Culture funding survives the worst of Scotland’s budget cuts

The announcement of a draft Scottish Budget for 2012/13 sees Scotland’s overall Culture and External Affairs portfolio facing a 5.4% cut – a cash reduction of £13.2m – but revenue funding for the National Galleries and Museums and the five directly funded National Performing Companies, which suffered from 4% cuts last year, is to be pegged at 2011/12 levels, and the £350,000 International Touring Fund to support the National Performing Companies to work overseas has also been protected.

Creative Scotland, which was born from the merger in 2010 of the activities of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, will receive a relatively modest two per cent reduction from its £35.5m budget – a cut that would have been greater had it not been for the “significant efficiencies already made through moving to a single arts and culture body.” Creative Scotland will also receive £10m ring-fenced for the Youth Music Initiative, and a new ‘Young Scots Fund’ will provide will provide £5.4m to create opportunities over the next four years for “emerging young talent in creativity, sport and enterprise”. Capital funding of £4.6m has been earmarked for three projects in 2012/13: the V&A at Dundee, and two cultural venues in Glasgow in preparation for the Commonwealth Games in 2014. Money has also been identified to support the work of Arts & Business Scotland and the Cultural Enterprise Office, in recognition of “their continuing importance in encouraging private investment in the arts and creative industries, and supporting and nurturing fledging creative enterprises”. The £2m annual support for the Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund will also continue next year: the Scottish Government has invested £8m in the Expo Fund over the past four years.

Although the 2012/13 draft budget has proved kinder to the cultural sector than some feared, the economic pressures facing the Government are reflected in the Government’s longer-term spending plans: further small cuts in support for culture will continue through to 2014/15. Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “In the face of deep cuts in public spending imposed by the UK Government, I have prioritised my budget to minimise the impact on Scotland’s cultural and heritage sector as far as possible, and to deliver key cultural capital projects… We will continue to look for savings in sharing resources and assets, as well as for ways of maximising income from other sources wherever possible. I am challenging all of the organisations we fund to develop creative, innovative and collaborative solutions to financial pressures, to expand their income generation and ensure where possible that they are less reliant on direct funding.