Dear Member of the Scottish Parliament, It is with great concern that we, the undersigned, are contacting you.
No doubt you will be aware that there has been growing apprehension regarding the formation of Creative Scotland, and the effects it will have on artists' welfare and practice.
The situation regarding Creative Scotland has now reached crisis point.
We believe the following measures to be particularly damaging to the cultural freedoms and entitlements' originally envisaged by the Culture Commission: - The lack of meaningful consultation with the arts communities during the transition process, culminating in a refusal to refer to artists within the strategy at all, has exposed the abandonment of freedom of expression as a central issue.
- The expanded remit to support the creative industries, without additional funding being reallocated from Scottish Enterprise, will be at the expense of the public funding of artistic independence.
- The huge costs of setting up a new institution, coupled with over-stretched resources, will inevitably result in a damaging cut in grant aid funding for artists and arts organisations.
- The proposed exploitation of Intellectual Property Rights and the introduction of loans coupled with a cut in grant aid, will all act to reinforce artists' poverty. The case of Catalonia shows that increasing artists' debts has been disastrous for all concerned.
We feel strongly that this bureaucratic process has not concerned itself with representing artists' needs, nor does it address UNESCO declarations on culture and freedom.
We have no confidence in the process of the formation of Creative Scotland, or the confused and inappropriate proposals that have arisen.
We are simply not convinced that the proposals will promote the development of and entitlement to culture in Scotland.
Whilst many of us have been critical of the existing institutions, Creative Scotland does not offer improvement on the current provision managed by the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, and will impact negatively on Scotland's international reputation.
For these reasons, we urge you to vote against the formation of Creative Scotland and instead refocus on supporting artists.
Signed:
Guyan Porter Leigh French Angela Blacklock-Brown Alan Johnston Alan Riach Andrea Roe Alan Burgon Sarah MacIntyre Angharad Davies Andrew Paterson Andrew Murray Alan McKendrick Alan Finn Alec Finlay Alexander Hetherington Alex Frost Alhena Katsof Alison Stirling Ally Sinclair Amy Thomas Andrew Coulton Andrew Ross Andy Wake Andrew MacDonald Angie Dight Angus Farquhar Ann Nisbet Anna Vermehren Anne Bulmer Anthony Schrag Lindsay Brown Irene Watson Ash Reid Tony Humbleyard Attila Tordai-S. 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