National Youth Arts Wales to award hundreds of extra bursaries thanks to new funding from Leverhulme Trust
National Youth Arts Wales (NYAW) has been awarded an Arts Scholarship grant of £165,448 from the Leverhulme Trust, which will support hundreds of young people from lower-income backgrounds to take part in our advanced performance training.
The funding will allow NYAW to substantially expand its current programme of bursaries and development programmes over the next four years, benefitting 240 young people each year by 2024-25.
As well as offering fee reductions of up to 100% for our summer residencies, those most in need will also receive a bursary grant to help cover travel costs and other expenses. This year, for the first time, NYAW offered automatic fee waivers for young people coming from households receiving Universal Credit, Free School Meals or full Welsh Government Learning Grants, as well as young carers, those seeking asylum or care-experienced members.
Gillian Mitchell, NYAW’s Chief Executive Officer, commented on the announcement: “We’re absolutely delighted to receive this funding from the Leverhulme Trust. It will help us continue to ensure that every young person can access our advanced performance training, regardless of their financial background.
Our aim is to make accessing a bursary as easy as possible – with no lengthy forms or requiring lots of evidence. We want to reduce the stigma and ensure this funding helps those it’s intended to help – the most talented young musicians, actors and dancers from every single community across Wales.”
This grant makes the Leverhulme Trust the Principal Supporter of the NYAW Bursary Fund. The Bursary Fund is also supported annually by the Neil and Mary Ellen Webber Bursary Fund, and the Friends of National Youth Orchestra of Wales. We’re also grateful to all the individuals who give to our bursary fund by direct debit – you can join them by visiting https://www.nyaw.org.uk/support-us.
NYAW’s expanded bursary scheme is just one part of the ongoing effort to work towards a more equitable arts sector for young performers. NYAW is also expanding its range of development projects, designed to provide targeted tuition to young people from under-represented communities, such as those with a disability, or from communities who experience racism.
Later in 2021, NYAW will publish the independent recommendations from a series of Diversity Taskforces, across music, dance and theatre, alongside a new updated Strategic Equality Plan. The recommendations and plan will both contain targets to increase the proportion of young participants who identify as D/deaf or disabled, and the proportion of participants who come from racialised communities.