St Andrews Photography festival to get support from EventScotland’s National Funding Programme
St Andrews Photography festival to get support from EventScotland’s National Funding Programme
Edinburgh, Scotland, 2017-Aug-28 — /Travel PR News/ — A festival celebrating 176 years of Scottish photography has been awarded a funding boost from VisitScotland.
St Andrews Photography festival is among 14 forthcoming events taking place across the country to benefit from a share of £145,500 in the latest awards round of the National Funding Programme run by EventScotland, part of the national tourism organisation’s Events Directorate.
The event, which takes place throughout September, has been awarded £5,500 to grow its profile across the country. The National Funding Programme supports the strategic delivery of events taking place outside Edinburgh and Glasgow with the aim of driving domestic tourism, delivering economic impact for local communities, and generating media profile for Scotland.
The month-long programme of events aims to celebrate a long line of Scottish photographers, historic and contemporary, and to recognise St Andrews as the home of Scottish photography. William Henry Fox Talbot’s infamous photographic process patent did not apply to Scotland, and so experiment abounded in this north-east corner of Fife. St Andrews luminaries, such as Dr John Adamson and Hugh Lyon Playfair, were some of the first amateur and professional Scottish photographers.
Approximately 15 non-traditional venues across the town will have their wall space taken over. Additionally, organisers will be hosting events, talks, historic process demonstrations, and workshops, as well as an amateur photography competition. The event will be launched by a Gin Fayre Exhibition.
The event has been developed by BID St Andrews in collaboration with the University of St Andrews Library, Special Collections Division, and has received support from Fife Council.
Rhonda NcCrimmon, Manager of BID St Andrews, said: “It’s been absolutely fantastic to get support from EventScotland’s National Funding Programme. It has been a huge help for growing the profile of the event and the help and advice we have received has been invaluable.
“Despite everyone knowing St Andrews is the home of Golf, few know the crucial role it played in the introduction of photography to Scotland. We believe this is a unique selling point of the town so this event is a great opportunity to showcase the area as well as celebrate the country’s rich photographic history.”
Manuela Calchini, Regional Director for VisitScotland, said: “I am delighted to see that St Andrews Photography Festival was one of the 14 events across the country to be supported by EventScotland. With an outstanding programme of events to celebrate the nation’s photographers, it’s sure to be an exciting and visually stunning September in the home of Scottish photography.”
Enabling existing events to expand what they offer visitors, extend their marketing reach and enhance the on-site experience of attendees are just some of the ways that National Funding Programme support is used to help regional events continue to flourish and grow further. This in turn strengthens Scotland’s overall events portfolio – a major contributor to our national economy.
The National Funding Programme plays a vital role in maintaining Scotland’s reputation as the ‘perfect stage’ for events. The programme is key to ensuring that the country has an exciting, vibrant portfolio of annual events promoting Scotland’s cultural heritage and delivering positive for local communities.
The full list of events which received support in the latest (Round 35) awards from EventScotland’s National Funding Programme is as follows:
British Transplant Games, North Lanarkshire: 27 – 30 July (£25,000)
MugStock Festival, East Dunbartonshire: 28 – 31 July (£6,000)
Aberdeen Mela – One World Day ,Aberdeenshire: 30 July (£9,700)
European Dodgeball Championships 2017, Wishaw: 8 – 20 August (£9,500)
Scotland’s Salmon Festival, Highlands: 29 August – 2 September (£5,856)
St Andrews Photography Festival, Fife: 1 – 30 September (£5,500)
Electric Fields, Dumfries & Galloway: 1 – 2 September (£11,500)
Skyline Scotland, Highlands: 1 – 3 September (£12,000)
Bo’ness Revival, Falkirk: 2 – 3 September (£8,500)
BOWFest, Argyll: 8 – 10 September (£6,000)
The Highland Military Tattoo, Highlands: 8 – 10 September (£19,000)
VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
The organisation’s core objective is to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by £1 billion by 2020.
This will be supported by seven overarching strategies:
Marketing: we will market Scotland and its outstanding assets to visitors from all parts of the world, including the promotion of Scotland to people living in Scotland to visit different parts of the country
Events: we will support the national events strategy and its delivery, and sustain, develop and promote Scotland’s international profile as one of the world’s foremost events destinations
Internationalisation and International Engagement: we will utilise all our platforms to enable Scottish-based tourism businesses to better understand international opportunities and market to a global audience and we will work within One Scotland Partnerships to optimise the potential of Scotland’s Diaspora and our strategic partners at regional, European and global levels
Customer Experience: we will provide information and inspiration to visitors both locally and globally via their preferred medium of choice
Quality and Sustainability: we will provide support and advice to businesses, with the goal of improving the quality and sustainability of the tourism sector in Scotland. We will provide quality assurance to visitors through our Quality Schemes
Inclusive Tourism: we will strive to make tourism in Scotland inclusive and available to all
Working in Partnership: we will listen to and work with the industry, partners and communities to shape our offering and support
To ensure everyone can safely enjoy Scotland’s amazing countryside and landscapes, VisitScotland encourages all visitors to fully respect their surroundings by behaving in a responsible and appropriate way.
VisitScotland works together with tourism businesses to make tourism a success for everyone and ensure the industry continues to grow.
The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
Spending by tourists in Scotland generates around £12 billion of economic activity in the wider Scottish supply chain and contributes around £6 billion to Scottish GDP (in basic prices). This represents about 5% of total Scottish GDP
The Scottish Government is the Managing Authority for the European Structural Funds 2014-20 Programme. For further information visit www.gov.scot or follow @scotgovESIF
Where possible, a Gaelic speaker will be made available for broadcast interviews on request (Far an tèid iarraidh, agus far am bheil sin nar comas, bruidhinnidh neach le Gàidhlig aig agallamh)
2017 is the year to delve into the past and discover Scotland’s fascinating stories through a wide-ranging variety of new and existing activity to drive the nation’s tourism and events sector, boosting tourism across Scotland.
The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology begins on 1 January 2017 and will end on 31 December 2017. It will build on the momentum generated by previous themed years in Scotland including the 2015 Year of Food and Drink, Homecoming Scotland 2014, the Year of Creative and the Year of Natural.
The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology is a Scottish Government initiative being led by VisitScotland, and supported by a variety of partners including Creative Scotland, Scottish Tourism Alliance, Scottish Enterprise, The National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Built Environment Forum Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund, Museums Galleries Scotland and Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland.
The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology is supported by £570,000 of Scottish Government funding.
The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology events fund is managed by EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.
For more information visit visitscotland.com/HHA2017 or join the conversation at #HHA2017
Contact:
Grant Anderson
Corporate Communications Assistant grant.anderson@visitscotland.com
0131 472 2416
Out of hours – 0131 472 2324
