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Imaginate

Imaginate is Scotland's national charity which promotes, develops and celebrates theatre and dance for young audiences. We work to ensure that more children across Scotland can access and enjoy theatre and dance that is inspiring, innovative and deeply engaging. We produce the Edinburgh International Children's Festival and manage a year-round programme of work with schools and artists.

www.imaginate.org.uk Fundraise for us
molly@imaginate.org.uk

0131 225 8050

Registered charity no. SC016437

Member since July 2018

About us

Imaginate has three strands of work:

  1. A world-class festival of theatre and dance for children. We produce the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, now in its 30th year. The Children’s Festival showcases the best theatre and dance for children that the world has to offer, attracting an annual audience of over 17,000 people. Every year, Imaginate commissions at least one an original production for the Festival. To ensure that finance is not a barrier to attending, we offer low-price tickets, an 80% transport subsidy for schools, and free transport for special schools and groups. Our 50 volunteers are trained to make each child, parent and teacher’s experience of the Festival truly special.

  2. A year-round programme of work with schools. Imaginate works year-round to bring the magic of live theatre and dance to more children and young people across Scotland, and to develop children’s confidence, creativity and communication skills through creative learning projects based around theatre. Our largest schools’ project is Theatre in Schools Scotland, which last year brought professional theatre and dance productions at a low cost to 196 schools, covering 26 out of Scotland’s 31 local authorities. We recently launched Inspiring Schools - Immerse, a new partnership with world-renowned theatre-makers Punchdrunk. This project will work for three years with six schools in areas of disadvantage, using artists residencies in the classroom and experiences of live performance to transform teaching and learning.

  3. A development and support programme for artists based in Scotland. We support artists at all stages of their careers to make exciting, ambitious work for children and young people. Over the past two years we have been the lead partner in PUSH, a Creative Europe project involving 48 artists and 4 partner organisations in Norway, Denmark, Ireland and Belgium. PUSH aims to develop thinking and the artforms around 3 topics that are currently under-explored in work for young audiences, namely: gender, overprotection and migration. We also offer year-round support for individual artists including mentoring, training, a ‘Go and See’ fund, and events to share work-in-progress and receive feedback.

Business donations will go into our Inspiring Futures Fund: a fund which will be spent over the next 5 years to safeguard the accessibility of the Children’s Festival, supporting activities which are difficult to fund by other means. 100% of the money raised will be used to provide free performance tickets for disadvantaged schools and groups, a transport subsidy for schools who attend the Festival, British Sign Language interpreted performances, and relaxed performances for children with autism.

For further information, visit: https://www.imaginate.org.uk/support-us/donate-to-imaginate