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Dateline:
4th March, 2006
Major Changes for SAC Funding
The Scottish Arts Council, which is due to merge with Scottish Screen
to create a new organisation, Creative Scotland, has released the following
statement about its funding priorities for the next two years:
The Scottish Arts Council has agreed that from April 2007 it will
change the way it offers support to the arts in Scotland in its role
as a development and funding body.
The changes will place a sharper focus on the needs of artists*,
ensure a more healthy, sustainable arts sector and reinforce our commitment
to improving the opportunities for people who wish to participate
in the arts.
There is no shortage of artistic excellence in Scotland and we wish
to harness that dynamism by ensuring that we can refresh and expand
that pool of talent. This is achieved by securing a solid foundation
of organisations and then freeing artists to concentrate on their
work.
The Scottish Arts Council has a unique role in supporting high quality
art and artists and we have reviewed our aims and our ambitions for
the arts in Scotland to ensure they reflect the needs and aspirations
of a 21st century Scotland. Our priorities are:
- Increasing the scope and quality of our support for artists
- Securing the foundation of Scotland’s artistic development
- Creating flexibility to support the new and the innovative
- Creating opportunities for participation in the arts
To support these priorities, Council has agreed that we will offer
our funding in a different way. We are proposing that organisations
with a distinctive and significantly unique role in relation to an
artform, policy priority and/or place will be funded on a long term
basis, with what we are describing as foundation funding. However,
there will also be additional expectations on those organisations
particularly in relation to quality and standards. We have been developing
a new quality framework and foundation organisations will be expected
to meet the standards set in the quality framework.
We will of course continue to fund individual artists through bursaries,
fellowships etc and on a project by project basis.
Flexible funding allows for funding for the development and presentation
of programmes of activity that are artistically driven; audience focused
funding for the development and presentation of programmes of artistic
activity that aim to maximise audience attendance; and funding for
arts organisations which have a strategic role in the development
of a key policy area or serve a particular community of interest.
There is another category of flexible funding which will specifically
support one-off projects: a tour, a production, a festival or an exhibition.
(*artists in this context means artists, creative teams or collaborations,
creative producers, publishers and directors, and arts organisations)
- Total funding for foundation organisations will increase by approximately
£4m to £14 million in 2007-08.
- Support for youth companies alone will rise to £700,000
from £390,000.
- The overall balance of funds, other than foundations, will increase
by £3m to £17 million. This includes increased funds
for venues to stage touring theatre that reflects the tastes of
their audiences.
- Work for and by disabled people also receives a boost, a doubling
of the budget from £200,000 to £450,000, as does support
for organisations reflecting Scotland’s cultural diversity
(from £200,00 to £450,00).
- Literature Festivals, which have seen a remarkable boost in audiences
recently, will receive an uplift of £100,000.
What the changes will mean:
- Curatorial development in both the visual arts and in crafts to
increase the range of contemporary work created in Scotland on display
in Scottish galleries, as well as giving Scottish audiences more
opportunities to see work created internationally
- A new fund to support venues to programme touring drama; this
will mean more opportunities for audiences throughout Scotland to
see a range of theatre productions, as well as increased support
for artists to develop work
- Better support for choreographers to create work in Scotland,
by supporting a longer period of research and development
- Greater support for individual makers in crafts, through a range
of smaller grants distributed at a local level, as well as increasing
the size of awards made to individual visual artists
- Support to establish a Scottish Music Industry Association, as
well as increased support for contemporary youth music development
- Increasing the awards to writers, through bursaries and fellowships,
as well as supporting more new Literature Development Worker posts
for readership initiatives; Scottish publishers will be supported
to publish more work by Scottish writers
- Better funding to arts centres and agencies around Scotland to
support their programming and their work with local audiences
- More support for volunteers in the arts, by providing professional
development funding
- Foundation organisations will exemplify best practice in the areas
such as audience development and education as part of their core
work
Richard Holloway, Chairman of the Scottish Arts Council concluded,
"This review was a root and branch look at the whole landscape
of arts funding in Scotland, with a view to getting major movement,
as well as building in space for the surprise of new talent and new
approaches.
"We have decided that this is the best way to confirm and support
the great work that is going on, as well as building in enough space
for those happy surprises I mentioned earlier."
Who will be affected?
There will be 48 Foundation companies which will receive five year
funding, including the Edinburgh International Festival, the Arches
(Glasgow), the Tranway (Glasgow), the Tron (Glasgow), the Royal Lyceum
(Edinburgh), the Traverse (Edinburgh), Dundee Rep and the Perth Theatre.
Three-year flexible funding will go to forty companies, including the
Citizens' Theatre (Glasgow), Theatre Cryptic, Theatre Workshop (Edinburgh),
the Byre Theatre (St Andrews) and the Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
Fifteen companies will only be allowed to apply for project funding,
including Borderline Theatre Company, 7:84 Theatre Company, Theatre
Babel, the Edinburgh Fringe and the Cumbernauld Theatre.
Borderline
Loses SAC Funding
7:84
Could Close in Months
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