Brighter future for Scottish culture is still within reach

Trying to make sense of Scotland’s arts funding saga has not been an easy task over the past 18 months or so.

Attempting to work out how much the Scottish Government invests in the industry and how that may change in future years has been made almost impossible due to the shifting sands of budgets, pledges, commitments and actual delivery.

First Minister Humza Yousaf’s pledge in autumn last year to “more than double” arts spending was immediately undermined by the fact the £100 million figure he promised was only around half of the Government’s budget for culture and events.

The wildly different definitions of what “additional funding” means, as far as the Government is concerned compared to its own arts agency, Creative Scotland, and independent watchdogs like Culture Counts, have also muddied the waters.

The presentation of Creative Scotland’s funding being restored months after significant cuts were imposed as some kind of boost for the arts is a dreadful habit that should be ditched.

According to its own budget documents, the £15.8m “increase” will actually only take cultural spending to around £2m more than what it was two years ago.

Although Creative Scotland will not say who has made it through to the final stage of its long-term funding application process, the vast majority of organisations reliant on its support seem to have been given a stay of execution until final decisions are due in October.

That offers vital breathing space for the Government and Creative Scotland to thrash out how the value of Scotland’s first long-term arts funding programme for seven years. Creative Scotland has given the initial green light to £87.4m worth of applications from 285 festivals, venues, events and organisations, even though it has just £40m available in its current budget.

It has been warning for 18 months of the risk of insolvencies, closures and job losses unless the Government steps in to help meet the “clear potential and demand” from the sector and also commits to a three-year budget.

Given the five-year timescale of the First Minister’s promises and Creative Scotland’s share of the culture budget, it seems reasonable to assume it should expect somewhere between £30m and £65m more committed for its annual government budget.

The big question now hanging over Scottish culture in the coming months is whether the Government will deliver on its pledges in enough time before Creative Scotland makes the decisions which will shape the arts landscape for years to come.

While nothing meaningful has been committed to date by the Government, the prize of a brighter future for Scottish culture is still within reach. But I suspect the only way it will be secured is by maintaining the pressure on the Government to match warm words with action.