National Theatre of Scotland at 20: Culture, Democracy, and the Stateless Nation
The National Theatre of Scotland celebrated its 20th anniversary on 23 October 2026 at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh. Culture Counts’ Co-Directors were pleased to be there to lead a session on the day’s headline theme of ‘Culture, Democracy, and the Stateless Nation’.
In the preceding panels, we heard from experts across the culture sector - including poet Hannah Lavery, and former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in conversation with journalist Joyce McMillan. We were pleased to hear colleagues from Federation of Scottish Theatre, and Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland, referencing Culture Counts’ work on cultural legislation as a forward-looking step to bolster the security, sustainability and impact of the sector. And we especially enjoyed a panel of accessibility experts and provocateurs - hearing from writer Jack Dickson, Hannah Simpson and Judith Drake from Birds of Paradise Theatre, scholar of cultural peace building Struan Kennedy and artist-scholar Kfir Lapid-Marshall.
We were invited to be part of the closing panel discussion entitled Advocacy, Policy and Democratic Engagement, and have included a précis of our contribution below.
Aiming big: Building a long-term, fair and sustainable future for the cultural sector
We began in our roles at Culture Counts, and launched the campaign for cultural legislation, eight or nine months before the election. In the current system, elections and budgets are the two big opportunities to secure progress on cultural policy. Elections offer a particular opportunity, as securing a manifesto commitment can provide a basis for making change over the following five years.
It was also an opportunity to make the most of this particular moment in time. The 2010s were a period of managed decline for culture. Between 2013 and the pandemic, the share of share of Scottish public expenditure being allocated to culture fell by around 20% in real terms. But in a relatively stable low growth low inflation period, the consequences of flat-cash budgets losing value were less immediately visible. Given the multiple crises the sector has experienced over the 2020s, the last five or six years have been a case study in the destabilising consequences of that approach.
In recent years, we’ve seen very welcome renewed political commitment and significant increases in investment. But much of that progress has come reactively, in response to threatened losses and closures. And by the end of the 2025-26 financial year, increased Scottish Government spending still hadn't made up for inflation driven cuts to local authority cultural budgets. In real terms, Scotland was still spending less on culture overall than in 2013.
When we were invited to give evidence to the Culture Committee at the Scottish Parliament few weeks ago, one MSP member asked us why, despite rising budgets, their evidence sessions still produced “a counsel of despair.” Our answer to that is that would be that we don’t have a deliverable strategic approach that knits it all together - responding to the challenges of a changing word, the role that culture needs to play within that, in all our lives, and what the sector actually needs to thrive.
Without that, culture remains exposed. Within Local Authorities, spending and provision is effectively discretionary, leaving it vulnerable to further cuts as public services are redesigned, priorities shift and budgets come under increasing pressure. At a national level, the Cabinet Secretary has confirmed that public service reform won't negatively impact the Government’s existing cultural spending commitments.
That is of course welcome, but its a political commitment that points to a much wider question about how we measure success.
So much of our discussion about cultural policy comes down to how much money Government spends each year. And of course that matters enormously. But the amount of money spent in a given year isn't necessarily a measure of whether we're building a more sustainable and resilient sector. What matters is what that investment achieves, what changes as a result, and whether that has a lasting impact.
So really, the need for cultural legislation comes down to what are we - in the widest sense, collectively working towards? How do we decide what matters most, and how do we know whether we're making progress? And how do we ensure that sustains over time?
THE OPPORTUNITY AHEAD OF US
There is a direct link between the emergency, on-the-ground conditions facing artists, organisations and practitioners, and the systemic issues facing the sector. Recent examples include venue closures, threats to cultural education opportunities, precarious working conditions and increasingly competitive funding streams. These individual issues don’t occur in isolation, they are symptomatic of deeper problems - the discretionary nature of almost all cultural funding, the challenges facing local authorities, the short-term budget cycles on which almost all decisions rely, and a tendency to measure progress by how much money is spent. The sector can be vocal and (often) effective in reacting to moments of crisis, but without tackling the systemic causes, we risk remaining caught in a constantly repeating cycle of crisis and response.
Central to Culture Counts' mission is securing a sustainable, long-term future for Scotland's cultural sector. Our view is that long-term stability is the overarching need. Without it, all aspects of that ecosystem - organisations, artists, businesses, public bodies, communities, audiences and participants (and indeed Government, Parliament and Local Authorities) - are continually experiencing and responding to immediate pressures, rather than planning, investing and developing towards a sustainable future.
