Exclusive:Creative Scotland warns of 'managed decline' outlook for the arts after being targeted for new cuts
Industry claims £100m pledge is at risk of becoming ‘hollow promise’
Creative Scotland has warned the country’s arts industry is facing years of “managed decline” after it was targeted for new cuts weeks before it decides on hundreds of applications for long-term funding.
More than £10 million worth of Scottish Government funding has either been cut from the arts agency's budget or has been put on hold, despite ministers pledging an “additional” £13.2 million worth of investment for its arts agency in this financial year.
Initiatives to support Edinburgh’s festivals, community arts projects across Scotland and a nationwide youth music initiative are all said to be affected by the latest spending squeeze.
Industry body Culture Counts has warned that Scotland’s arts funding landscape is now “extremely precarious,” with organisations facing the prospect of “devastating” funding decisions due to a lack of decisive action from the government.
Creative Scotland - which has now been targeted for cuts three times in the space of two years despite warning of a “perfect storm” of financial problems crippling the industry - has called for urgent clarity from the Scottish Government over how a promised £100m in new funding for culture is going to be rolled out.
Culture Counts has told MSPs that the prospect of "in-year cuts” to Creative Scotland or any other cultural bodies would leave its pledge to roll out an additional £100m in arts funding “way off track and at risk of becoming a hollow promise.”
Creative Scotland has warned of a risk of “significant job losses," organisations having to change their entire financial model and even complete closures across the cultural landscapes if it is left on “standstill" funding when it has to decide on £87.5m worth of applications for support in October.
In a dossier for Holyrood’s culture committee, Creative Scotland, which has a projected funding gap of around £47.5 million, has told the Scottish Parliament that it is having to plan ahead on the basis of funding “far fewer” organisations on a “multi-year” basis than under the current programme, which supports 121 organisations, including festivals, events, industry bodies and year-round venues.
It warned that organisations which have had standstill funding in recent years have effectively had to grapple with “real-terms cuts” of around 20 per cent annually.
The arts agency has been calling for a rethink of culture funding in Scotland for the last two years amid warnings of insolvencies and job losses unless organisations are able to secure improved long-term funding deals.
However Creative Scotland was targeted for a 10 per cent cut in December 2022, had the £6.6m reinstated the following spring in the face of an industry backlash but then reimposed last September, when the government ordered the arts agency to raid its reserves to avoid passing the cut on to organisations.
Weeks later, the then First Minister, Humza Yousaf, told the SNP conference that the government was planning to “more than double” arts funding by 2028 – covering the three years of Creative Scotland’s next programme.
Creative Scotland was allocated the lion’s share of an additional £15.8 million promised for culture when the government set out its budget plans in December.
However its chief executive, Iain Munro, pointed out earlier this year that the promised funding would simply restore Creative Scotland’s budget to “historic levels” of support.
Details of the latest spending squeeze on the arts agency have emerged in the dossier for MSPs which states that it has been kept in the dark over how much of the promised £100m will be “channelled through” Creative Scotland.
Its report states: “We are currently assessing 280 applications for multi-year funding from some of Scotland’s most important cultural organisations, with a total funding request of £87.4m.
"If our grant-in-aid budget remains at least the same in 2025-26 and beyond, we will be able to support far fewer organisations on a multi-year basis than we currently do.
"This means that many cultural organisations will, at best, need to change their operational model or, at worst, cease to operate. This will result in significant job losses in the culture and creative sector and a significant reduction in cultural provision and cultural opportunity for the people of Scotland.”
Creative Scotland has told MSPs it was finding it "increasingly challenging” to manage both short and long-term uncertainty over its funding.
Its report adds: “In the current financial year, we have been informed that £2.25m originally budgeted for the Platforms for Creative Excellence programme supporting Edinburgh’s festivals (£750k), and the Culture Collective programme (£1.5m) supporting community arts and artists across Scotland, will no longer be available in 2024-25.
"At the time of writing, we also await confirmation of a further £8.4m of grant-in-aid budget originally committed to us by the Scottish Government for 2024-25."
Creative Scotland’s dossier said the cultural sector had been left operation on “operating on a one-year budget horizon for too long, which severely constrains its ability to plan for the long term, and impacts job security, sector confidence, and creative output.”
Its report adds: “The £100m commitment offers the prospect of transforming the fortunes of the sector.
"If Creative Scotland is provided with a significant proportion of this additional budget as a priority, then we will be able to support more artists and sustain more cultural organisations across the country than we can currently, delivering increased cultural, social and economic benefits for Scotland and its communities.
"Without the investment, we face the prospect of managed decline of the sector.”
The government has repeatedly pledged to increase culture funding in this financial year from £180.8m to £196.6m, with Creative Scotland allocated £68.5m in the government budget, up from the £55m it ended up with in the last financial year after its previous budget cut.
The Culture Counts report states: “The sector needs to see the Scottish Government’s ambition translated into immediate action with as much of this funding made available now when it is most urgently needed to prevent the immediate threats that many organisations, workforce, and artists stand to face this year.”
A spokesperson for the government said: “The Scottish Government already provides significant funding to Creative Scotland each year and will continue to do so. We have so far distributed £57.578 million this year to Creative Scotland.
“This is the most challenging budget to be delivered under devolution. Scotland already faced a precarious financial situation with high inflation putting significant pressure on households, the economy and public finances.
“The Scottish Budget continues to face significant challenges. We are considering the implications of the actions announced by the Chancellor on 29 July for our public finances, and the next steps required by the Scottish Government.
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