News: General

With less than a month to go to the launch of the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival on 21 April, two productions from the many times re-drafted programme have been announced. Both are brand new commissions by exciting companies and artists based in Scotland, and are supported by the Scottish Government Festivals Expo Fund.

Artist Xana Marwick reflects on the recent horrific murder of Sarah Everard and its relevance to her new play Thrown, which she is writing as part of Imaginate's Accelerator programme.

Call-out for BIPOC+ theatre and dance practitioners to take part in a consultation about working in the Children’s Theatre and Dance sector.

An update on new dates for PUSH+

We are pleased to confirm that we are planning an exciting festival for next year, and that it will go ahead in one form or another from 25 May - 6 June.

PUSH artist Lucy Gaizely and her company 21Common made a film during lockdown to be watched on mobile phones.

Belinda McElhinney has been appointed as Imaginate's new Chief Executive, starting on 1 February 2021. She succeeds Paul Fitzpatrick who is leaving Imaginate to take up the post of Director of Creative Engagement at the National Theatre of Scotland.

Gudrun reflects on her first week of In a New Light project

JIm Manganello and Lucy Ireland reflect on how lockdown has influenced their newest project, a podcast associated with their live show, the Untitled Discotheque Project, in which teens will talk openly to other teens about sex and relationships.

Alongside 11 other children’s arts organisations we’re calling for arts and creativity to be at the heart of every child’s life – artists or ‘creative practitioners’ should be part of the core team around every child!

If like us, you have missed the festivals this month, we encourage you to make the most of these rainy days to enjoy some beautiful, challenging and exciting content available online at the moment.

We're delighted that Tiger is Out, an extract from Imaginate Accelerator writer Oliver Emanuel's forthcoming play I Am Tiger, directed by Lu Kemp and starring Ava Hickey, will be broadcast on BBC on Friday 21 Aug at 9pm, as part of National Theatre of Scotland's Scenes for Survival. 

After nearly six years at the helm, Imaginate’s Chief Executive Paul Fitzpatrick is to leave to take up the newly created post of Director of Creative Engagement at the National Theatre of Scotland.

Kate Temple highlights some of the excellent visual art resources and workshops currently available online for children, young people and families during this extended period of lockdown.

Artists Jim Manganello and Lucy Ireland talk about what they have learnt and (un)learnt while developing their new Untitled Discotheque Project.

As life continues in lockdown for many of us and for some taking the first tentative steps out of restrictions, we thought it might be a great time to share some new digital adventures with you from around the world.

Brian Hartley's third blog about his Immerse residency with St Ninian's R.C. Primary School, talking about weeks 6, 7 and 8.

Eoin McKenzie writes about how he feels being an artist in this current lockdown situation in Scotland. "I spoke with my old university class on Zoom, we all shared a sense that our work had evaporated in front of us. Of being brought to a halt. Here we are, a group of twenty-something-year-old artists rendered inert."