What is Culture Counts?

We are Scotland’s advocacy network for arts, heritage and creative industries. Together, we make the case for the protection of culture as fundamental to our common future, and to seek to progress the conditions for a sustainable, long-term future for Scotland’s cultural sector.

Our approach

We work to: 

Inform - develop, collate and promote the evidence and insight needed to understand culture's value, analyse the context in which it operates, and develop robust positions to address future opportunities and challenges.  

Influence - work to shape the policies, decisions and structures that affect culture, informed by the knowledge and experience of our members and the wider sector. 

Enable - create the conditions for more people and organisations across the arts, heritage and creative industries to engage with and influence the issues that affect them. 

Values

Equity - we recognise that resources, power and access are not evenly distributed across the cultural sector. Those who are often excluded from policy conversations include Black and Global Majority, disabled, working-class and LGBTQIA+ communities, care-experienced and young people, migrants, and those based outside of urban areas. We recognise and seek to address these disparities by: Proactively inviting underrepresented groups to join and participate in our network. We work to demystify policy, political and advocacy processes so more people and perspectives can take action on the issues that matter to them. We resource the time, labour and expertise of smaller organisations, freelancers, grassroots groups when contributing to our work.  

Ambition - we think expansively and over the longer term, seeking to identify and pursue the best possible outcomes for the sector, not just the most achievable.  

Collaboration - our starting point is always to think about who we can work with to build alliances, grow capacity and amplify a range of perspectives. Our work is informed by the experiences, knowledge and reach of our core members, the wider sector and key stakeholders. We actively seek to widen the diversity of perspectives represented via our networks and amplify the experiences of parts of the sector with less advocacy resource. 

Rigour - accuracy, evidence and careful consideration underpin what we produce and how we work. We work with quantitative data, research findings and economic outputs alongside testimonials, lived experience, qualitative evidence and the power of creative storytelling. Our resources are designed and presented in a way that enables others to interrogate and build on our findings.  

Accountability - we strive to work in the open, sharing our thinking, our processes and actions. We aim to be honest about the limits of our capacity and our influence, and to recognise where we can work in solidarity with others, rather than leading work ourselves.   

Impartiality - we are politically impartial, and do not endorse or campaign for any individual political parties. We seek to work constructively with decision-makers across the political spectrum, based on the interests of our core members and the wider culture sector. Our independence enables us to rigorously scrutinise the work of politicians and policy makers, as well as to build the broad cross-party consensus needed to make lasting change.

Our work

Alongside our work to pursue a long-term, proactive and sustainable vision for the future of the sector, we will always need to respond to challenges, changes and shifts in context as they arise. In practice, this means that we work in three ways: responsively to policy, political and sectoral issues as they arise; on an ongoing basis on projects such as convening a Cross Party Group in the Scottish Parliament; and proactively towards our central aim of securing a long-term sustainable future for the cultural sector. Currently the main focus of this proactive work is on developing the proposal for A Culture Act for Scotland. Through all these strands, we seek to embed creativity within the practice of what we do - building on the power of storytelling to make the case for culture in a strategic and policy context.  

We work primarily at a national level within Scotland. Alongside, we seek to make new connections - with partners working at the UK level and internationally, and with colleagues working in academic, economic, health and educational contexts. 

Whilst our work inherently focusses on the big-picture political and policy conditions for culture, we explicitly recognise that there is no art without artists. The wellbeing, working conditions and financial sustainability of creative workers and community groups is the foundation for the health of the whole ecosystem. 

Structure

Culture Counts is a project hosted by the Federation of Scottish Theatre. Our staff team of three all work part time, our collective staffing capacity is 1.5 FTE.

Our work is guided by a steering group, which consists of between nine and twelve Core Members. The steering group provide insight and expertise across a broad range of the sector, advise on policy direction and consider priorities and areas of focus.

Culture Counts is supported by membership fees, funding from Creative Scotland, project partners and trusts and foundations.

Core Members

Our core members represent or support organisations or individuals who form part of Scotland’s cultural ecosystem, typically specialising by artform, geography, demographics or employment type. Some of our members are Scotland-specific, while others are UK-wide, but with a significant focus on work in Scotland. In practice, this means our membership consists primarily of representative bodies and networks, unions, National Performing Companies, NonDepartmental Public Bodies, Local Authority ALEOs, and some companies and events.

What unites our core members is a) a remit to represent or work on behalf of part of the sector and b) a commitment to work collaboratively to promote and protect the sector as a whole.  

Team

Kathryn Welch (she/her): Director - Networks, Projects and Partnerships
kathryn@culturecounts.scot | LinkedIn

Kathryn specialises in community and participatory arts, and she is passionate about the connections between the arts and social change. She was Programme Lead for Creative Scotland's flagship Culture Collective project, and held senior roles at Creative Lives and Macrobert Arts Centre. Kathryn’s freelance work explores network-building, knowledge-sharing and project coordination, working with local, regional and national arts organisations, think tanks, arts councils, grant-makers, local charities and research bodies. 

Kathryn is founder, co-conspirator and volunteer at several community-rooted projects that bring people together, nourish creativity and drive social change. She is a Clore Social Fellow, a member of the Advisory Group for Bechdel Theatre Company (supporting and amplifying marginalized genders in theatre), a volunteer at Porty Pride and a proud member of 93% Club (championing the potential of state school-educated young people). 

Joseph Peach (he/him): Director - Policy and Public Affairs
joseph@culturecounts.scot | LinkedIn

A musician by background, Joseph studied piano at the RCS and spent years touring, making records and teaching, mainly in Scottish folk music. Work in music continues whenever possible. Alongside, Joseph has had a varied career in policy, research and public affairs. Previous roles include time as an MSP staffer, work focused on rural depopulation, and supporting improved living standards and financial wellbeing for people on low to middle incomes, as well as a previous stint as Culture Counts’ Advocacy Manager. 

Joseph is a member of the NorthWest 2045 steering group, a network of organisations and community groups working towards a sustainable, repopulated rural economy and resilient, thriving communities in North West Sutherland and Coigach. Joseph is also a trustee of Muirneag na Mara, the charity established to rebuild and care for the historic 80ft (24m) sailing vessel SV Muirneag as a sail training ship and community asset for Ullapool and surrounding areas. 

Evelyn Chong (they/them): Engagement and Communications Manager
evelyn@culturecounts.scot | LinkedIn

Prior to joining Culture Counts, Evelyn worked for Stonewall UK as Global Partnerships Manager and Account Manager. In these roles, they worked with dozens of organisations across the UK and beyond to provide support, deliver workshops, and lead on global benchmarking exercises. They also hold a Masters of Public Policy degree from the University of Toronto where they studied a range of social and economic policy topics, and co-founded the Mental Health Policy Initiative.

Steering group