The opportunity is not simply to secure what Scotland already has, but to create the conditions for culture to develop and thrive, for public investment to achieve more over time, and for culture to play a fuller part in Scotland's economy, communities and public life.
We believe that dedicated cultural legislation offers the most credible way to address these problems, by establishing a more secure, coherent and accountable place for culture within Scotland's public policy framework, strengthening how cultural policy, investment and provision are planned and delivered over the long term.
We’ve now secured commitments to explore the development of cultural legislation over the next five years from parties holding 85 of the 129 seats in the new Parliament. That was stage 1. We now have the coming 4.5 years to translate this promise into something substantial and real that shifts the terms of the conversation on culture and delivers real, lasting sustainability.
WHAT DOES SUSTAINABILITY LOOK LIKE?
What does sustainability look like? There’s something about security and less instability, but also something aspirational – what would security and stability allow us to collectively achieve for the long term?
In thinking about how to articulate that, our work so far has identified five connected conditions that a Culture Act could help establish. There’s nothing new here. In many ways, these are things we’ve been talking about for years, if not decades. The case we’re making is that legislation could provide the means to actually deliver and embed them in practice. In many ways, it may be the only way to do that.
A secure, long-term footing
Establishing culture as an enduring public policy responsibility, rather than an area in which policy, investment and provision operate almost entirely on a discretionary basis. Creating the stability on which long-term planning, investment and ambition depend.Collaboration around shared goals
Establishing lasting structures for the culture sector, government and public bodies to work together to develop shared ambitions, agree priorities and shape the decisions that affect culture.
Joined up policy and investment decisions at national and local levels
Bringing greater coherence to cultural policy, investment and delivery across national and local government and public bodies, so individual decisions and initiatives contribute to shared outcomes, with success measured by what investment achieves rather than simply what is spent.Greater impact and value realised across policy areas
Understanding and measuring the contribution culture already makes to Scotland's wider social, economic and public policy ambitions. Creating the conditions to strengthen its contribution across public policy and national life and realise its full potential.Fair access to culture for everyone, wherever they live
Addressing inequalities in the opportunities people have to experience, participate in, create and work in culture, including differences in cultural provision, infrastructure and investment across Scotland.
The first establishes the foundation of long-term stability, on which the ambitions of the other four depend. Together, we hope these themes provide a framework for conceptualising the changes needed to secure a sustainable future for Scotland's cultural sector, and exploring the role legislation could play in achieving them.
WHAT NEXT?
The Scottish Government has committed to consulting on cultural legislation. Our immediate ask of Scottish Government is that securing the long-term stability and sustainability of Scotland's cultural sector is the central objective of that consultation. We want to see:
A consultation that addresses structural and long-term problems. It should examine what prevents the sector from achieving long-term stability and consider the full range of changes necessary to address those barriers.
Genuine collaborative development. The objectives, scope and mechanisms of legislation should be developed with the cultural sector, local government, public bodies and communities, rather than being settled before consultation begins. This needs to be an active process of engagement, recognising that much of the sector is necessarily focused on immediate pressures and may not have had the opportunity or specialist knowledge to consider the longer-term questions of policy and legislative reform. The process should bring together practical experience and public policy expertise, creating space to connect the challenges people face now with the structural changes needed to build a more sustainable future.
A clear route from consultation to action. The Scottish Government should set out how the findings will be taken forward, with a clear ambition for what Scotland's cultural sector could achieve over the coming decades and the changes needed to make that possible. This should include what legislation is proposed to achieve and, where legislation is not pursued, what alternative measures could provide equivalent long-term security, continuity and accountability.
The opportunity to realise these commitments now offers a groundbreaking opportunity for us to build a stronger and more sustainable culture sector.
Cultural legislation could fundamentally change how decisions about culture are made, establishing a longer-term approach to planning and investment, clearer responsibilities and shared objectives, and stronger connections with areas like education, health and community development, recognising the role culture plays across all aspects of people's lives.
We expect to see consultation over the coming year or so, and we’ll be working to make the most of this as an opportunity to realise long-term change for the sector. If you’d like to support and stay connected to this work, you can:
Sign up to our Journal
Engage with your representative body
Ask your MSP to support the quest for developing cultural legislation over the coming parliament.
Aim high! Let’s collectively raise our gaze and aim for a longer-term, more sustainable future for the culture sector.