Beating the drum!
Fiona Dalgetty has worked as the cultural co-ordinator for the south and southwest neighbourhoods for 18 months and has already made an impact on creative projects in schools.
When a school contacts Fiona for help, she thinks up innovative ways to link with artists and cultural partners, and to help find grants and sponsorship.
“All of the cultural co-ordinators have artistic backgrounds which really helps us develop creative ideas for schools,” said Fiona.
“My background is in music. My colleagues have similar creative and developmental backgrounds in drama, visual art and heritage.
“As practising artists, we know what it is like to work in schools but we also have experience of implementing and managing creative projects.”
Many of Fiona’s new initiatives involve music, including an early years project called Music and Me.
This project gives children from five city nurseries the opportunity to explore emotional literacy through music.
“This is a really important project,” said Fiona. “The children heard live performances in their own nurseries from professional classical, folk and jazz musicians, and 49 nursery staff from across the city had the opportunity to learn new methods of teaching music in the classroom.”
This is just one of many projects Creative Links has been involved in. Over the last two years, between August 2006 and June 2008, they have reached 34,153 children and young people in schools.
Fiona’s working week is packed with supporting artists leading workshops in schools, creating new partnerships and sourcing new funding.
She cited a typical day. “Last Monday began at the official opening of Currie Primary School where I was involved with a week of multi-cultural activities.
“Then it was on to Liberton Nursery School for a storytelling project. Later that afternoon, I visited Liberton High School where the National Library is running a heritage project.
“And then it was back to the office for a meeting about the recently established Edinburgh Youth Music Forum.”
Fiona is particularly proud of an ongoing drama project at Wellington School where pupils are working with theatre professionals and artists with funding from Awards For All.
As there are no music, drama or dance specialists at Wellington, Creative Links has played a key role in helping create opportunities.
In the coming months, pupils will see two professional theatre productions and have the chance to go backstage to get an insight into how a professional theatre works.
They will then work with a script writer, artistic director, set designer, costume designer, dancer and sound and lighting engineers to create their own production, which will be performed at the Traverse Theatre in March 2009.
“I think it’s fair to say that the majority of the boys at Wellington would not normally consider going to a theatre. We want to break down barriers,” said Fiona.
“At first only a couple of boys signed up for Dancebase workshops. However, when we brought Random Aspekts – one of Scotland’s top breakdancing crews – to perform at the school, the boys were hugely impressed. Now they all want to do it!”
More to know
The Creative Links Team is part of Arts and Learning within the Children and Families Department. Funded by the Scottish Arts Council and the Council, the team aims to enhance and widen opportunities for participation, engagement and learning in the arts for all young people in our city’s schools.
The team develops opportunities for creative learning. This could include participation in dance, drama, music, visual arts, literature, film, photography, animation and more.