National Lottery Awards for All supports the development of young artists in creative Borders hub

Taking place in the creative town of Galashiels, which is home to a number of artistic hubs, the Great Tapestry of Scotland’s Scabby Knees programme featured a range of inclusive and creative activities including singing, storytelling, sewing, arts and crafts, film making, illustrating and magazine production. The events at the visitor centre, which recently won a TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Award, proved to be a great hit with primary aged children from across the Scottish Borders and beyond.

Speaking about the programme’s success, Centre Director Sandy Maxwell Forbes said: “With Scotland’s outstanding artistic heritage at our roots, visually compelling storytelling at our heart and one of the world’s longest tapestries just bursting with inspiration in our centre, The Great Tapestry of Scotland is the perfect place to inspire future artists, storytellers and historians. Our Scabby Knees programme was designed to do just that and build on our year-round educational offer, by making artistic experiences accessible to all.

“As times are tough for so many families right now, we were keen to offer these activities free to participants, so we were thrilled when the £9000 grant from National Lottery Awards for All made this possible. The activities booked up so fast, that we kept adding more. The response from the children and young people who took part was incredible and it was clear from all their amazing creations that the future is bright for arts in Scotland.”

Kate Still, Scotland Chair at The National Lottery Community Fund said: “Social connections and community activities are at the heart of creating healthier, happier lives and a flourishing society. The Great Tapestry of Scotland’s Scabby Knees programme, provides a fantastic example of this, with the participating children and young people clearly thriving in their creative and cultural workshops.

“As The National Lottery prepares to mark its 30th birthday later this year, the success of great community projects like this highlights the positive difference that National Lottery players continue to make to communities across the country.” 

The month-long Scabby Knees programme featured BookBug sessions, a two-day singing workshop, sewing and felting workshops, block printing workshops, clay making workshops, a mark making workshop, a creative collage workshop, three different workshops run by artist and illustrator Tom Morgan-Jones, and a three-day film making workshop.

In keeping with the storytelling of The Great Tapestry of Scotland, the programme was named Scabby Knees to capture nostalgic memories of playing outdoors as children.

Speaking about his experience on Tom Morgan-Jones’ Create Your Own Zines workshop, Rory Innes, age 10, said: “I’m a big fan of comics like The Pheonix, Bunny vs Monkey, Dog Man and Star Wars, so really loved getting the chance to work with a real illustrator to produce my own Star Wars Zine. Me and Tom are both dyslexic, so it was really inspirational to get his top tips and to see what he has achieved. He’s a brilliant visual thinker.”

Tom Morgan-Jones added: “I had a riot of a good time running Monster Mapping and Zines workshops as part of The Great Tapestry of Scotland’s Scabby Knees programme. Good free family fun, full of giggles, drawing and general monster mayhem. It was incredibly rewarding to see children produce some fantastically creative maps and zines.”

Theo Donnelly, age 6, enjoyed the Drop in Crafts, he said: “It was very good, I enjoyed it a lot. I made a building. It was really fun.”

Katy Barden, said her daughter Sophia (age 6): “loved having the freedom to explore different options and to choose designs, implements etc herself, but it was good to know that she had support from experts as and when she needed it.”

Welcoming the Tapestry’s work with children and young people, Councillor Julie Pirone, The Executive Member for Communities and Culture at Scottish Borders Council said: “It is fantastic to see The Great Tapestry of Scotland has created such an engaging, imaginative and educational programme of activities for children and young people throughout the summer and through its superb educational programme for schools.

“We’re incredibly lucky to have this inspiring cultural hub on our doorstep telling our unique story of Scotland, delivering jobs, making a contribution to our economy as well as giving access to our home-grown culture for our children and young people.”

In addition to workshops through the school holidays, The Great Tapestry of Scotland has:

• welcomed over 1.8k pupils;
• pupils through its schools educational programme;
• led the development of a Junior Tour Guides programme with St Peter’s Primary School;
• worked with the Inspire Learning team at Scottish Borders Council;
• supported Maths Week Scotland by hosting a range of events; and
• ran a children’s writing competition with support from the Borders Community Rail Partnership and the Borders Book Festival.

The five-star Great Tapestry of Scotland visitor centre is currently open 09.30am to 5pm. In addition to its two galleries, the centre is home to a café, Discovery Centre and shop, which sells a range of products including books, crafts and gifts.

For more information visit greattapestryofscotland.com