Pangea : Radio Show

I was invited to attend Pangea, an event in Madrid. Pangea is a global platform supporting young people with diverse talents. The event celebrated youth, technology, ideas and experiences.

Thankyou to: Luis Ivan Cuende - Victoria Stoyanova - Jordan Casey - Akhil Aryan - Alyssa Carson

One Young World : Radio Show

Here it is! The show I created at the One Young World Summit last year! Hope you all love and listen! It was a fantastic event and I would like to thank everyone involved in these amazing interviews!

Thankyou: James Eder - Arch Wongchindawest - Diwigdi Valiente - Hillary Briffa - Samer Khan - Yann Arthus Bertrand - Sophie Maxwell - Keren Jackson 

Royal Commonwealth Society

I was lucky enough to be made an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society this month, it feels incredible! I feel so honoured that my creativity and actions allow me such a platform. I am among inspirational young people.

Local Coverage

Dublin, I Am Ready!

Tomorrow I fly to Dublin and attend the One Young World Summit. I will meet lots of exciting people my age who are all trying to change things in different ways. I am proud to be considered as one of them. This is an immense opportunity and the best kind of insanity!

I will be creating a radio programme and video diary about the event. I will also be blogging and twitting. Dublin, I am ready!

Twitter @ Stuie Artwork

Three Months To Go

It has been a couple of months now since I won the competition to attend the 'One Young World Summit' and from what I have seen online it is a positive, inspirational event with a very inclusive vibe. I am really excited, its so up my street! I am eager to tell people about the work I do and hope I get that chance more than anything. I have so many emails from so many different people, which is confusing me, BUT I am muddling along just fine. Everyone at 'Telefonica' and 'Go Think Big' has been so friendly, it will be nice to meet everyone in person.

I mentioned before I won a competition to attend the event. We were asked by 'Go Think Big': What one change would you make to improve the lives of young people around the world? I answered...

I would create a multi-media project centred around the opinions of young creative people. Allowing their voices to be heard via radio, television, online video, events, social media and art exhibitions. I would make the entire project around creativity and art, celebrating innovation, ideas and independence of young people. By giving young people a platform and a voice, only then can our generation truly claim the future. There are great young thinkers in the world and to turn those thoughts into actions would be my idea of a fantastic new revolution. Allowing young people to change the things they care about through creativity and most importantly, reach out to the world via mass media. 

The reason I would centre it around creative and artistic issues is because art is so under represented worldwide and young artists do not get the opportunities that older, famous, more educated artists get. We need a fairer distribution of arts funding and support worldwide. Young people are key to changing the way we think about creativity. Young people are talented and they should be given opportunities! This would change the lives of young artists and the exposure would be for something positive rather than the bombardment of negative news we face via media on a day to day basis.

"I found your entry thought-provoking, well-written and moving. I am really excited to see what you will take away from the conference". - Molly Pierce Editor, Go Think Big

I care a great deal about arts and culture, and the promotion of it. I already run two projects promoting young artists. I am nervous because I've never met anyone else who does the sort of work I do. I hope they exist somewhere and I hope there are other creative people at the event. It will be interesting to see if the world really does care about young fledgling artists and the lack of representation they endure... I think its important. 

I really care about this world and I hope it translates through the answer I gave to 'Go Think Big' and through my work. There are so many dreams I want to make happen and going to Dublin for the first time will be an amazing starting point. I have a good feeling that 'One Young World' will lead me towards people who understand me and share some of my creative vision. Only three months to go!

Royal Garden Party

Today I attended the Royal Garden Party in Edinburgh. It was fantastic! Nothing to do with OYW but fabulously blog-worthy! To see the Queen was an absolute thrill and a dream come true. Only downside, no personal photography was allowed (although there were Royal photographers and a film crew) - but here I am during the event, in the official DVD. I wore all gold... She looked like the summer sky and wore two brooches... because she's the Queen and that's how she rolls! It was magical!

An Introduction

My name is Stuart Russell, an artist, poet and writer from Scotland and I won a competition to attend the One Young World Summit 2014. The work I do tends to be on a voluntary basis and I very rarely get paid creative opportunities in my native Scotland. It can be disheartening but luckily I have a fantastic family encouraging me to continue, as well as support from elsewhere in Britain. Despite often having a lack of funds, I still manage to do amazing work and achieve wonderful things. I've won several awards for my work in the arts and received a British Empire Medal from the Queen this year. I must be doing something right...Right?

Lord Provost of Fife, Jim Leishman M.B.E & Myself, Stuart Russell B.E.M

Youth unemployment in my area of Scotland is quite high and if you are creative, things are even tougher. The paid creative opportunities here can be limited. All over the world arts funding is first to be cut from any budget and that is sad because creativity does have value. Personally I had a major lack of support here when I started out as a professional artist. It truly frustrated me that no-one was taking my talents, or other young artists talents seriously. I took matters into my own hands and started up a project called ‘Arts In Fife’. 

The project was set up to promote lesser-known artists in Fife and make them known to the general public. Volunteering with numerous art companies allowed me an insight into the sheer amount of people trying to make it in creative fields here. There are hundreds of local artists! The problem with Fife is it’s a large area filled with lots of little towns, it’s fractured and some places are hard to get to. My aim was to connect these small towns, provide a platform for creative people and allow them to see they were not alone, that there is a bigger and better arts community out there.

‘Arts In Fife’ started out as a magazine which was small, handmade and not so professional. It was a simple way for me to show artistic work around local venues. It has since become popular as a positive, inclusive project and has diversified to include a sister project called 'Arts In Britain', looking at regional artwork in the United Kingdom. 'Arts In Fife' also includes books, newsletters, a blog and my own local radio show. I still work hard on the project and run everything alone. It can get lonely but I hope the effort I put in and the passion I have for it shines through. It is my dream to take this project worldwide and create an arts based media empire. I'm currently working on a new website and hope to produce a more professional magazine. I really want to create web videos, get the project on TV, interview worldwide artists and continue in radio.

Radio and magazine creation is something I have been dabbling in since childhood. My best friend and I recorded shows on his karaoke machine and we drew up little magazines based on the radio shows. I never thought I would still be doing it at 22 but its great fun! I have an interest in mass media and a passion for art, so it is logical I try to utilise these skills! I really enjoy interviewing creative people, it is a career I chase! Finding out all about people is fascinating and promoting their work is thrilling! I like to see other young people doing well.

To win a place at the One Young World Summit, I took part in a competition with “Go Think Big” and believe me… I think BIG! I was thrilled to be chosen and I am really looking forward to meeting people similar to myself, people with great ideas and no fear about inflicting positive change upon the world! I am hoping I can talk about arts representation at the event and learn more about business. I really want the opportunity to earn money from my skills in the future so I want to prove I am good at what I do. To succeed in taking my projects and ideas to a worldwide audience would be the best feeling ever. Applying mass media to art is vital for creativity to thrive. I am so excited about the event in Dublin and I would truly like to thank "Go Think Big" for choosing me. I look forward to meeting everyone in October, hopefully some like creativity as much as I do! I have no idea what to expect from all of this, but I can’t wait to find out where it leads me.