Highland Village Launches Campaign to Develop Fund for Youth to Learn Traditional Cultural and Music Skills

This Press Release has just been brought to my attention and I want to pass it along to anyone who might find it interesting.



Press Release: Highland Village Launches Campaign to Develop Fund for Youth to Learn Traditional Cultural and Music Skills

On Saturday, August 6th, the Highland Village in Iona hosted its 50th Annual Highland Village Day Concert. That event marked five decades of celebrating and promoting Scottish Gaelic culture in Nova Scotia through one of Cape Breton’s original Scottish concerts. Over those 50 years many young up-and-coming entertainers got their start on the Highland Village stage.

To mark this important milestone, and to ensure that cultural skills based on Gaelic traditions continue to flourish with our youth in Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Highland Village Society launched Stóras na h-Òigridh (Treasures of Youth) Fund. The purpose of this fund is to provide financial support and assistance to up-and-coming Nova Scotia youth between the ages of five and twenty-one, who are eager to advance their skills in the Gaelic tradition including the following: fiddle, pipes, piano, language, storytelling, song, and step dance.

The Treasurers of Youth fund concept was inspired by the enthusiasm of the late Michael Anthony MacLean , a well known fiddler from Washabuck, Nova Scotia who always had a keen interest in assisting youth to further their skills in playing traditional Cape Breton music - especially the fiddle.

Initially, we intend to capitalise the endowment fund with a minimum of $35,000. The intention is to develop an endowment fund, whereby the capital would not be used - rather only the annual earned income - which would then be awarded and disbursed to a successful applicant(s). Thus, the Society has initiated the “Complete the Tune” Campaign through which monies will be raised to capitalise the fund. The main feature of the campaign is the sale of musical notes from “Michael Anthony MacLean’s Birthday” - a march composed by Lucy MacNeil of the Barra MacNeils.
More information on the fund, including a downloadable brochure, is available on the fund’s website www.treasuresofyouth.ca All donors will be provided with a charitable tax receipt.
The Nova Scotia Highland Village Society in Iona was founded in 1959 to create the Highland Village Museum, to share and promote the Gaelic culture and heritage of Nova Scotia. Today, the Society continues to carry out this mission through the operation of the Highland Village Museum in Iona, a part of the Nova Scotia Museum, as well as, initiatives to support the growth and development of Gaelic language and culture.
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Rodney Chaisson
chaissrs@gov.ns.ca
(902) 725-2272