Sent on 23 August 2024

Open Letter to First Minister John Swinney, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes & Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs & Culture, Angus Robertson, Iain Munro, Chief Executive and Accountable Officer, Creative Scotland

This letter comes from the staff of Dance North Scotland as an expression of our deep concern at the Scottish Government’s failure to provide certainty surrounding the £6.6 million Grant in Aid budget for Creative Scotland, and the resultant announcement of the closure of the Open Fund for Individual Artists.

We stand in absolute solidarity with the individual artists and freelancers rightly expressing their dismay at this decision, who are now left without clear support for creation or a critical avenue to earn a living from their hard-won and constantly underprized skills.

We call on the Scottish Government to review its budget urgently to address the shortfall in funding to Creative Scotland and we call on Creative Scotland to reverse the rash closure of the Open Fund for Individuals immediately.

The arts are the foundation of cultural identity and individual artists are the people who build that foundation. The very identifying of them as ‘individuals’ is a misnomer though, as they exist within a complex ecosystem of skilled labour that generates every moment of artistic inspiration, enlightenment and entertainment that we get to experience within our society. Virtually every ‘individual’ artist generates work that is supported by and provides employment for a host of other skilled professionals. 32% of those working in the creative industries in the UK are self-employed and this closure of this fund will limit the options of so many in Scotland. The damage from this change to the funding structure will splinter out across our community like cracks in a windscreen.

The staff of organisations like Dance North Scotland spent months of this year working on an application for Multi-Year Funding. That work (and the larger remit we exist to fulfil) is rendered farcical by the withdrawal of financial support at the grassroots level. We are an organisation that exists to support artists and we cannot do that work if the artists themselves have had their primary avenue for funding removed.

What are we even doing, if the artists aren’t there to support? The same question can justifiably be levelled at Creative Scotland itself, whose remit and responsibility to artists is even clearer.

This abandonment of artists at a time of deep financial precarity is a generational one, the impacts of which will be felt for decades to come. Artists already persist with their craft despite the deep financial insecurity they face, because they are driven to do so; the creative culture in which they exist is one where they are forced to apply for their jobs over and over again, and through the closure of the Open Fund, they are now denied the right even to apply. People will be impoverished by this choice and it will have real and tangible effects on their lives; on their physical and emotional wellbeing. It’s likely that many will leave the arts, never to return. Many young artists may look at this barren creative landscape and never begin their creative careers because it now seems so impossible even to start. As a culture, we will lose out on innumerable works of art that could change hearts, minds and lives.

For decades now, the arts have been trying to move away from the idea that creative careers are available only to the wealthy and privileged. This choice is an outright declaration that those endeavours no longer matter, and that we can simply revert to the bleak cultural landscape of art made only by those who can afford it.

Art is never more important than in times of social struggle, and as we witness the rise of the Far Right in many parts of the country, it is crucial that we do not undercut one of the most powerful tools of social change.

Whatever challenges Creative Scotland has faced in making difficult budgetary choices as a result of being chronically underfunded, responsibility must be taken for this harmful decision.

Announcing this closure of the Open Fund during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, when Scotland’s cultural profile is at its highest, is a degradation of all who work in the arts. Is the intention now that Scotland can only be a host country, rather than a creative nation in its own right?  Just last week, Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs & Culture, Angus Robertson spoke proudly of Scottish artists and the history of the Fringe at a Made in Scotland event – is the intention now that nothing be made in Scotland?

Even with acknowledgement of Scottish Government’s new wave of budget control measures, our community is left with serious questions: how was this decision made and how did it come to be announced so recklessly, with only 12 days’ notice? Where was the emergency plan to offer artists alternative avenues of support or any kind of safety net? Why does it seem that no thought has been given to mitigating the harm of this decision to thousands of dedicated, skilled, talented professionals?

The human cost of this choice is far too great, and the cultural impact is incalculable. We call again for everyone involved to review these decisions urgently, reverse them, and pursue more radical change to this system which so regularly lets down the artists it exists to support.

The Staff of Dance North Scotland