Arts quango finds extra £10 million

Creative Scotland increases its funding budget from £90m to £100m

CREATIVE Scotland has taken £10 million from its budget to fund groups across the country after an initial cash pot failed to meet demand.

Extra Lottery funding will pay core running costs of venues, events and festivals after the arts body was flooded with applications earlier this year.

Funding will increase overall to £100m.

SCOTLAND’s main arts funding body has raided £10 million from its budget to meet the demand for long-term funding from groups across the country after an initial cash pot was dramatically over-subscribed.

The extra National Lottery funding is to be ploughed into the core running costs of venues, arts bodies, events and festivals after Creative Scotland was inundated with applications earlier this year.

The surprise decision to raise the amount available for crucial “regular funding” from £90m to £100m has helped the body provide long-term backing to a host of new applicants – and avoid cutting regular funding for the vast majority of organisations.

The number of organisations receiving regular backing has more than doubled, from 45 to 119 over the next three years under its new simplified funding regime.

However, more than half of those who applied for support over the next three years have been turned down – with Creative Scotland’s chief executive Janet Archer admitting it could easily have funded another £40m of projects if it had more resources available.

But no major venues have lost their financial backing and among those to receive regular funding for the first time are Ayr’s historic Gaiety Theatre, the new Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock, and two of Edinburgh’s main performing arts centres, the Festival and King’s theatres, both of which are run by the city council.

However, two of the capital’s other most popular venues, the Royal Lyceum and Traverse Theatres, received funding cuts – of 17.5 and 11 per cent respectively – and have been told to work more closely together in future.

The only other organisation to receive a significant cut – of almost 30 per cent – is Horsecross, which runs both Perth Concert Hall and Perth Theatre. However, the latter venue is currently undergoing a £14.5m refurbish- ment which is not due for completion until 2017.

Scottish Youth Theatre is the most high-profile arts body to lose out on regular funding completely, but others, including the Federation of Scottish Theatre, are expected to receive alternative backing.

Creative Scotland insisted other routes remained available to unsuccessful applications, in-

“This is an illustration of creative potential around Scotland” Janet Archer

cluding an “open funding” cash pot, which will see more than £10m made available each year. Other support will be offered through “targeted” progammes.

Creative Scotland’s board approved an 11th-hour shake-up in its planned budget just weeks after Ms Archer warned that deciding on more than 264 applications was going to prove “extremely challenging”.

The quango, which re- ceived £212m of applications from 264 different organisations, had refused to guarantee funding to any beyond the current financial year.

Major winners include organisers of the Edinburgh and Glasgow film festivals, who received increases of 42 and 164 per cent respectively; Aberdeen Performing Arts, which has seen its support double; and the Scottish Book Trust, which won a 76 per cent increase.

Ms Archer, who said 41 per cent of Creative Scotland’s funding had been committed to the new grants, added: “While this is a clear illustration of the scale of creative potential and ambition that exists across Scotland, it also means that many of these organisations will be disappointed by the outcome this time round.

“While we will be able to fund some organisations through open-project and targeted funding, this underlines the importance of Creative Scotland’s role in making the case for culture at every given opportunity in order to increase levels of support available in the future.”