It was called a “dysfunctional ant heap” and, in a damning letter signed by hundreds of artists, pilloried for “ill-conceived decision-making, unclear language, and a lack of empathy and regard for Scottish culture”.

Seven months after the resignation of her controversial predecessor amid uproar in the cultural world, the new chief executive of Scotland’s main arts funding body, Creative Scotland’s new chief executive, Janet Archer, has spoken of working “humbly”, listening and learning, and gradually earning the trust of artists, workers in the creative industries, and the public.

Little more than a week into her £110,000-a-year job as head of the country’s main arts funding body, Ms Archer said that the organisation - described last year as having a “corporate ethos that seems designed to set artist against artist and company against company” - exists to serve artists, and her job is to “fight for Scotland and its arts” and be responsible to the public.

Under Ms Archer’s predecessor, Andrew Dixon, Creative Scotland was heavily criticised for its use of business language, grandiloquent plans such as the now scrapped “Strategic Commissioning”, decision making such as its all-male judging panel for its controversial Creative Scotland Awards, and its removal of key funding packages.

Yesterday an understated Ms Archer, 52, a former dancer and choreographer said the quango, which distributes £80 million a year, is now concentrating on  being “primarily a champion” and a “smart funder” of artists and those in the creative industries.

She revealed she planned for her interview for the job by studying the comments made by artists nationwide in recent Open Sessions meetings held to discuss the future of the body, and was a “sponge”, listening to advice from colleagues and artists.

Ms Archer, formerly head of dance at the Arts Council England, said Creative Scotland’s past use of “business speak” had not worked, its funding rules had not been clear, and she is keen for the body to make them “more straightforward and simple and swifter”.

Ms Archer, who is moving to Edinburgh with her husband, said: “Creative Scotland receives public funding to serve artists, it doesn’t receive public funding to serve itself.

“I think its focus has to be on thinking about artists and creative people and organisations and everything we do needs to be shaped around that. It has to be a relationship and we do not place ourselves above anybody, the artists or the public. We are responsible to those people.”

London-born Ms Archer spent the first six months of her life in East Kilbride where her father worked for Rolls-Royce. She has worked in Scotland and with Scottish artists and companies since the 1980s, including being chair of The Work Room, based at Tramway in Glasgow.

Asked what she thought of the comments made by writer and artist Alasdair Gray on English people taking leading roles in Scotland as either “colonists or settlers”, she said she “respected” the debate.

“Everyone is entitled to their view,” she said. “And there are many views, and I think, I hope, I am the best person for this job and that I will be able to prove that: I am really, really looking forward to working in Scotland, I have always had respect for artists and people working here, and I have worked here myself a very long time...

“I wanted to work here, I applied for the job, I didn’t appoint myself and I am going to do my absolute best for Scotland – I will fight for Scotland and its arts and culture.”

Ms Archer added: “ I will engage with that debate, as our role is to be communicative and connected and listen, not be adversarial.

“I hope we can get to a place where we can have open, honest, and discursive but sensible discussions with people.”

On the breakdown of trust between artists, companies and the body last year, she said it cannot be re-established between the body and the artistic community quickly.

“Absolutely, and I am not anticipating that I will do that overnight,” she said.

“I think I have to be seen in action, and I hope in time people will trust me, I am not assuming that I will jump in and suddenly turn things around. But I think through listening and learning and being clear, that I will get there.”

Asked whether she thinks the very broad remit of Creative Scotland is workable, she answered: “I feel I should say, come back in a year’s time for the answer to that question. Yes, I think it is workable and it also reflects the messiness of the how the world works out there.

“People do it all the kind: people imagine a new world, and new ways of doing things, and work with people they wouldn’t even think of connecting with.”

Ms Archer said she would spend the next weeks and months making Creative Scotland more responsive to artists and arts companies, and also more efficient.

“We need to get the housekeeping sorted out – there are things relating to how the organisation funds – to make it more straightforward, we need to make it easier for artists and creative people to come into the organisation and figure out what they can apply for and know when they will get an answer, and make the process more straightforward and simple and swifter.

“And clearly we have a new corporate plan to write [for April 2014].”