Finance Secretary Shona Robison MSP has unveiled the Scottish Government’s draft Budget for 2025-6. It contains a significant increase in culture investment, improving prospects for artists and organisations at a critical moment.
The positive news follows months of campaigning and a petition backed by 18,000 Campaign for the Arts supporters.
The overall culture budget will increase by £42 million (14%) next year. There will be an extra:
- £29m for Creative Scotland, including £2m for Screen Scotland
- £13m for the National Collections
- £1m for the National Performing Companies
Once inflation is taken into account, the increase in the overall culture budget is £34 million (11%). That means that, in real terms, next year's Budget just falls short of the size of the overall culture budget in 2022-23.
Still, this is the biggest single increase in the culture budget in the past decade, excluding the pandemic years.
Jack Gamble, director of the Campaign for the Arts, said:
"This significant increase in cultural investment is extremely welcome. Thousands of people across Scotland joined the Campaign for the Arts to urge the Scottish Government to support artists and cultural organisations at this critical time. We are delighted that ministers have listened and responded."
