Seven projects that challenge barriers to participation, amplify underrepresented voices and create new opportunities for creative connection have been awarded funding through the latest round of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Innovation Studio Seed Fund.

The projects all share a common theme – a strong commitment to widening access and inclusion.

Following a record number of applications, Innovation Studio increased the total funding available from £20,000 in the previous round to £25,000, supporting student and staff-led projects across music, theatre, dance, film, and interdisciplinary and socially engaged practice.

Janine Matheson, Innovation Studio Producer at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, said: “Innovation is often associated with new technologies, but it can also be about changing who is able to participate, whose stories are amplified, and how creative work reaches its audiences.

“Increasing the funding available in this round will support more projects to take a bold step forward.”

Meet the awardees

Students

Tonal Visions: Accessible Scores – Ethan Loch, BMus Performance Keyboard 

Hailing from Scotland, pianist Ethan Loch has been captivating audiences from an early age with his deeply expressive playing and remarkable musicality.

Blind since birth, Ethan began exploring sound and music at the piano as a toddler, often spending hours improvising and experimenting.

An enthusiastic composer and improviser, Ethan’s original works have been featured in performances with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Manchester Camerata, and were included in his debut recital at Kings Place in London.

Ethan said: “I am delighted to receive this award from Innovation Studio. Most sheet music is inaccessible to disabled musicians. As a blind performer, I experience this barrier every day.

“This project will produce five of my original compositions in multiple accessible formats, freely available for download. The music is mine, but the project belongs to every disabled musician who has ever been locked out of a score.”

Common Threads – Julie Swire, MEd Learning & Teaching in the Arts 

Julie Swire is an Edinburgh-based artist-educator and founding director of the award-winning Art Buds Collective.

Her multidisciplinary practice operates at the intersection of art, nature, and community, and is driven by the belief that curiosity and play within the creative process have the power to transform lives.

Common Threads will bring together primary-aged children and older adults to foster creativity and connection through theatre and visual arts, challenge generational stereotypes, and spark meaningful change in local communities.

Julie said: “This funding will enable me to deepen my understanding of intergenerational arts practice and community building.

“The learnings and outcomes of the project will inform the design of a sustainable intergenerational programme model that could be adapted and scaled across Scotland.”

Indigenous Short Documentary Film – Katherine Low, BA Filmmaking 

Katherine Low is a Scottish/Sakha filmmaker whose films explore themes of gender, identity, diaspora, and belonging. With a strong interest in sociology and visual anthropology, she uses film as a lens through which to examine culture and community.

Having grown up between Scotland and the Sakha Republic, Katherine is currently developing her first experimental documentary exploring her Indigenous heritage and the environmental crisis facing Indigenous Sakha communities.

Katherine said: “The Seed Fund will allow me to uplift Indigenous voices beyond my own and bring the reality of climate change facing my community to audiences who may otherwise never have heard of it.

“Furthermore, this funding will give me the space to experiment and tell the story in a way that feels entirely new to anything I’ve done before.”

Staff

The Work of Your Hands – Adam McMillan, Lecturer School of Dance 

Adam McMillan is a Scottish choreographer, director, performer and educator whose work spans dance, theatre and music.

With over 15 years of professional experience, he has worked with organisations including RCS, Scottish Ballet and THREE60, leading workshops, performances and interdisciplinary creative projects throughout Scotland.

Adam will use the award to research and develop movement methodology and collaborative processes that will inform a new interdisciplinary hip-hop theatre production exploring themes of labour, identity, social pressure, and human connection.

Adam said: “The funding supports an important research phase in my practice, allowing me to explore movement, sound, and collaboration before entering larger-scale development.

“This investment gives the project momentum and helps me take a significant step towards creating my first original interdisciplinary production.”

Letters from Prison: A Prisoners’ Play – Dr Jess Thorpe, Lecturer Arts in Justice

Dr Jess Thorpe is an artist, theatre-maker, and lecturer at RCS. Her work explores the social and political potential of performance, particularly within criminal justice contexts.

She is Artistic Director of the award-winning theatre company Glass Performance, where she has created ambitious, collaborative projects, including Junction 25 and Polmont Youth Theatre – the first youth theatre in a Scottish prison.

For over 18 years, Jess has led innovative creative projects in prisons across Scotland and internationally, developing pioneering approaches to arts practice in criminal justice settings.

The award will support the creative translation of real letters written by people in Scottish prisons into a theatre script.

Jess said: “I am absolutely delighted to receive this funding. It provides a valuable opportunity to develop Letters from Prison: A Prisoners’ Play and to continue working collaboratively to bring often unheard voices into the public conversation through the power of theatre.”

Afterlight – Dr Lauren Hall, Lecturer BA Arts with Community 

Dr Lauren Hall is a multidisciplinary artist, academic and advocate whose work sits at the intersection of performance, social justice and disability arts.

Drawing from applied theatre, devised performance, and dramaturgy, their practice is rooted in co-creation and inclusive methods, working with communities to centre lived experience and reimagine who performance is for.

Lauren receives follow-on funding for Afterlight, an immersive educational game for secondary school students about grief and loss, previously supported through a Split Screen micro-commission.

Lauren said: “This support allows me to test the prototype with young people, engage them in trial sessions, and gather vital feedback. Their responses will directly shape the game’s evolution, ensuring it is both meaningful and responsive to the experiences it aims to explore.”

Ruffians: Shakespeare in the Streets – Dr Rob Myles, Lecturer Short Courses 

Dr Rob Myles is a multi-award-winning director, actor, teaching artist and Shakespeare specialist.

Combining classical theatre expertise with innovative use of technology, Rob is the creator of the research framework Original Parallels, learning toolkit The Shakespeare Deck, digital theatre experiences Illuminated Text and The Show Must Go Online, and the Owning Shakespeare podcast.

Rob is currently developing Ruffians, a roving Shakespearean acting troupe that brings performance into public spaces and engages audiences directly in the storytelling.

Rob said: “The Innovation Studio funding has come at an essential time in my practice, and I’m excited to further explore how to bring theatre performance directly to audiences in new ways.

“Having had the concept since last year, we are now able to get a small team together and test it, using technology in novel and innovative ways.”