A NEW trust that aims to raise funds of £5 million has been created to support Scottish arts, artists, heritage and culture.
The Saltire Society Trust, which has already raised £2m, is to be launched today at Glasgow's Mitchell Library, and will initially fund two new artist schemes.
The financial capability of the Trust will provide a separate significant source of funding for artists outside Creative Scotland, the official arts funding body.
The Saltire Fellowships scheme will "enable exceptional individuals to devote their energies fully to their art or craft" by appointing them a Saltire Fellow. Being a Saltire Fellow will not only provide an honorary title, but financial support.
The Saltire Enlighten programme will aim to encourage "innovation and risk-taking amongst the next generation of Scottish artists, engineers, writers, architects and academics", by offering bursaries.
In return, recipients will be asked to share their experiences through the Saltire Society's website, social media and public events.
Magnus Linklater, the veteran journalist and former Scottish Arts Council chairman, will be convener of the new trust.
The Saltire Society, a cultural organisation based in Edinburgh, hopes to raise £5m for the Trust by St Andrew's Day 2016.
The existing funds come from the amalgamation of Saltire Society funds, the Robert Hurd Memorial Fund and Arts Trust Scotland.
Jim Tough, executive director of the society, said: "Our members have already responded generously to this new initiative, helping us to secure four new patrons who have each committed to make an annual contribution to the Trust."
Mr Linklater said: "Reaching the £5m target will ensure the Trust can make a real difference. Our new Enlighten programme would help emergent talent test and explore their ideas.
"The establishment of the Trust is an opportunity to give those individuals the recognition and encouragement they deserve."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article