CFTA urges immediate action from the Scottish Government to prevent “cultural catastrophe”

The Campaign for the Arts has launched an emergency petition demanding that the Scottish Government fulfils crucial funding promises to avert a “cultural catastrophe” in Scotland.

Ministers have repeatedly vowed to address underinvestment in the arts with pledges to “more than double” funding and to deliver “at least £100 million more annually” by 2028-29. But the national arts body Creative Scotland has revealed that £10.7 million of its budget has been slashed or frozen by the Government midway through the year, forcing it to shut down the main public fund for Scotland’s freelance artists with less than two weeks’ notice.

Creative Scotland must allocate funding to organisations for the next three years by the end of October, but still does not know its own budget for this, despite the SNP having promised to deliver a three-year funding plan in their 2021 manifesto.

Evidence recently submitted to the Scottish Parliament’s culture committee has underlined the true scale of the funding crisis in Scotland’s arts sector. As many as 45 museums and galleries are at risk of closure within 12 months according to the national development body Museums Galleries Scotland. Edinburgh’s festivals are warning that Scotland’s cultural assets are now in a “perilously fragile” state.

The Campaign for the Arts’ petition warns that the damage to Scotland’s cultural sector is already underway, and urges Finance Secretary Shona Robison MSP to:

1. Urgently provide the culture funding the Scottish Government promised this year, including to Creative Scotland so that support for individual artists can continue;
2. Urgently clarify and increase the culture funding available for next year, including for Creative Scotland to provide the investment and certainty that organisations need to survive;
3. Urgently deliver on the Government’s pledges to “more than double” investment in culture and the arts, and to “agree 3 year funding settlements for Scottish Government core funded cultural organisations” including Creative Scotland.

Jack Gamble, Director of the Campaign for the Arts, said:

“Public funding for the arts in Scotland is essential – not just for artists, but for the wellbeing of our whole society and economy. Yet at this critical moment, Creative Scotland cannot make funding commitments either to individual artists or to nearly 300 cultural organisations awaiting decisions, due to continued inaction and backtracking from the Scottish Government.

This is truly shocking – particularly after the repeated warnings that we and many others have given over the last two years, and the promises and policy commitments that Scottish Government ministers have made in response.

Creative Scotland cannot invest funds it does not have. If the Government continues to withhold information and resources, cultural organisations will shortly lose the vital support that, astonishingly, all individual artists have now lost.

These are devastating impacts that are clearly at odds with the Government’s stated direction of travel. Ultimately, every citizen will feel the effects. Art and culture are not luxuries – they are an essential part of a healthy, thriving society. We urge the Scottish Government to deliver on their commitments and increase support before any more damage is done.”

Lori Anderson, Director of Culture Counts, said:

“These cuts will deeply affect the culture sector, leaving many artists, writers, and producers without the essential support they need to create new work and sustain their practice. This already fragile community of freelancers and creative practitioners is under immense pressure with many choosing to leave the sector seeking stability elsewhere. Closing this fund and cutting other much needed and committed budgets could have immediate devastating and irreversible consequences for those unable to apply to these funding programmes. Our cultural organisations are anticipating similar devastating outcomes without additional funding to support Creative Scotland’s Multi-Year funding programme at the end of October. The culture sector is a finely balanced and interconnected eco-system, so any losses have repercussions across the sector. Any organisation that disappears doesn’t just leave a gap, it affects and changes everything connected to it.  As cultural organisations fight for survival, we will see a growing impact on jobs, cultural services and in communities across Scotland.

Ultimately, allocating budget comes down to choices by the Government and these announcements come at a time when Scotland is hosting the biggest arts festival in the world which could not take place without the artists, performers, writers, and producers at its heart. Cutting funding to our artists sends a message that the Government does not value its culture and creative people, putting our reputation and ambitions as an international cultural leader at serious risk.

We join Campaign for the Arts in urging the Scottish Government to halt further in-year cuts, reverse these decisions, and provide clarity on culture funding by bringing forward as much of the promised £100 million investment in culture now when it is most needed and secure the sector’s future.”