Susan Aitken

CULTURAL SPIRIT WILL NOT BE DIMINISHED AFTER POOR FUNDING DECISIONS

LIKE many across Scotland and beyond, I was bitterly disappointed that funding for the Aye Write literary festival has been pulled by Creative Scotland, putting the future of this hugely successful event in jeopardy.

In just 18 years, Aye

Write has become a key event in Glasgow’s calendar, a festival which attracts leading literary figures from across the world but also one that’s rooted in the heart of our communities.

Over recent decades, the cultural sector has been critical to Glasgow’s re- emergence as an international city. From film to music, the visual arts to theatre and literature, ours is a city where creativity happens, a place where culture is made, from concert halls to community centres.

Just yesterday we received the tremendous news of a £ 350,000 package of support from the National Lottery to develop plans to place culture and heritage at the centre of the regeneration of Sauchiehall Street; the first major step, we hope, in a longterm commitment from the lottery to help secure Sauchiehall Street’s future as a culture and heritage district.

The contribution to Scotland’s national and global cultural output that stems from work produced here in Glasgow and supported financially by Glasgow’s citizens is disproportionately high, even for the large size of our population. Despite constraints on our financial resources, there are still few, if any, councils in these islands that invest as much in cultural activity as Glasgow.

Aye Write is a perfect illustration of this: an event of national cultural significance, rooted in our city and its venues and reliant on our expertise for its success. But it’s also an example of how Glasgow does so much of the heavy lifting ourselves, with comparatively little support from national governments and agencies. Glasgow punches well above our weight within Scottish culture and it’s high time that got the recognition it deserves.

I know that colleagues in Glasgow Life, who have delivered Aye Write since 2005, want to ensure that it continues to have a presence this year, albeit a necessarily reduced one without the Creative Scotland funding.

Support from the Scottish literary world for Aye Write has been hugely encouraging, and I hope they’ll throw their weight behind these events.

One of the best aspects of Aye Write is the Wee Write festival. Engaging directly with children to nurture and encourage reading from the earliest years, it has become as important as the main event. I’m particularly keen that we are able to provide some continuity for Wee Write, which Glasgow and Scotland can’t afford to lose. If Creative Scotland doesn’t exist to support something as valuable as that, then many might wonder exactly what it is for.

Few in Scottish public life understand better than me the intense pressures of decreasing funding and the increasing demands on those limited resources. But this is a festival which brings literature and the joy of reading into the heart of communities in our biggest city while drawing genuine literary giants to Glasgow and underscoring our reputation as an international city of arts and culture.

I hope that this year is only a temporary hiatus and that in 2025 Aye Write can return to a full programme of events, delivering all of its benefits for Glasgow – and for Scotland.