Moniaive Festival Village: Expect the Unexpected was announced last night (Wednesday 10th June) as the winner of a £50,000 Creative Place Award at a ceremony in Falkirk.
The award was made by Creative Scotland, the public body that supports the arts in Scotland, in recognition of Moniaive’s established, vibrant cultural life and of the plan for a two-year arts programme involving both community-based activities and new works by practising artists.
Moniaive Festival Village is a new initiative developed by local artists, festival organisers, community members and businesses to maximise the social and economic benefits for Moniaive, Glencairn and the wider area from the arts.
“Moniaive is a wonderful place to live, with facilities and businesses that would be the envy of much larger places”, said project co-ordinator Peter Roberts. “Existing cultural events such as the folk and bluegrass festivals play a big part in keeping it this way, both in the buzz they create and the spending they generate. Our Creative Place programme will consolidate this and provide opportunities for everyone in the community to get creative. It’s all about having fun together, with serious intent.”
Musician Alex Kapranos, of Franz Ferdinand, lives in Moniaive and is a patron of the festival village project. “This project will connect the many artists who live and work in this area with the wider community “, he said.
“I’m particularly interested in supporting and encouraging talented young people. The festival village approach will do that, but is much wider; it will put artists’ skills and expertise at the service of the whole community, and all of us will benefit.
