EIS supports educational arts projects to tune of over £150k over past 5 years

The EIS has supported arts projects with an educational element with more than £150,000 in direct funding over the past five years. This included over £35,000 in funding for the year 2021-2022.

Commenting, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “The EIS is proud to support arts projects that benefit young people across Scotland, and allocates a percentage of all subscription income to this important area of work. Throughout the period of austerity and on into the current inflationary cost-of-living crisis, funding for the arts has been an area that has been increasingly squeezed. While the EIS cannot hope to plug the gaps left by under-funding by government, we are committed to providing whatever support that we can to arts projects that benefit schools and young people. Our most recent emphasis has been to prioritise support for projects that can help to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap that still persists across Scotland.”

One area of the curriculum that has been under particular threat in recent years is instrumental music provision in schools. While the scrapping of charging for instrumental tuition was very welcome and long-overdue, removing a barrier to access for many young people, the provision of instrumental music continues to be threatened in our schools – for purely budgetary reasons. Instrumental music is a vital part of the curriculum, helping young people to build confidence and team-working skills, in addition to developing their music talents. It is essential that instrumental music is properly supported in our schools.

Over 50 different projects and organisations have benefited from EIS Sponsorship of the Arts funding in recent years, including: Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Scottish Opera; Edinburgh International Book Festival; Orkney Folk Festival; Celtic Connections; Glasgow Music Festival; The Benedetti Foundation; Children’s Classic Concerts; National Theatre.

In addition to direct funding for arts projects, the EIS also administers the charity The Gwen Mayor Trust, which supports arts, sporting and cultural projects in primary schools across Scotland. The Trust, which was named in memory of the teacher killed in the Dunblane tragedy in 1996, has supported many hundreds of projects since its inception.