With its reputation for misogynistic language and disturbing references to violence and anger, hip hop and rap music is seldom regarded as the most peace-loving of genres. 

However, an arts initiative inspired by the recent clashes that saw riot police lock down parts of Govan, Glasgow, will try to tackle toxic masculinity and sectarianism in the area through rap music. 

The project is included in a new £859,000 round of funding for 
39 arts projects across Scotland just announced by Creative Scotland. 
They include two new LGBTQ+ projects that will work directly with children, including some as young as 12, and another that aims to rework parts of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, with LGBT retellings of the characters of Puck and Lion.

Sex Education Xtreme is said to involve artists working with S1-S3 pupils to create a work that will explore “LGBTIQ+ identities, sex education and the evolution of gender”. 

The project, which is receiving £25,000 of National Lottery funding through Creative Scotland’s Open Project Fund awards, will eventually tour classrooms and schools. 

Details on the project shared with Creative Scotland state the “sensitivity of the topic and vulnerability of young people” means it will be “tested at each stage to allow for input and endorsement from schools, young people, their families, teaching staff and wider communities.”

Meanwhile, there is a £21,069 injection for the Rainbow Library, which aims to increase LGBTQ+ representation in children’s and young people’s literature. The project will produce stories by seven LGBTQ+ children’s writers, illustrators, poets and comic artists, which will be devised through participatory workshops with groups of LGBTQ+ people aged 14-26.

Funding for the two school-based projects comes in the wake of an outcry among some parents of children at Glencoats Primary School, Paisley, after a drag act called Flow Job was invited to speak to children in an event to mark LGBT History month. 

Explicit content on the artist’s social media sparked complaints, leading to an apology from Renfrewshire Council and an admission from Education Secretary John Swinney that the invitation should not have been extended. 

Dylan Calder, executive director of Pop Up Projects CIC, said: “This vital and timely project will raise the visibility of LGBTQ+ identities in children’s literature, while empowering the voices of young LGBTQ+ people across Scotland.”

“Its beneficiaries won’t be just the young people and authors involved, but the young readers who in the coming years will access books where LGBTQ+ characters are real-world people and role models for those readers who are questioning or coming to terms with their sexual orientation or gender.”

Among the other funding packages is £27,000 for a Stirling-based digital company Ping Creates to develop Super Stretchy Chicken Legs, an interactive ‘Angry Birds’ style game for touch-screen mobile phones and tablets. 

There is also £13,000 towards a project that will look at queer retellings of A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream and the play’s connection to Scotland, which will rework the characters of Puck and Lion, and £24,500 for a theatre project described as “a semi-autobiographical response to the story of Pinocchio from a queer trans perspective, incorporating video diaries, puppetry, sound and scenography, and ensemble choreography to create a multi-layered theatrical experience”.

The largest funding package – £73,900 – has been awarded to the Glasgow Barons, a community music organisation, towards a programme titled Govan Forward 2020. It will help stage a number of musical events across a range of genres in the area.

Inspired by recent disturbances in Govan, the programme will also tackle issues such as toxic masculinity and sectarianism through a new hip hop album by Scottish Alternative Music Award winner Steg G and local young composers.

Paul MacAlindin, artistic director of the Barons said: “We know the difference we make to people and places in our neighbourhood and are honoured to be given the chance to continue building our relationship with them, as well as with audiences across Greater Glasgow.”

Almost £62,000 has been given to BUZZCUT live art festival planned for venues across Glasgow’s Southside.

Projects inspired by the outdoors have also received funding, including almost £15,000 towards Ormaig Landart Project in Argyll, which will see around 250 tree stumps on the slope next to the Ormaig rockart site painted with white lime wash to create the shape of a large circle in the landscape. 

The circular shape will respond to the cup and ring marks at the site which were created over 5000 years ago. 

There is also funding for an artistic celebration of Scotland’s wild landscapes inspired by Nan Shepherd’s celebrated book The Living Mountain.

Described as a ‘masterpiece of nature writing’, the book describes the Cairngorm mountains in poetic prose, but lay untouched for 30 years before it was finally published. 

The audio-visual project, led by musician Jenny Sturgeon, will draw on artists’ responses to the book and their personal experiences of the Cairngorms, and will include music, field recordings and visuals of the landscape to create a live performance. 

Each music and film piece within the performance, which will tour from Braemar to Glasgow in May, will take inspiration from the twelve chapter titles of Shepherd’s book.

Ms Sturgeon said: “This funding means I can work with an inspiring group of artists to create a unique, thought-provoking, cultural and environmental work which I hope will draw attention to Nan Shepherd and her legacy as one of Scotland’s greatest nature writers.”

Iain Munro, chief executive of Creative Scotland, said: “These projects are testament to the value of creativity for wellbeing and for communities across the breadth of Scotland.”

A spokesman for the arts organisation said: “Sex Education Xtreme and The Rainbow Library have received funding to deliver projects designed to promote diversity and creative learning. 

“Sex Education Xtreme will involve only secondary school children and will include age appropriate content that is based upon sex education in the curriculum.

“Independent Art Projects, which will deliver the project, has a child protection policy in place that was submitted to Creative Scotland.”