Catherine Wheels has been a member of the Young Audiences Group since its inception in 2018. The group is made up of organisations in Scotland like us who produce work for young audiences, as well as freelancers who work in our sector. As a group, our aims are to:
1. Build greater unity, collaboration and knowledge-sharing across the young audiences ecology to positively impact creative talent and skills development.
2. Raise awareness and increase understanding of the value of young audiences work with key stakeholders.
3. Increase engagement with and relevance for young audiences work with diverse communities across Scotland.
4. Increase funding and income generation for young audiences work, leading to more sustainable delivery and employment.
Recently, we commissioned Culture Radar to carry out some formal research into our sector, to identify the key needs and priorities for our ongoing work. That report has now been completed, and can be read in full here.
Our next step is to discuss as a collective how we action the recommendations in the report. So, during Imaginate 2022 (a time when a lot of our peers and colleagues in Scotland come together), we’re holding an open discussion event at the Traverse Theatre. If you work in the Young Audiences sector in Scotland, please join us! For more information and to RSVP, visit the Eventbrite link here. We hope to see you there for some fruitful discussions about our future!