Access All Arts Fund
The Access All Arts Fund was an exciting project to help support children and young people, aged 11-25 and who live in Scotland, to access creative arts opportunities and support wellbeing.
We believe the arts (things like drawing and painting, making music, creative writing and acting) are for everyone. Creative activities like these are great fun, they help children and young people to learn new skills and they can support people express themselves and feel good.
But we know many young people face barriers to art and creativity, including disability, poverty, and poor mental health. The Access All Arts Fund was designed to help overcome these barriers by providing direct funding to children and young people to take part in creative activities.
This fund was developed by young people for young people, with children and young people’s voices and ideas are at the heart of the project. It was part of Creative Scotland’s Nurturing Talent Fund New Route Programme.
Who is the Access All Arts Fund Panel?
The Access All Arts Fund Panel are a group of 10 children and young people aged between 11-25. The panel have a wide range of creative passions and experiences, and share an interest in increasing children and young people’s access to art and creative opportunities.
The panel members met in Summer 2024 to build a shared understanding of creativity and consider the relationship between art and wellbeing. In Autumn 2024, the panel will meet again and use the existing criteria to decide who will be awarded funding.
History of the Access All Arts Fund
In 2021, Children in Scotland supported a group of children and young people to create the Access All Arts Fund. The fund was developed by children and young people who have experienced their own barriers to the arts, who were able to share some of their own unique perspectives. The Access All Arts Fund was created as part of Creative Scotland’s Nurturing Talent Fund: New Routes programme to support more children and young people with additional support needs or a disability to apply for arts-related funding to explore their creative passions.
In 2022-2023, the Fund expanded to consider a wider range of barriers in order to support more children and young people to apply for the funding. A clear focus of the fund is supporting children and young people’s access to creative activities to support their wellbeing.
To date, the fund has supported 267 children and young people with grants totalling just over £154,000. The funded projects include a broad range of creative activities including visual art, music, film and TV, dance and creative writing. You can read about the project and its impact in the reports below.
Access All Arts – Year 3 Report (May 2025)
In its third year, the Access All Arts Fund continued to support children and young people across Scotland to access arts funding and develop their creative interests. The fund received 148 submissions from children and young people between the ages of 11 and 25. In this report, Children in Scotland heard from young people who had themselves experienced barriers in accessing the arts and creative opportunities.
Access All Arts – Year 2 Report (December 2023)
In the second year of the Access All Arts Fund, Children in Scotland decided to broaden its remit, recognising the wide range of barriers to accessing the arts that young people experience. This report examines the activity and successes during the second year of the Fund.
Access All Arts – Year 1 Report (April 2022)
This first year report outlines project activity, explores the impact of the funding for children and young people, and identifies key learning and recommendations for Creative Scotland, policymakers and the wider creative sector to consider.