Well, we was wrong.
But the question is: how wrong was we? When very good sources suggested to The Herald that former Glasgow 1990 supremo Bob Palmer would be the man appointed to succeed Andrew Dixon as chief executive and salvage the wreckage of Creative Scotland, we took the decision to pass the information on to our readers. Whatever transpired at the board meeting that was convened to approve the decision of the selection panel that day, however, and what machinations there have been in the month since, we learned on Thursday that in fact the quango's new CEO will be Janet Archer, currently dance director at the Arts Council of England.
It may be that we will eventually learn what happened in those weeks. Already some eyebrows have been raised at the CS claim that Archer was "the unanimous choice of the Creative Scotland board", with the suggestion that arriving at that unanimity looks to have involved some protracted debate. The selection process has also been described to us as "peculiarly complicated" and how far Palmer chose to absent himself from its final stages is also a matter for some speculation.
None of that should reflect in any way on Ms Archer and her own suitability for what everyone accepts is now a doubly challenging post. And – of course – how The Herald was led up the wrong speculative path on sound information is entirely not the question at all. Or at least not one of any great consequence now. Much more pertinent is the one about what the new chief exec is expected to do with this poisoned chalice.
Despite the interestingly mixed metaphor of an epic gestation period for the shotgun marriage of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, Mr Dixon was installed in post with only the vaguest remit beyond the instruction to reinvent the wheel, preferably in some sort of streamlined, businesslike fashion. Unless we have all missed some important policy announcement from Holyrood or the CS board, Ms Archer now has a buckled wheel to knock into some ill-defined shape. Her staff will be pleased to have someone in post, but her board look unreliable allies. You can only wish her the very best of good luck.
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