£2.3m arts funding helps communities flourish
A million-pound annual grant-making programme supporting a wide variety of ventures is supporting the arts in innovative ways and transforming lives in Scotland and beyond. In her role as Trustee of the ScottishPower Foundation, Janette Harkess explores why art means something different to everyone… and how giving support has unexpected benefits.
Picasso said “art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life”. Janette, who as a ScottishPower Foundation Trustee helps award hundreds of thousands of pounds to good causes ever year, puts it more prosaically, saying supporting the arts in all its forms is “a way of keeping the glue of society together”.
Former Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Head of Media turned Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Director of External Relations, Janette loves the arts in all their forms – whether visual or performing; whether participating or spectating. As an illustration of the unexpected but beautiful power of music to bring people together she recalls the Italia 90 World Cup, from which Pavarotti’s spell-binding Nessun Dorma became the iconic song of the tournament. Fast forward to 2016, again the same aria creating another expected moment of magic when Leicester City won the Premier League under the management of Italian Claudio Ranieri, and he invited Andrea Bocelli to sing the same song to the enormous crowds celebrating the epic achievement of the footballing minnow.
The crowd were chattering when he started singing, and Ranieri told them to shhhh and listen; and they did, and suddenly there is this moment when Bocelli sings beautifully, and the human voice connects everyone in a really special, emotional moment. And that for me is the power of music – in this case opera - in the public space.
And that symphony, rather than clash, of a sporting audience with traditional arts and culture highlights the ”more in common” approach that encompasses her desire to encourage people to find an inclusive space, embrace the arts and enjoy it as an important, arguably essential, part of life.
Streetwise Opera is the perfect example of an innovative charity proving that something perceived as elite can transform lives. Backed by the ScottishPower Foundation, the programme helps people who have experienced homelessness find their voice through music and the arts. Participants can perform, take part in workshops and try activities which promote social inclusion, skills and confidence.
Work to date
Since its inception in 2013, the ScottishPower Foundation has awarded £2.3million in the arts and culture sector. This year alone £362,000 has been awarded.
In 2025, the funding is helping groups up and down the country.
At Camphill Blair Drummond, a residential and day centre for people with learning difficulties, students are learning new skills. The ScottishPower Foundation grant funding is supporting the development of a new media suite, enabling students at the centre, just outside of Stirling, to express themselves through film and audio, while learning the skills associated with production, all helping boost their confidence.
Also in Scotland, the innovative Playlist for Life project, spearheaded by TV broadcaster Sally Magnusson, is supporting people with dementia. When her own mum developed the illness, Sally was able to see how personal favourite tunes brought her mum joy. The ScottishPower Foundation has helped fund an expansion of the project across the country.
Making a difference
Each of the good causes has praised the difference the funding is making for their service users.
The support for Camphill Blair Drummond is helping the centre develop a disused space into a media studio. “This is a community for people with learning difficulties, and supporting the development of their skills, as well as this pursuit that everyone wants of a well-rounded life,” they said.
“The ScottishPower Foundation funding we have received is to help us to renovate an old, disused space into a Media Studio. Our media team of residents, students, employees and volunteers have been creating a lot of amazing content including short movies, music videos and promotional materials for our social media over the last few years.
“This new studio will provide them with a dedicated space for filming as well as new equipment so they can fulfil their potential.”
Another programme changing futures for the better is the Oswin Project. Prisoners at HMP Northumberland who take part in the ScottishPower Foundation funded The Oswin Project are not only learning practical skills and gain qualifications, but changing outcomes.
If you ever needed evidence that this kind of approach to what defines art and why it should be helped, the prison artisan bakery is indisputable.
“The Oswin Project has a staggeringly low reoffending rate of four percent compared to the national average of 67 percent,” says Janette.
The project says “‘Baking Out’ will enable prisoners to gain skills and confidence within the prison and then ‘graduate’ to working as part of the enterprise in the community.
“It is one of six enterprises that we have at The Oswin Project, all offering skills and qualifications development, volunteering and employment for prisoners and former offenders,” they said.
A politician once defined homelessness as “what you step over when you come out of the opera”. Putting “the ultimate power of the human voice” into positive action in place through ScottishPower Foundation funding, the Streetwise Opera project runs weekly streetwise art projects using opera as a force for good in a social setting, using opera to work with people in different ways.
Janette added: “People who have experienced homelessness often feel disempowered, that they do not have a voice in society. To go through the experience of finding that and finding community through singing and access to the arts has been transformational.”
The charity said: “Our work demonstrates the profound power of opera to connect, challenge, and transform. We empower participants to develop as creative individuals and, as we amplify their voices, help shift how society views opera and homelessness.”
For an entirely different section of society, the power of music is also making a remarkable difference. Playlist for life, says Janette, is bringing joy back to people affected by dementia. “This is a deceptively simple but incredible project. It uses music as a powerful and emotional reconnector for individuals with dementia and their families.”
Foundations for the future
Each year, ScottishPower Foundation funding enables projects across the nation to continue supporting local communities. From homelessness and mental wellbeing to climate action, the charities are tackling many of the most pressing issues faced by people across the UK.
Such philanthropy has never been more necessary as arts and culture funding continues to be cut, making it less accessible and more at risk.
Janette says the arts is a vehicle that can have more cut-through than conventional messaging on big issues.
Next year it is broadening the reach again, with an additional £200,000 to be awarded through the inaugural Art for Climate Fund, to help people understand and respond to the challenges of climate change via the arts. The funding may go to a green event or festival, or it could see a small, historic theatre restored, an impactful gesture that could be beyond them without grant funding.
Lasting legacy for society
Art brings people together, says Janette: “From a personal perspective, I have always loved the arts in every sense, being an audience member, participating in lots of different ways. I think what is absolutely brilliant from the ScottishPower Foundation is recognising the arts are not the ‘nice to have’ in society, they are absolutely essential to society. The arts are the glue that brings us together, connect and empower us and actually if there is one thing, a headline for the ScottishPower Foundation, is how it works in different ways to support organisations which empower communities to be positive and cohesive places, and I would say the arts are integral to that.
“By supporting projects in the arts, to encourage people to take part, and find comfort in the familiar, or safe discomfort in something new, is the secret to a fulfilled and well-rounded life”, she says.
“The arts is the place where we can have difficult conversations, they create language that we can all share. We have become a very disconnected and fractured world where language is everything and nothing. We can be saying the same things and think they are different things. The arts give us a place where we can sit together in one space and listen to music, without words, and all feel something as human beings. And that can be the starting place for activity, for conversations, for resolution.”
Support the arts
And while the ScottishPower Foundation is stepping in to provide a crucial stream of funding to a sector in need, she says we can all play our part.
“I’d encourage everyone to support the projects we help, and others. Buy a ticket, volunteer, be part of it.”
Find out more here.