Rock School

RIG Arts is a multi-award winning socially engaged arts charity based in Inverclyde that brings professional artists and communities together in a collaborative and creative way.

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I am proud to be a Director on the board at Rig Arts, helping to nurture the newest discipline at the charity- music! 

The first major project under the music banner is the Rock School where we provide free access to music making for ages 12-25. I am the lead tutor on the project, now in it's 2nd year and along with 2 other tutors (Kieran Savage & Carla Easton), we deliver a mentoring programme to nurture performance skills by putting the participants into bands. We stage gigs, provide advice on all aspects of the music industry, help with skills on instruments and have now begun recording demos for the newly formed bands  to get their own gigs.

 

We regularly invite other well known musicians from the Scottish music scene along to give a masterclass. So far we have had Jim McCulloch of The Soup Dragons and Snowgoose, Eugene Kelly of The Vaselines, David McGregor of Broken Chanter. Zoe Graham singer songwriter and acclaimed producer, Howard Bileramn of Arcade Fire. 

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Several young bands that were formed in the project are now out gigging with one about to release their debut album (The Cords). We have big plans to grow this project further. The demand for this in Inverclyde is massive and we love being able to pass on our skills and enthusiasm to the next generation.

None of it would be possible without the funding received from Creative Scotland and we really hope they continue to support us with this going forward.