Applications for the Friends of Baycourt Annual Performing Arts Youth Scholarship 2018 are now open.

The annual scholarship is awarded to Western Bay of Plenty secondary school students, aged 16 and over, who intend to undertake tertiary education in their chosen field of the performing arts the following year.

This year the overall winner of the award will receive $2,000 to put towards their tertiary studies, while the runner-up will receive $1,000. Applications close midnight on Friday November 16, and the winners will be announced in December.

FOB chair Anna Finlayson-Smith says the charitable trust exists to support Baycourt in a variety of different ways and one of these is to foster and encourage students who intend to pursue a career in some aspect of the performing arts.

'We are hugely delighted to be supporting the next generation of performers with our annual scholarship and every year it is always wonderful to see the skills and strengths of each of the applicants.”

On the form, applicants will be asked to provide details about the type of performing arts they are trained in, their performance experience, if they are enrolled or have applied for tertiary education in 2019, and their plans or aspirations for a career in the performing arts.

Anna says, in total FOB received five applications in 2017, and due to the high standard of each application, selecting the winners proved an especially difficult task for the judging panel.

Applications for The Friends of Baycourt Annual Performing Arts Youth Scholarship 2018 close midnight on Friday November 16.

To apply for the scholarship young performers will need to fill out an applications form which can be downloaded from the Baycourt Community and Arts website or collected from the centre's Box Office on Durham Street in the Tauranga CBD.

To download an application form, visit www.baycourt.co.nz/friends-of-baycourt.aspx

Applications forms can also be requested by emailing Anna at dameanna@talk.co.nz

For more information about the scholarship, contact Friends of Baycourt chair Anna Finlayson-Smith by calling 579 2265 or 027 477 4566, or by emailing Anna.