Letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Culture from the Sector Support Organisations Group
Last week the Sector Support Organisations Group wrote to Angus Robertson MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture in response to the announced cuts and pauses to Creative Scotland’s funding programmes.
22 August 2024
Dear Cabinet Secretary,
We write in response the announcement of the closure of Creative Scotland’s Open Fund for Individuals alongside cuts, or pauses, to Scottish government initiatives, such as Culture Collective and the Youth Music Initiative, which will have a devastating impact on cultural provision in Scotland’s communities.
The culture sector needs visible, open, and ambitious leadership at this critical time. Our artists need both long-term reassurance and immediate action. The culture sector needs a relationship between the Scottish Government and the arms-length body Creative Scotland that is positive, enabling and supports artists and freelancers as pivotal to the nation’s culture, reputation, and wellbeing.
Freelance individuals are both the most vulnerable and the most important people in our workforce. We need to be assured that you will resource, support, and work constructively with our arms-length funding body to address the needs of artists and to provide active solutions to the wider crisis. We need the Scottish Government to invest in the cultural sector, and to shoulder, rather than abdicate, its responsibilities to the artists, writers, producers, makers, and musicians who make Scottish culture and the organisations who work in partnership with them by supporting their development and sharing their work with communities across Scotland.
As sector advocates in art forms that include dance, performance, music, craft, literature and visual arts, together with those with cross-sector expertise in equalities and cultural business, we pledge our support to our freelance workforce, and we call upon the Scottish Government to do the following:
Deliver the funds you promised to Creative Scotland in budget year 2024-5
Work with Creative Scotland for positive solutions to the crisis, including the immediate restoration of the Open Fund for Individuals
Deliver on the Scottish Government’s Pledges to increase culture funding across the portfolio
We will not rehearse the arguments for culture, we know you are committed to these. We call upon you to work with the sector, to show positive and present leadership, and to restore confidence. Culture needs your support.
Yours faithfully
Moira Jeffrey, Director, Scottish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN)
Jan-Bert van den Berg, Director, ArtLink Edinburgh and the Lothians
David Francis,Director, Traditional Music Forum
Irene Kernan, Director, Craft Scotland
Robert Kilpatrick, CEO and Creative Director, Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA)
Fiona Sturgeon Shea, Chief Executive Federation of Scottish Theatre
David Watt, CEO, Culture and Business Scotland
Lori Anderson, Director, Culture Counts
Marion Sinclair, Chief Executive, Publishing Scotland