Access All Arts funding is administered by Children in Scotland, and is aimed at young people aged 11-25 and who live in Scotland to help them access creative arts opportunities. At Better Lives Partnership we offer young people the opportunity to explore and develop their creative practices across our sites through our Bridge 2 Creative project, so it was important to us to support our young people interested in creative practices in making applications to this funding. The success of these applications will enable them to further their creative skills through mentoring and the purchase of art materials.

Ryan, one of our young people in Stranraer, was successful in his application and has used part of his allocated funding for mentorship with Diana Hamilton. Diana runs Accessible Art and had worked with young people at both our Stranraer and Castle Douglas sites through a variety of workshops. During their workshops together Ryan and Diana focused on looking at the works of Japanese landscape artist, Hokusai.

A painter and printer during the Edo period Hokusai is best known as the author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. This series includes the iconic and internationally recognized print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. After having looked at Hokusai’s work Ryan created his seascape.

Well done Ryan!