SCOTLAND'S artistic life was under threat because of the way its arts funding body was operating, the national poet Liz Lochhead has warned, reflecting on the controversy surrounding the organisation.
The makar's stark comments, 12 months on from the Creative Scotland turmoil, underline for the first time how damaging the situation could have been.
Her intervention throws new light on the saga that led to the resignation of Andrew Dixon, the quango's then chief executive.
Ms Lochhead was among 100 leading artists, writers, musicians and composers who signed a devastating open letter in October last year calling for a fresh start for the body, which it accused of "ill-conceived decision making and a lack of empathy" with regard to Scottish culture.
She has described the crisis in a submission to MSPs on the education and culture committee, who are holding a session on Creative Scotland next Tuesday.
"By last year and letter-signing time, there was not a single individual artist who I met who wasn't existing in a state of horror and deep anxiety about the future of his or her art-form in this country," she wrote in the document.
"Note, not merely about his or her personal livelihood, but much, much more about the very existence of this beloved art-form."
In the submission she also told how she was insulted by an assertion made by Sir Sandy Crombie, chairman of Creative Scotland, that the body was accountable to taxpayers.
"[It] implied that we don't feel responsible to the audiences of Scotland, the people who are our very reason for existing (nor pay taxes either!)," she wrote.
She was critical too of the way the organisation appeared to fund projects that fitted its agenda, rather than giving creative freedom to artists - and lashed out at the form-filling culture it nurtured.
"Creative Scotland wished to set all the agendas and initiatives for the arts in Scotland. (One thing artists don't need is agendas being set for them). And then - if a project seemed to fit that agenda, or could be massaged into appearing that it did so - that artist would be likely to be successful in gaining 'investment'...irrespective of the standing or even competence of that artist," she wrote.
"Form-filling was the new creative art in our country, and for some artists this was their principal talent."
She added: "Creative Scotland had no conception at all that it, as a body, ought to be listening to artists and responding to what they needed to do their work.
"Had no conception, it seemed, that there was such a thing as any kind of indigenous Scottish culture, or that it behoved them to learn about it."
Ms Lochhead will join Gillian Berrie, a film producer, and David Greig, a playwright, at Holyrood's education and culture committee on Tuesday.
Janet Archer, Mr Dixon's successor as chief executive at Creative Scotland, will also address the committee. Creative Scotland was set up in 2010 and distributes £80 million a year in government and lottery funds.
In December last year it apologised for past failings and accepted "the need for substantial changes" to its funding arrangements, structures and language in dealing with organisations and artists. It also announced it would be staging a series of open sessions around the country to find ideas for the way forward.
In its submission to next week's committee Creative Scotland said progress had been made since last year's crisis.
It said it had published a first annual plan, revised funding guidance and launched the first artists' bursary funding programme. "This reflects our commitment to put artists at the heart of what we do and also our commitment to simplify our language and increase clarity and accessibility," it said.
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