Statement from Culture Counts on Scottish Government cuts to Creative Scotland including the Closure of the Open Fund for Individuals

On Monday 19 August, Creative Scotland announced it will be closing the Open Fund for Individuals from 30 August to new applications due to the Scottish Government being unable to confirm release of £6.6m in Grant-in-Aid budget in the current financial year, 2024-25.

Creative Scotland planned to apply £3m of the £6.6m budget to support the Open Fund for Individuals in 2024-25, alongside £3m of National Lottery income.

Without confirmation of release of this budget, Creative Scotland does not have enough funds available to support all the funding routes that they currently provide.

This announcement follows the news, revealed last week in Creative Scotland’s submission to the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, that in-year budget cuts of £2.25 million have been made to the Culture Collective and PLACE initiatives and to the Youth Music Initiative.

This news from Creative Scotland is a further serious blow to Scotland's culture sector. Closing this fund will cut deep at the heart of the sector, impacting those who are most vulnerable leaving many of our artists, writers and producers unable to access the support they most vitally need to create new work and sustain their practice. This already fragile community of freelancers and creative practitioners is under immense pressure with many choosing to leave the sector seeking stability elsewhere. The decision to close this fund and cut other much needed and committed budgets could have immediate devastating and irreversible consequences for those unable to apply to these funding programmes and shows the significant levels of uncertainty that the national arts body and wider sector are currently working under.

Our cultural organisations are anticipating similar devastating outcomes without additional funding to support Creative Scotland’s Multi-Year funding programme at the end of October. The culture sector is a finely balanced and interconnected eco-system, so any losses have repercussions across the sector. Any organisation that disappears doesn't just leave a gap it affects and changes everything connected to it.  As cultural organisations fight for survival, we will see a growing impact on jobs, cultural services and in communities across Scotland.

Ultimately, allocating budget comes down to choices by the Government and these announcements come at a time when Scotland is hosting the biggest arts festival in the world which could not take place without the artists, performers, writers, and producers at its heart. Cutting funding to our artists sends a message that the Government does not value its culture and creative people, putting our reputation and ambitions as an international cultural leader at serious risk.

We call upon the Scottish Government to halt further in-year cuts, reverse these decision and provide clarity on culture funding by bringing forward as much of the promised £100 million increased investment in culture now when it is most needed to secure the sector’s future.

Policy PositionsJoseph Peach