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.”