MORE than 150 theatre workers, actors and directors have signed an open letter urging Creative Scotland to reconsider its decision to cut core funding from Catherine Wheels theatre company.
The letter comes after Catherine Wheels was one of several high profile companies left off the three-year, £99m Regularly Funded Organisations (RFO) list by the arts funding organisation.
Catherine Wheels, based at the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh, is one of 20 companies to lose their three year funding deals in the funding shake-up.
READ MORE: Emergency board meeting as Creative Scotland to discuss controversial funding decisions
The open letter, also sent to culture secretary Fiona Hyslop and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, says: "The role and influence of Catherine Wheels extends far beyond the core employees that make up the company and as freelance artists who have worked with the company, benefitted from their expertise or simply been inspired by their work we wish to ask Creative Scotland to reconsider their decision.
"The value of this company to the artistic community cannot be underestimated. Catherine Wheels have spent 20 years honing the skills needed to support, nurture and inspire one of the most imaginative and thrilling audiences there is; young people and their adults.
It adds: "In a profession where there is often very little security or stability for those making the work, where we have none of the benefits of a stable organisation behind us, Catherine Wheels has been a beacon of professionalism, fairness and support; indeed, for many artists, they have provided the closest we have to a home.
"It is not just the artistic results of the company that should be a cause for reconsideration, but the effect that their generosity, complete focus on their audience, and the spirit of artistic adventure has had on the wider Scottish theatre ecology."
READ MORE: Emergency board meeting as Creative Scotland to discuss controversial funding decisions
The controversy caused by the RFO dccisions has led to Creative Scotland holding an urgent board meeting this week, brought forward from mid-February.
There has also been outcry over the cuts to disability arts companies including Birds of Paradise, and several classical music companies.
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