Welcome to the stART Festival Website

stART (Strathmore Arts) is a constituted partnership of local people from across Eastern Perthshire and staff from Perth and Kinross Cultural and Community Services offering arts workshops and events in the local towns and villages using community premises. The aim is to offer high quality arts activities for young people in the local area, often using local artists.

The stART Festival is a community based participatory arts festival for all ages.

stART Festival 2009

This year's stART Festival will be held over the weekend of the 4th and 5th of April. As in previous festivals, there will be a range of high-quality events and workshops for participants to enjoy.

In advance of stART 2009:

stART are setting up three schools Ukulele orchestras in Blairgowrie High School, Alyth Primary School and Meigle Primary School.
Peer-support film club run in partnership with the Rattray Media Group at Blairgowrie High School.

Click the pic to see the poster

In January 2009 stART teamed up with PKC Arts Service and Youth Services to organise a residential film making course for young people that took place at the Blackwater Lodge Outdoor Centre. Starting on Feb 19th the young people will be delivering a 6 week film making course to their peers at Blairgowrie High School. The group will also be running film-making workshops for upper primary age pupils during the festival weekend.

stART Competition - new for 2009. A competition for ages 3 - 18yrs. Closing date 6th March.

Click the pic to see the poster

Click the pic to see the entry form

Festival Weekend Highlights:

Lino print workshops with a steamroller in Tesco Car Park Blairgowrie with artist Barbara Robertson.
100 ukuleles: this will involve 3 schools orchestras being set up in advance of the festival as well as on the day festival participants who will take part in the evening event in Alyth on Saturday night.
Music Evening - March through Alyth with lanterns, ukuleles, skiffle band and the Beltane Drummers (who will also be leading workshops on the day). The bands will all play sets at the open air music event on the Saturday night.
Construction of a mortared stone seat in Larghan Park.
Aerial Dance Workshops - led by Spinal Chord at Blairgowrie High School.
Construction of a willow arbour and seat at the Blackwater Hall, Glenshee.
Visit by the Travelling Gallery.
New for 2009 - Festival Market Place will be set up in Airlie Street Hall, Alyth:

For the first time stART will be hosting a Market Place in Airlie Street Hall, Alyth over the festival weekend.

There will be a selection of local crafts on display, and throughout the day the various stall holders will be giving demonstrations of their particular crafts. These will include floristry, glass painting, knitting, wood turning, leather craft and card making, and will be an opportunity for local crafters and the community to meet and exchange ideas and skills.

The Market Place will also house the stART exhibition of young people's art, and refreshments will be available on both days of the weekend.

Festival Weekend Workshops confirmed so far:

Blood & Gore
Circus Skills
Enjukan Dojo Martial Arts
Pure Media - multi media two day workshop for young people
Jazz & Blues singing workshop
Drama
Lantern Making
Pre-school art
Ukulele workshops
Drumming
Aerial Dance
Lino printing
Clown Puppet Making
Film Making

For more information, including the 2009 timetables and brochure, please click here.

The fire sculpture from stART 2007 at the height of it's blaze!

You can see more pictures from the 2007 event here.

How long has it been running?

The first stART Festival took place in September 2003, led by Kirsty Duncan and Kirstie Bailey, two cultural coordinators for Perth and Kinross Council. At that point, if anybody wanted to try a new arts activity they had to travel to Perth or Dundee. Among the activities on offer were animation, stage fighting and the construction of a labyrinth in Alyth aimed primarily at young people.

The second stART Festival took place over a single weekend in March 2005 and opened its doors to people of all ages. Building on the success of 2003, there was also Capoiera, Pavement Art and a fire sculpture with procession in Larghan Park.

stART 2007, was the third stART Festival, and was the biggest and most successful so far. It took place over a weekend in March, and 58 different workshops were on offer throughout the weekend. Just over 1,000 people took part

stART has also been active in between festivals. Members of the committee were invited to make and carry a banner in Edinburgh at the opening of the Scottish Parliament. stART also organised tree dressing for National Tree Dressing Day and has been active in supporting local community groups who wish to have the arts as part of their programme of events. And the spirit of the festival also feeds cultural activity in everyday life all year round.

The banners assembled in the Wellmeadow, Blairgowrie, before the start of the procession.

stART is a registered charity whose members fund-raised tirelessly to make this festival happen. The workshops were all heavily subsidized in order to make them accessible to all.

The next stART festival is scheduled to take place in 2009. If you would like to make a donation to the Strathmore Arts Festival, please contact Kirstie Bailey. It will significantly help us to fund stART 2009!

Cultural pathfinder

The 2007 stART Festival received additional funding from the Scottish Government to run a “Cultural Pathfinder Project”. The Scottish Government wants to know how important culture, and access to cultural activities is to people in Scotland. To do this, they have supported 13 projects across Scotland, that aim to give people the chance to choose what sorts of activities they would like to be involved in—collectively, these are called the “Cultural Pathfinder Projects”.

The stART committee incorporated a Cultural Pathfinder Project into its normal Festival by running events called “stART OOTs” and “stART UPs”. The Cultural Pathfinder also funded an in depth study measuring the positive impact that the stART Festival has had on the Cultural Life of East Perthshire.

“stART OOTs” were activities and workshops chosen and run by local groups already operating successfully in the area, as well as activities that celebrated local heritage and Culture. There were 40 stART OOT activities at this years festival, offering 430 workshop places.

“stART UPs” are small amounts of money that are available to help you or your group try out something that inspired you at the festival. See our stART UP display board, or talk to a member of the stART group.

stART is supported by officers of Perth and Kinross Council, Cultural and Community Services, and is a Scottish Government Pathfinder Initiative.