delighted that we’ve been able to award the funding to collaborative projects which will provide excellent opportunities for those working in the sector or seeking to work in the sector from all backgrounds.” You can read the written statement in full here.
As recipients of the fund, NYAW will use this to expand two of its projects for young people – Professional Pathways and Music Futures.
Professional Pathways
Our Professional Pathways programme is a career development scheme for young talented drama performers, delivered in partnership with Theatr Clwyd and Wales Millennium Centre. In spring 2023, 45 young people aged 16-22 will take part in an intensive residential training programme, giving them a first-hand insight into the range of transferable skills in the theatre, screen, and digital sectors.
Each residential weekend or training day focuses on specific skills including performance technique, set, costume and lighting design, script writing, accessibility within performance and marketing and programming drama. Read more on this project here.
Using the funding from Creative Wales, our Professional Pathways programme will offer expanded access to film and TV workshops and how these practices relate to the digital sector, acting for green screen, voice training for screen, podcasts and voiceover work, and plenty more besides.
Music Futures
Elsewhere, the funding will help continue Music Futures, our contemporary music project supporting young musicians aged 16-18 to make their mark on the current Welsh music scene across a wide range of genres –from Grime to Indie, Electronica to RnB.
First developed in 2019, the project supports music makers with potential to develop and grow as artists, developing their songwriting, self-management, and musicianship skills in a safe and supportive environment. It offers an authentic industry experience, and a glimpse into a working musician’s career, taking participants through the full life cycle of songwriting – including composition and recording, performance, touring, and promotion.
As part of our ongoing commitment to nurture diverse talent, at least 25% of participants will come from a global majority background, and at least 15% of the 70 beneficiaries will be living with a disability, helping foster a more diverse and inclusive Welsh music industry.
Alongside this we’ll be hiring a new Trainee Producer specific to the Music Futures project, with recruitment beginning in March 2023, and working with Future Mentors again to help facilitate the programme and offer participants the best possible access and knowledge to the contemporary music sector in Wales.
Previous mentors have included Kizzy Crawford, Heledd Watkins (HMS Morris) and Tumi Williams (Afrocluster, Skunkadelic) to name just a few. We look forward to developing our projects further over the coming months and into the summer residency period.
