Once upon a time I wrote plays. Plays that were performed. plays that gave pleasure. Plays that were seen all over the world.
Now I just seem to write letters to my conscientious and sympathetic MSP about how the collapse of Scotland’s theatre infrastructure makes it impossible for me, and many many others, to function as arts professionals anymore.
Ben Macpherson, MSP,
Ben.Macpherson.msp@parliament.scot
11 September 2024
Re: Creative Scotland (Case Ref: BM6224)
Dear Ben,
First of all, many thanks again for your positive response to my last letter and to the very public support you gave to me and my colleagues in the arts sector. Like many of my colleagues, I greatly appreciated it.
And it is really heartening to hear the First Minister state his understanding of the importance of the Arts to our “economy, our culture and our national identity” in his statement to the Scottish Parliament on 4th September.
And, of course, his reinstatement of the Open Fund and his commitment to increase funding of the Arts by £100 million by 2028/9.
However, that is a long way off and does not resolve the massive crisis the sector is facing now.
I cannot help but note that in the last 11 days before Creative Scotland closed the Open Fund on 31st August, 819 artists applied for funding; that the total funding ask for this fund is £15,197,390.
And that the total value of the fund is £6.6 million.
I fail to understand how Creative Scotland can properly distribute such a fund that falls so short of the actual need; and so so in such short notice.
I also note that Creative Scotland is committed to announcing the results of the applications to its multi year funding programme at the end of October.
There are 281 applications to this programme that, if fully funded, would cost £87.5 million per year.
The money needs to be in place from April 2025: otherwise the organisations applying for funding - every single publicly funded arts organisation in Scotland - will not know how to continue their operations in the next financial year.
And yet Creative Scotland doesn’t know its budget; and perhaps will not know its budget until Shona Robison reveals the government’s spending plans on Dec 4th.
I’m sure you’ll agree this is a catastrophic state of affairs.
How is any public body or arts organisation supposed to function in these circumstances?
And yet again, artists are the first to suffer.
To speak personally: I have been working in theatre since 1980. I have written over a hundred scripts in every dramatic medium. These are scripts that have won awards, been translated into many languages, and performed all over the world.
And yet right now there is no prospect of my working in theatre in Scotland.
If that is true for me, then it is true for just about every arts worker in the country.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could alert your colleagues to the seriousness of the situation; and tell us both what measures the Government is taking to avert catastrophe in the short term; and how it intends to reform arts funding in the long term so that we have a structure that is fit for purpose.
The present system of funding, as administered by first the Scottish Arts Council and then by Creative Scotland, has only succeeded in bringing the theatre industry to the brink of extinction.
And in the process has destroyed my career.
This is not just a question of more money. It’s a question of rethinking the basis of arts funding.
So that instead of seeing it as support for an economically incompetent sector we see it as a means of maximising the benefits the arts sector brings our country.
As the First Minister said:
“Scotland’s culture sector and creative industries …are key tom our economy, our culture and our national identity”.
These words deserve repeating. And more importantly, acted upon.
With every good wish
Jo Clifford.
Well said Jo.
Thank you, