The fund, provided by Creative Scotland and administered by Hands up For Trad, offers grants of £700 to creatives producing work for audiences using the Scots Language.
Wee Grants for Creativity in the Scots Leid are open to everyone - individuals and groups - and can be used to support audience-facing creative work of any kind. There is £10k to distribute, meaning that 14 applications will be successful.
Applications are made through the Scots Language Awards website.
The new fund has the backing of Scotland’s most recent Makar, or national poet Kathleen Jamie, who herself produces new work in Scots. She said, “Tak tent podcasters, theatre-makars, tellers o tales, and film-fowk, there’s a chance for creative folk, as yaises Scots, tae apply for some siller and get yer wark oot intae the warld! For ower lang, Scots has been dingit soon as a seicont class, wanwirth language. But athing changes.”
Alistair Heather, who is managing the fund, said, “We want tae help ye get ye wark oot there, in ony dialect o Scots. We gied oot twenty grants in 2024, an we seen amazon wark in community settings aa ower Scotland, in Sauchie an Aiberdeen, Perth an Dundee. We cannae wait tae see whit fowk create wi thir next roond o fundin.
"This fund is open tae aabdy. Mibbie yer a stand-up comedian wi a routine ye want tae film. Or mibbie yer a traditional storyteller wha wants tae pit oan an event. Mibbie yer a theatre makar wi a show comin up an ye need mair time tae workshoap, or want tae pit oan a scratch night o new wark. Mibbie ye hae a smashin idea fir a Scots podcast, a new Scots animation, a comic.
"Sae lang’s yer wark is guid quality an will speak tae an audience, we want tae hae an application fae you!”
Wee Grants for Creativity in the Scots Leid is open now and accepting applications until 17 January.
Simon Thoumire, Creative Director from Hands up For Trad added, “The fund opened for the first time last year, and it was amazing to see how many great applications we got in from all across Scotland. We managed to fund twenty projects, all of which brought great new work in Scots to audiences in all parts of the country. We are glad to support the current generations of superb Scots talent, as well as encouraging younger Scottish creatives to engage with the language. I can’t wait to see what emerges from the next round of funded projects!”
Catriona Hawksworth, Traditional Arts Officer at Creative Scotland says "We're fair delighted tae support this award an gie Scots creatives a boost. It’s grand tae see sae mony talented folk bringin their work tae audiences right across Scotland. Scots is a vital pairt o Scotland's culture, an we’re glad tae help mair voices connect wi audiences."
Background
Scots is spoken by over 1.5 million people in Scotland, principally in the lowlands and northern isles.
In many communities, such as Buckie in Moray, the Borders, Clackmannanshire, and across the North-East and Northern Islands the majority of inhabitants can speak Scots.
Scots has been the language used by government, kings and courts in Scotland, as well as by poets and playwrights like Rabbie Burns and Rona Munro.
The earliest Scots creative work that still survives is a long poem written in Aberdeen called The Brus, which was first published in 1375.
In the latter half of the 20th century, Scots began to be seen as vulgar, or common, and has been denigrated as ‘slang’ or ‘ned speak’, or even seen as a collection of local dialect words, instead of the joined-up national language that it is.
A rediscovery of cultural confidence in the last decades has seen a marked increase in the quality and quantity of creative projects appearing in the many dialects of the Scots Language, from community-led grassroots events to National Theatre productions during the Edinburgh International Festival.