Fair play vow for artists under new culture vision
● Government pledges arts will be valued, nurtured and protected
Artists and performers have been promised they will be paid properly and “treated fairly” under a new cultural blueprint for the country.
The Scottish Government wants all organisations benefiting from public funding to commit to pay the living wage to its workers as part an overall vision of Scotland as “a place where culture is valued, protected and nurtured.”
The first new cultural strategy for Scotland for a decade makes a clear commitment to “value, trust and support creative people for their unique and vital contribution to society and the economy.”
The government is tasking public bodies like Creative Historic and Historic Environment Scotland with ensuring that “fair working” practices are in place within their own organisationsandanyonethey support financially.
It is also pledging that future public funding of culture will “reflect its value to society and positions culture as an essential part of public life.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the strategy would ensure that culture becomes a “cross-government priority” in future, adding that it would “support the sector, build new partnerships and help communities develop and celebrate their own culture.”
The new blueprint is aimed at ensuring greater diversity in the sector to better reflect “a changing Scotland in the 21st century.” It has emerged nearly two years after research for the government found that the Scottish cultural scene was dominated by people from wealthier backgrounds.
The new blueprint pledges that the government “recognises the fundamental importance of supporting artists and creative practitioners.”
It adds: “Creative businesses, artists and creative practitioners make an important contribution economically, socially and culturally to Scotland.
“Culture and heritage public agencies all have an important leadership role to play in promoting and modelling fair working practices within their organisations and across the culture sector. As employers, the agencies should adopt fair working practices to ensure their staff are treated fairly and are fairly rewarded. As the providers of public service, they should promote fair work to the organisations they work with and support, including through any public funding they award.
“Across all of Creative Scotland’s funding programmes, organisations seeking funds are expected to be clear about all costs they allocate relating to the payment of people involved in delivering work.”