Description of organisation

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival (EBJF) was set up in 1978 and has been delivering its annual festival ever since. By the mid-90's the social and cultural landscape of Edinburgh had changed. From the Festival's commencement the artistic policy has been to concentrate on musical excellence and to champion spontaneous creativity: music making on the spot in Edinburgh. These virtues have been developed with the production of a wide range of new music, the establishment of the Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra and an on-going commitment to supporting young emerging Scottish musicians to realise creative ideas and link through residencies with international young musicians. Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival has also grown its world outlook, presenting high quality musicians and groups from all over the world.

Organizational information: Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival (EBJF) build’s the capacity and capabilities of young people and workers enabling cooperation within a globalized cultural sector. We provide access to new networks and markets and contribute to the modernisation of the youth arts sector through mobility, job shadowing, training and leadership development.

Through arts engagement, festival development, international exchanges, volunteering and training we build social and cultural capital, with our work led by the needs and demands of our participants, communities and artists. Our projects focus on those who have been left behind by rapid economic change, have low-quality employment prospects; live in poverty or come from backgrounds of less opportunity including those with ‘protected characteristics’.

EJBF delivers an annual international festival as well as Scotland's most inclusive multi-cultural arts engagement programme with around 800 children, young people and families each year taking part in workshops. Our arts engagement activities encourage creativity and active participation allowing for artists to develop their community practice. The results of our work are presented annually within Edinburgh Festival Carnival (EFC) our flagship large-scale outdoor event.

International experience: EJBF has 8 years experience of managing international work including the hosting young emerging artists/volunteers from South Africa, the Bahamas, Zambia, India, Brazil, USA, Jamaica, Trinidad, Costa Rica and Trinidad. Through our Erasmus+ international training activities we have increased the capacity of local arts workers to deliver in international contexts. To date we have delivered two Erasmus+ projects (KA1 Youth Mobility and KA1 workers mobility).

Inclusion topics

This organisation is willing to involve volunteers who face situations which make their participation in activities more difficult, from the following categories for different types of project:

• Disability
• Geographical obstacles
• Health problems