Free movement of artists ‘ critical’ for Scottish economy
Free movement of artists and creative industry workers between Scotland and Europe will be “critical” to the nation’s economy in the wake of Brexit, the national arts body, Cre - ative Scotland, has declared.
Chief executive Janet Archer suggested economic growth would be impossible to achieve if tough travel restrictions were imposed on the sector in future.
Ms Archer told a creative industries summit in Edinburgh that the quango had already star ted forging “new alliances” in Europe to try to offset the impact of Brexit.
Setting out a vision for how her organisation would be handling the prospect of Brexit, Ms Archer pledged it would“deep en artistic practice through international exchange” in future.
Ms Archer, who praised the Scottish Government’s “vociferous” stance on Europe since the referendum vote, insisted Creative Scotland was“a poli tic al ,” but operating within official policy. She said her organisation was committed to a vision of Scotland as a “distinctive creative nation connected to the world”.
Ms Archer told the conference :“Creativity is our calling card to the world, opening doors, building relationships and cultural con nec- tions through shared stories and experiences.
“We’ ll support artists to take work overseas, showcase Scotland’ s creativity at festivals and cultural events across the world, and support the presentation of international work in Scotland.
“Markets are different for different sub - sectors. We’ve committed to working with the Scottish Government on building relationships with priority countries. We’ re committed to building relationships with new innovation and investment hub sin London, Dublin and Brussels. We’ re also starting to build new alliances with European funders to explore future options for co- working.
“It’ s really important we make the case strongly for freedom of movement for the creative sectors, which will be critical to Scotland’ s future economic success.
“Co- working across Europe is a strong feature for all our creative industries sub- sectors.
“Much will be lost if the new regulator y environ - ment prohibits or dis incentives this. If it’s too difficult to get through the red tape to make something happen it’ll be really problematic.”
Ms Archer said there was clear evidence that the creative industries were growing faster in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK.
She added: “The importance of sustained public funding for the arts, screen and creative industries is not just critical – it might just be the thing that gets us through these challenging times and serves as the central element of Scotland’s future success.
“One of our biggest priorities should be to understand and talk about what the creative industries deliver. In Scotland, they represent 3 percent of gross value added ( GVA) and 73,600 jobs.
“The screen sector alone represents £225 million and 5,800 jobs. Culture and heritage also contribute to tourism, which generates a further £3.675 billion and employs over 200,000 people.
“Essentially, all of this says that, in Scotland, economic growth can’t happen without creativity.”
“It might just be the thing that gets us through these challenging times, the central element of Scotland’s success”
JANET ARCHER