A DUMBARTON social enterprise has been granted funding to create an arts hub for young people.

Clifftop Projects has been awarded more than £45,000 from Creative Scotland to help young people celebrate the importance of art in the area.

The first part of the funding was given by Nurturing Talent Fund: New Routes of £16,700 to work in partnership with Clydebank’s YSortit to allow any young person from the age of 12-25 to apply for up to £1,000 to pursue an artistic activity..

Lottie Barker, artistic director of Clifftop Projects, told the Reporter: “It is amazing because they can use that money to explore different artistic routes, but it was a shame because there weren’t many applications from West Dunbartonshire before.

“This New Routes strand will allow us to administer funds directly in West Dunbartonshire. It is really exciting because over £10,000 will go directly to the young people.”

The second part of the funding of £29,747 was awarded from Youth Arts Access Fund to form four different youth clubs for two age categories of five to eight and nine to 12 years.

Two will be based in Castlehill and two in Bellsmyre, taught by Lottie, performance maker and activist Nic Green and guest artists in different disciplines across West Dunbartonshire.

Lottie added: “The idea is to give the young people a space to explore the different art forms, so we will bring in specialist artists to teach.

“It will give them the chance to form a basic understanding of the arts and show them that art is a viable career option.”

The funding will also be used to hire two paid emerging artists from West Dunbartonshire who are keen to learn more about teaching the arts within communities by first hand experience running the clubs and from mentoring from Lottie and Nic.

Lottie said: “I have been running the art hub unit in Castlehill since August now, and found that there are two different groups of young people – those that wanted to pick up their art supplies and have fun, and those who wanted a deeper understanding of the art they were engaging with.

“This youth club space will allow those young people who want to engage more with the arts a space to explore that, but of course we will still be running art hub weekly too for all young people.”

For more information and to apply from April this year visit Clifftop Projects on Facebook or email Lottie at lottie@clifftopprojects.co.uk.