Culture and Connection: How can Children and Young People shape their Creative Future?

Culture and Connection is a report produced through a collaboration between Creative Scotland and Young Scot, based on findings from the National Youth Arts Advisory Group which first met in June 2017, and a national survey of young people, conducted by Young Scot, which saw 617 young people take part. The report makes a series of recommendations, in three areas, including:

Pathways for growth
All children and young people should be given the opportunity to develop their creative capacity through education. The most important areas to look for in arts opportunities, according to young people are; the quality of the opportunity, its affordability and the ease of which you can access opportunities.

Community participation
The NYAAG should work with local arts sectors to improve networks between young artists and further engage with local youth arts communities, allowing the sharing of expertise and creating a dialogue between the national youth arts sector, local youth arts providers and children and young people participating in the arts.

Recognition
For the NYAAG to develop and deliver programme of skill-sharing through knowledge partnerships; enhancing organisations’ approach to empowerment and participation, highlighting and sharing best practice.

Paul Gault was the project manager and research lead at Young Scot for the partnership activity with Creative Scotland from 2016 to 2019. He had full oversight and responsibility for the entirety of this phase of the NYAAG project from inception through to delivery and final reporting.