A Viking festival, two cinema projects and a drama club for children are just four arts and cultural schemes among a wide range of the latest 120 projects across Scotland sharing over £854,000 of National Lottery funding from small grants scheme Awards for All Scotland.

Find out where funding has gone in your area in the attached table

In Ayrshire, the Largs Viking Festival will use their £5,000 grant for the annual festival whose battle reinactment has become a focal point for the local community and attracts thousands of visitors giving the area an economic boost.

Ray Young of the Largs Viking Festival, said yesterday: “We are delighted to receive financial support from Awards for All. The award helps us promote the Viking culture through the provision of a living history 13th century Viking village. This is visited annually by nearly 1,000 children from local schools where they can learn more about the Viking way of life including their clothes, weapons, jewellery, food, religion, homes, and ships.”

In Fife, the Gauldry Village Hall plans to set up a community cinema for the neighbouring towns of Gauldry and Balmerino thanks to their grant of £4,881. One of the aims is to show a diversity of films not always available in mainstream cinemas.

Jack Cockin, who is leading the community cinema project, said yesterday: “We want to bring various groups together and enable the community to enjoy cinema on their doorstep as it is not always possible for the elderly and families with young children to travel. This money will now enable us to make our idea a reality.”

Another cinema project to receive a grant from the scheme is the Southside Film Festival in Glasgow. The £5,000 award will be used to develop new programme strands focusing on the environment, sustainability, health and wellbeing.

Abigail Howkins of the Southside Film Festival, said yesterday: “We are thrilled to receive an award which will be used to develop our programming throughout the year on the south side of Glasgow. We plan to promote healthy living in the local community through film, including an innovative bicycle powered fun pop-up ‘Wee Green Cinema’.”

In Cumbernauld, children’s drama group Shakespeare’s Kids will use its £5,540 award to expand classes to the younger Primary 1- 4 age range. The project means local children will be involved in small plays and films based on popular children’s stories.

Sharon McNally, Director of Shakespeare’s Kids, said yesterday: “This award will help us provide much needed equipment so that the work of our children can be filmed more professionally and viewed by the parents and children more frequently. This will encourage more youngsters to engage in the books that our children bring to life through film and performance.”

An Awards for All Scotland spokesperson, said yesterday: “Today we have announced over £850,000 of grants that will help communities across Scotland set up and develop a wide spectrum of projects run for and by local people. What is clear is the smallest amount of funding can often make the biggest difference to people’s lives. All of these grants are a great way to show the variety of projects that can be funded through Awards for All for people of all ages.”

Awards for All Scotland gives out grants of between £500 and £10,000 to projects that bring communities together to enjoy a range of activities. It is a partnership by sportscotland and Big Lottery Fund. The programme gives out grants of between £500 and £10,000 to projects that bring communities together to enjoy a range of activities. 
Groups can download this form here www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/awardsforallscotland

Big Lottery Fund Press contact: Colin Calder 
Telephone: 0141 242 1484
Email: colin.calder@biglotteryfund.org.uk
Website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Twitter: @BIGScotland #biglottery
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFundScotland

Notes to editors:

• Awards for All is a joint awards programme from the Big Lottery Fund and sportscotland.
• Awards for All makes grants to help people take part in arts, sport, social, environmental, health related, educational and other community activities.
• Awards for All welcomes applications and focuses on funding smaller organisations with an annual turnover of less than £250k (except for schools).