Voices of A Culture Act for Scotland
We’ve been asking people to tell us why they’d like to see A Culture Act for Scotland, and what the benefits could be from their perspective:
Heather Stuart, Chief Executive of OnFife
“Culture and creativity aren’t luxuries, they are fundamental to who we are and how our communities thrive.
Culture strengthens wellbeing, tackles inequality, builds confidence and connection, and yet despite that impact there is still no statutory duty for bodies to invest in or report on cultural outcomes.
Culture is too often at risk and squeezed by short term pressures, but legislation could unlock long-term change, strengthening not constraining local decision-making”.
Marc Lambert, CEO, Scottish Book Trust
“As the review into Creative Scotland makes plain through its recommendations, transparency, equity, and clarity of communication are prized in the Scottish Arts world, and are especially important to the sector now, after a very difficult decade marked by considerable disruption, and - until last year perhaps - declining levels of investment and uncertainty as to Creative Scotland's budget. Managing an arts organisation under these circumstances has been very challenging, not least because there has been an endemic lack of predictability as to what the future might involve.
This has made the job of arts organisations delivering effectively and impactfully on their mission to serve the people of Scotland all the more difficult. And it is one big reason - and there are many others - that a Culture Act for Scotland is so necessary, since, however it was framed, it would ensure a degree of investment predictability for the arts over time that would allow those arts to flourish, and would allow arts organisations to plan ahead, and to act really effectively in growing audiences through actions and programmes that are creative, bold, memorable and impactful. In other words, looking forward, a Culture Act for Scotland would provide the basis for a very different decade - one characterised by a Scotland flourishing domestically and internationally through the joys and inspirations of culture and the arts”.
Helen Moore, Deputy Director of the Scottish Contemporary Art Network
“A Culture Act for Scotland would help elevate our core belief at SCAN that art is a vital part of Scottish life. Art helps us to explore complex histories, helps us to explore science, and it helps to foster stronger communities.
A Culture Act could ensure that the work that that we all do would be embedded within the work of other sectors. Culture partners should be seen to be as important contributors as those representing transport, education or health and social care. I believe that a Culture Act could mean that decision makers and and politicians would be more likely to see us as equal partners and it would elevate the importance of culture in a number of policy settings.
A Culture Act would mean that artists and arts workers would be properly supported to engage in socially impactful and place-based work in communities across Scotland. And I believe that a Culture Act would highlight the unique visual arts infrastructure that we have here in Scotland, and the potential that they have to bring people together to learn, be creative, but also to participate in a way that is really meaningful for everyone”.
Katie Goh, Manager, Equal Media and Culture Centre
“We think there’s great potential for a Culture Act to make women’s inequality in the culture sector more visible, and therefore make positive changes to policy, regulation and practices, that currently negatively affect women, particularly women who face multiple forms of discrimination in society.
From our perspective, a Culture Act in Scotland could and should include plans to better mainstream gender equality and wider equality issues too. We’re particularly excited that a culture act could encourage and design new practices and funding mechanisms, particularly ones that take an intersectional feminist approach.
For us, these alternative ways of working that a Culture Act could bring about, could look like the creation of equality and diversity funds to help meet additional costs faced by diverse groups of women in the sector, especially parents and carers; the development and piloting of alternative funding arrangements in the sector; and mainstreaming alternative working practices that reduce barriers to women’s participation in the sector.
These alternative ways of working and mainstreaming require long-term strategy, oversight and secure funding – which are things that a Culture Act could enable.
We think a culture act could be part of that meaningful long-term change that needs to happen to move towards a more equal and fair culture sector”.
Alison Reeves, Manager in Scotland and Deputy CEO, Making Music
“Making Music supports the call for A Culture Act for Scotland, to recognise the value of, nurture and protect the whole cultural environment. Our members are groups of people making music in their leisure time, led by volunteers and serving their communities – choirs, wind and brass bands, orchestras, youth music projects, festivals, Gaelic choirs, chamber music promoters - spread across all communities, from inner city Glasgow to Shetland, some over 150 years old and others formed in the last year. This practice should be treasured; tens of thousands of people sharing music, with benefits for their own wellbeing and that of their communities, for placemaking and their local economies and for the health and wealth of the nation.
Our members are financially self sustaining, but they need an infrastructure that supports them – the halls they meet in, concert halls for performing, public transport, a healthy working environment for the freelancers they employ, libraries for music hire. A Culture Act could mean that this infrastructure is noted, valued and protected, so that the environments that culture needs to voluntarily flourish are not carelessly damaged and so new communities can also come together in their own way to make music”.