Helensburgh to host Scotland's first youth arts channel

Helensburgh, the birthplace of John Logie Baird, the inventor of Television, is to play host to Scotland’s first Digital Youth Arts Channel. The new Broadband TV channel will be run out of Helensburgh’s new Digital Arts Centre (The Tower) in the heart of the town.

Creative Scotland today announced a significant award to Argyll and Bute's brand new Youth Arts Hub, which was one of nine areas who have won competitive bids selected from across Scotland. The Youth Arts Hub initiative for Argyll is worth £400,000 over two years, and partners in the initiative includes; URTV, Comar, ArtsQwest, Argyll College, Cove Park, Artmap Argyll, Dunoon Burgh Halls and Argyll and Bute Council.

The Youth Arts Channel has been established to digitally capture the creative content emanating from The Hub. New Project co-ordinators will shortly be setting-up digital media training projects out of The Tower, Helensburgh for Oban, Mull, Campbeltown, Lochgilphead, Dunoon and Rothesay and surrounding areas.

Councillor Aileen Morton, Policy Lead for Education, said "We are delighted the consortium from Argyll and Bute has been selected by Creative Scotland and brings together the key media and arts organisations involved with young people in Argyll and Bute today. This is another great example of partnership working – which will lead to outstanding arts and educational opportunities for young people growing up across the whole Council area.”

John grant of CEO of ArtsQwest commented "getting all parts of Argyll working together, for touring, training and digital arts is a very exciting prospect. Young people in Argyll deserve the opportunities this initiative will bring and I'm so pleased we've been selected."

The Youth Arts Channel, which will digitally bring together all youth arts activities in the region, will use the new studios, edit suite and digital training facilities at The Tower in Helensburgh. Dave Dunbar, Head of Digital at The Tower enthused, "this brings another strand into the centre using the same resources and concentrating the effort to get best results." He added "we will be putting the new youth arts team together over the coming months and will commence broadcasting in parallel with the Hub's programme of creative output. This falls squarely into our long-term strategy of training the next generation of Creative Content Makers”.

The Tower, Helensburgh: Is a digital arts centre established on the 28th of March after two years of planning. The centre brings together arts and technology in creative and practical ways. The Tower founders; ArtsQwest, URTV and Visithelensburgh are dedicated to running training, workshops and performance for the local community and beyond. The centre is located in the very heart of Helensburgh on Sinclair Street.

ArtsQwest is a youth charity which is focussed on providing music, drama and arts training to young people. ArtsQwest runs Mubu each Saturday which gives music tuition for over 100 local children. ArtsQwest also run the Argyll and Bute Schools’ Concert Band which brings together young musicians from Oban, Mull, Campbeltown, Lochgilphead, Dunoon, Helensburgh & Rothesay. Furthermore, ArtsQwest provides workshops, master training and performances focuses on youth and performing artists.

URTV, is a leader and pioneer in Broadband TV. Founded in 2011, the company, with its base in Helensburgh, supplies; software, training and services to other community channels including Inverclyde, Dumfries and Galloway and Ayrshire. URTV Produces award winning public service videos and have being nationally recognised for its initiative in local digital media. So far URTV has delivered over 3,000 videos and trained over 120 young people in developing digital skills (helping place a number into full time employment and education) since it's inception. The enterprise has now been selected to deliver multiple Youth Arts Channels from across different Hubs throughout Scotland.

VisitHelensburgh was established as a Social Enterprise in partnership with VisitScotland to promote Helensburgh as a destination, to operate the towns' Visitor Centre and to assist in the development of visitor attractions for the town. Having recently acquired St Columba's Church, VisitHelenburgh are currently bringing this fantastic community asset back to life as a Digital training academy, studio and performance space.

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For further details please contact either John Grant at ArtsQwest (news@artsqwest.com) or Dave Dunbar at URTV (news@urtv.co.uk)!