IF anything good is to emerge from the debacle over Creative Scotland funding – and Lord knows, it needs to – then the formation of a new group to represent those working in the arts may be it. The National Arts Forum, as the body will be called, could be just what is needed to change, and vastly improve, the way money is spent on the arts in Scotland.
The reason the idea has emerged now is obvious. In the last five years, Scotland’s arts funding body has been shaken by two major crises and confidence in the organisation is extremely low.
First, in 2012, the then chief executive Andrew Dixon resigned after 100 leading artists launched an attack on the management and running of the organisation.
Then, in recent weeks, came the crisis over funding for theatre companies run by and for disabled people. More than £1million was stripped from some key companies only for most of the cuts to be quickly reversed when almost everyone criticised the move.
The handling of the funding for disabled theatre groups was particularly damaging for Creative Scotland. Some six months was spent considering the decision, only for it to be reversed in a week. What does that say about how such decisions are made? It looked like something was seriously wrong with the way ideas were considered, developed and implemented.
The stated aim of the new forum is to improve the process by ensuring the voices of those subjected to the funding decisions of Creative Scotland are included in the discussions. It is still early days, but the body could meet for the first time within 12 weeks with the aim of suggesting changes to the way the arts is funded by Creative Scotland, the organisation’s strategies and direction, as well as the role of the Scottish Government.
This is an ambitious plan, born out of a troubling crisis, but thankfully there is also plenty of realism. The National Arts Forum is not seeking to replace Creative Scotland or establish itself as some kind of opposition. There also seems to be a recognition that Creative Scotland is relatively well funded – the Scottish budget awarded the organisation a significant increase in financial support. So this is not about the levels of funding, but rather about how the decisions are made.
The hope is that by involving much more those who work in the arts those decisions can be improved. The staff at Creative Scotland are experienced and knowledgeable, but the recent crises have demonstrated that something is profoundly wrong with some of the body’s policies and processes. There are questions about how it is run, and involving the wider arts community in the process could provide some answers.
The momentum is also clearly with the idea, with the Scottish Government in the process of drawing up a new cultural strategy. Naturally, there will be a question about whether the forum will be a short-term scheme that could help get Creative Scotland out of the recent crises, or whether it has a longer-term future, in which case its relationship with Creative Scotland will have to be formalised. But whatever happens, the idea is sound: those who are affected by Creative Scotland’s decisions should have a voice.
How effective the idea will be in practice is obviously partly down to Creative Scotland, but we hope that it will welcome the development. As the artists setting up the National Arts Forum have said, there has been a lack of clarity and a worrying inconsistency in how funding decisions are made in the arts sector in Scotland and the establishment of the new forum could be a sign that change is coming.
The aim for Creative Scotland should be to embrace the change and take a serious look at its structures and working practices. The arts community in Scotland cannot afford anything else.
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