Creative Notes

why we need to act to support creativity in care

Paul Sullivan, and the team of volunteers he works alongside at Sound Lab, are driven by the ethos that 'music matters'.

They believe that, irrespective of age, gender, race, ethnicity or economic background, everyone should be able to access the resources and support they need to fulfil their creative potential. The small charity he chairs is made up of a dedicated team of volunteers and expert tutors who, together, bring free music and creativity to hundreds of people every year. Together with another music charity called Music Plus, they have created a programme called Musicares that supports hundreds of care experienced young people each year with free access to music and creativity. The workshops are free and are designed to be flexible and accessible - able to follow the young person if they move placement, for example.

The programme aims to benefit care experienced young people in particular. The workshops are free and are designed to be flexible and accessible - able to follow the young person if they move placement, for example. It provides the loan of instruments and other technical equipment where possible and the tuition can be one-to-one or group work. It can be difficult for young people to develop friendships with adults, especially if all the adults they know are in positions of authority. For Sound Lab, it is important that the young person decides how they want to participate and the informal and supportive nature of the workshops means that the relationships they build with the tutors are often as important as the music itself.

Creativity in Lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic put an abrupt end to the many face-to-face workshops Sound Lab was hosting under Musicares each week. However, being aware of the importance of maintaining those supportive relationships, the volunteers have worked tirelessly to create a programme of digital delivery so that young people can continue to take part. The online workshops have boosted the morale of the young people who participate - giving them something to focus on and helping tothem feel less cut off from the outside world. Music and creativity can at times be dismissed as a ‘nice to have’ but COVID-19 has really shown Sound Lab the importance of their work – not just in the creative tuition and technical education, but, perhaps more importantly, in the relationships that many of the young people have built up with their tutors and volunteers. In some cases, the tutor has been the only other supportive relationship these young people have seen each week.

As well as their ongoing digital tuition, weekly tutorials over social media from industry professionals within Scotland’s vibrant music scene have been released. These pre-recorded tutorials come from their bank of specialist tutors, including DJ track mixing, music production on a professional mixing desk and insights into the song writing process from professional musicians.

Enjoying art made by others, producing a piece of music, learning an instrument or writing a song can provide comfort to people in such uncertain times, and this shouldn’t be a privilege given only to those who can easily access it. For care experienced young people, having a trusted adult who is there to support them can make an unbelievable difference to their wellbeing, and this has been so important during the last few months.

Sound Lab showcase the work of their students in a regular online radio programme. Listen to it here.

These young people are really amazing

The free music workshops are designed to give young people the chance to learn how to play an instrument free of charge. There are pianos, keyboards, DJ equipment and microphones on offer in the workshop, where anyone is welcome to drop in and have a jam. But it is not just the young people who benefit from this. The music teachers, who are on hand to offer tuition and advice have been inspired by the enthusiasm and determination of the young people they have met.

enriching young people’s lives through arts and creativity

Many charities and public bodies working with young people and the arts in Scotland receive funds from Creative Scotland (CS). It enables people and organisations to work in the arts and creative sectors in Scotland. It has a legal role of being a corporate parent, requiring it to promote the interests of care experienced young people and provide them with opportunities, and also to collaborate with other corporate parents to improve the way they work with care experienced young people, as Creative Scotland explains in their own words:

"Creative Scotland (CS) is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. We enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts and creative sectors in Scotland. We do this by helping others to create culture through developing great ideas and bringing them to life. 

"We became a corporate parent through the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, which means that we have a duty to understand the issues that care experienced young people face; promote the interests of care experienced young people and provide them with opportunities; and to collaborate with other corporate parents to improve the way you work with care experienced young people. Creative Scotland is not always the most obvious corporate parent. We’re not one that usually shows up formally in children and young people’s creative journeys, whether care experienced or not. Usually it is through the projects and organisations that we fund that children and young people come into contact with our work.

"One of the main strategies that underpins our corporate parenting work is Time to Shine, Scotland’s National Youth Arts Strategy, the core purpose of which is to enrich young people’s lives through arts and creativity. Creative experiences play an important role in children and young people’s lives. They provide opportunities to engage in creative exploration and play; to escape from everyday life; to experiment with social identities, discover new selves and imagined future selves; build self-esteem; and build relationships with other children, young people and adults. They also provide children and young people with opportunities to lead in decision making processes and to feel in control of the creative process and future trajectories.

"However, we also know that care experienced young people often face multiple and systemic barriers to accessing creative opportunities. Part of our role as a corporate parent is to understand what these barriers might be and make sure that there is the right kind of support in place that helps care experienced children and young people to realise their creative ambitions, whatever they might be. We do this through our funding, by monitoring where projects and organisations are aiming to work with care experienced young people, identifying care experienced children and young people as a priority group for some of our funding streams and supporting organisations and practitioners to share learning.

"One of the funding programmes that has had care experienced children and young people identified as a priority group is the Scottish Government’s Youth Music Initiative (YMI), which was established in 2003 and is administered by Creative Scotland. The programme aims to create access to high quality music making opportunities for young people, offer young people the chance to achieve their potential in or through music making, and support the development of the youth music sector for the benefit of young people. Musicares is a really important example of that programme. By having identified care experienced children and young people as a priority group for YMI, we’ve been able to start to build a better picture of what provision there is for care experienced young people, the types of targeted work that is being undertaken within the sector to ensure care experienced young people are supported to access music provision, and we’ve been able to see the breadth of talent among the young people taking part in projects.

"In addition to this, we’ve also been able to support focussed research into some of the systemic barriers that care experienced young people can face when trying to access artistic or cultural provision. The Creative Consortium research undertaken by CELCIS, while highlighting some of the great practice being undertaken in residential care settings, showed that unless creative and musical activities are actively considered and facilitated, it seems likely that they will not happen. These were findings that were borne out by Articulate Cultural Trust’s Young Researcher’s Arts, Creativity & Employability (ACE) findings. Supported by the Scottish Government and Abertay University, the young researchers explored the specific challenges faced by care experienced young people in accessing arts, and visited projects in London, Bristol, York, Newcastle, Glasgow and Dundee where these have been successfully tackled.

"As we’ve seen in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions has had an enormous impact on every aspect of children and young people’s lives, including their cultural rights. As we begin to look ahead at the longer-term challenges and what we need to do together to adapt to a new future, it’s more important than ever that we use what we’ve learned to date to ensure that the needs and interests of care experienced young people’s creative and cultural lives are not left behind."