Scottish culture budget to rise by £15.8m

Arts Professional

20 Dec 2023

Article
by Mary Stone

Jack Gamble, Director of the Campaign for the Arts, said that the restoration of Creative Scotland’s budget was “a relief”

He added: “But despite the First Minister’s recent pledge to ‘more than double’ investment in culture, next year’s overall culture budget will be 6% smaller than in 2022/23 in real terms. Once the cuts to Creative Scotland have been remedied, there is only £2.6m of new cultural investment.

“The Deputy First Minister called this ‘the first step on the route to investing at least £100m more in arts and culture by 2028/29’, but £2.6m of new investment is a very small first step, given the very big threats to arts access in Scotland.

“Amid a perfect storm of challenges for artists and organisations, the Scottish government needs to go much further, much faster.”