Iris Initiative

About Us

The John Byrne Award is an inclusive online creative competition, named after one of Scotland’s most prolific artists and playwrights, who was also one of the  founding trustees. Growing up in the infamous Ferguslie Park, his interactions with diverse groups of people had a huge and positive impact on John's work and his subsequent success. However, many creative people struggle to gain recognition due to the circumstances they find themselves in. 

The John Byrne Award seeks to support people from all backgrounds, to  celebrate, encourage and support creativity whilst creating a platform to engage in important conversations about the many values, beliefs and ideas which shape our lives and our communities. We give cash prizes each month for the most reasoned and relevant, constructive and compelling work 

"I am an artist but also a social scientist - being shortlisted was an opportunity to present the messages of both sides of my work to my different audiences which has led to new conversations."

"The money was a huge help to me. My disabilities mean that my income is very low, any bit of cash I get makes a massive difference to how stressful my month is"

Our Aims 

We want to support more people to flourish. We recently consulted our followers and participants. This is what they said;

"Don't just focus on winners - the process of creation is important - select a few non-winners to encourage and mentor"

"It would be great if the JBA visited schools/worked with children's organisations such as Who Cares? Scotland. Art is a fantastic way to express emotion and children do this well."

"Helping, directly or indirectly, fund affordable or free arts classes and projects in the community. Freeing up publicly owned properties to house art initiatives."

Why we want support  

We are developing mentoring and skills development programmes for artists who have not had traditional routes through art school / music or performance school type educations. We have 2 new partnerships in place with established organisations  in Scotland; the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and SWg3. These programmes will help to support and develop young film composers and artists.  

We will cover studio costs for 1 year at SWG3, enabling hundreds of young artists to work in a space they otherwise would not have access to, and we will award a bursary to one talented film composer in the RSNO's 'Composers Film Hub' who has faced barriers to participating in mentoring programmes like these. 

The money you donate through this crowdfunder will go directly towards these fantastic opportunities and the creation of new ones - we have many  project partners in the pipeline!  This will help us support Scotland's creative community. Please help us to do this and follow our progress via our website and newsletter.