Manifesto Ask: Brexit: Office for Cultural Exchange
This is Part 4 in a blog series on the Crowd-Sourced Cultural Manifesto for 2021. The culture sector has collaborated on 8 Asks in advance of the Scottish Parliament Elections in May 2021.
Brexit: In direct response to Brexit and in support of creative people across the nation: invest in an ‘Office for Cultural Exchange’ safeguarding international touring, festivals and residencies.
There are three key roles for the Office of Cultural Exchange:
Sharing
Scotland has an international outlook and to support and protect that part of our culture, our people need to interact with the international community. We currently share ideas internationally through our world-class network of festivals and residencies. For example Margaret Atwood Residency at Cove Park; Arundhati Roy at Edinburgh International Book Festival. The combination of Brexit and ill-considered immigration policies threaten our reputation and ability to share in international learning and development. The ‘Office for Cultural Exchange’ would support the cultural sector to ensure that we are able to host, and share ideas with the most talented, innovative, artists, thinkers and activists from across the globe.
Trade
Scotland is a small marketplace and the livelihoods of many creative freelancers, as well as organisations, depend on finding audiences beyond our shores. 45% of the current UK creative industries service exports go to the EU, we need to be able to work in the EU, upfront costs and administrative costs of visas, work permits, local taxes and vat could exclude us from competing in an EU market. The ‘Office for Cultural Exchange’ would support the cultural sector to compete in an EU market by supporting the sector to navigate the new relationship.
Reputation
The strength of Scotland’s cultural reputation brings us a voice in international dialogue far beyond our size. The Office for Cultural Exchange would support the cultural sector to connect with individuals, organisations and institutions across Europe and target countries; making Scotland an attractive partner for European Partnership Projects (even if we are a ‘third-country’) and for wider global collaborations.
Manifesto 2021
Read the Full Manifesto on our website here.
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