However, Campaign For The Arts, the charity leading the protest against the cuts, said it was hard to trust the minister given last week’s unexpected u-turn.

Jack Gamble, the director of Campaign For The Arts told The Herald on Sunday: “Creative Scotland rightly maintains reserves for an emergency, but none of us expects that emergency to be created by the Scottish Government.”

He added:“Last year, ministers gave Creative Scotland 10% less funding than five years previously, in real terms.

“When they tried to impose another 10% cut this year, despite the huge pressures on artists and cultural organisations arising from the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, thousands joined our campaign to express their outrage.

“It beggars belief that only seven months after the Scottish Government abandoned the £6.6 million cut, saying they had listened and parading a £6.6 million ‘uplift’ to support the sector, they are rowing back on their promise and slashing the budget anyway.”

Mr Gamble continued: “The SNP’s 2021 manifesto said ‘culture is central to who we are as a nation’, and that ‘the pandemic has demonstrated more than ever how vital it is to our wellbeing, mental health and sense of belonging’.

“How, at a time when the cultural sector has so much to give, can it be treated in such a reckless and haphazard way by ministers whose job is to support it?  “How can commitments to restore funding in future years be taken on trust after sudden U-turns like this and years of underinvestment?”