Tell Your MSP About The Crowd-Sourced Manifesto

We’re asking all our subscribers to let their local MSP know about our crowd-sourced manifesto, and why in particular the 'Place' ask is important to your area. Be sure to let us know how you get on!

How To Contact Your MSP

For up to date contact information for your MSPs, input your postcode on this Scottish Parliament webpage.

If you’re not sure how to contact an MSP for advocacy like this, read our very short, practical How To Contact Your MSP Guide.

What to Tell Them

Below is a detailed explanation of our ‘Place’ ask. Pick some or all of the bullet points you think will bring the greatest benefit to your local area.

If you’re meeting the MSP in person or over video or phone call, you may have to be more selective as time will be limited. Make the conversation relevant to your area.

If you’re writing to you MSP, feel free to copy and paste the text from the page.

Place

The ‘Place’ ask is the first in our manifesto. It and calls for:

A commitment to the development of a Culture Act that will integrate culture into communities, enabling Scotland’s local economies and wellbeing to flourish and to deliver fair-work. Incorporate minimum levels of cultural planning, stakeholder engagement and allow for percentages of local infrastructure projects to be invested into culture.

The Culture Act (Similar to the Arts Act in Ireland) would require all local authority areas to have a cultural plan. Plans would be collaboratively designed by a wide range of partners including local businesses; colleges, universities, prisons, health and social care, local freelance cultural specialists, artists, cultural organisations, social enterprises and third sector representatives.

The Culture Act would:

  • Ensure that Scotland’s communities can exercise the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community. Ensure that ambitions are raised and opportunities increase for people with additional needs.

  • Require all local authority areas to have a collaboratively produced Cultural Plan.

  • Support fair-work for cultural freelancers. Planning leads to commitments which lead to secure work. Freelancers experience the negative impacts of precarious work; this is partly due to a lack of a long-term sustainable planning for the cultural offer in the local community.

  • Ensure that all children in Scotland of all ages are assured regular access to a diverse range of cultural experiences. Every school should have a cultural-plan.

  • Ensure a resourced culture and health action-plan in each Health and Social Care partnership area.

  • Require a percentage of local infrastructure projects and all property development projects to be invested into local culture.

  • Include the culture sector including Creative Scotland and Historic Environment Scotland as statutory consultees in growth deals and agreements; such as the ‘Falkirk Growth Deal’ or ‘City Deals’.

  • Protect libraries, museums and galleries, supporting digital inclusion, access to skills, local freelancers and the future of work.

  • In direct response to Brexit and in support of creative people across the nation, open an ‘Office for Cultural Exchange’ safeguarding international touring, festivals and residencies.

  • Secure a minimum data agreement and streamline the type of data collected by local authorities in terms of cultural provision and impact; work alongside the Improvement Service, COSLA, and Centre for Cultural Value, NESTA and the Creative Industries Policy Evidence Centre to design a data and evidence system.

  • The introduction of the transient visitor levy (when the time is right), to support investment into culture at a local level.

Further Resources

News, Advocacy GuidesLori AndersonManifesto 2021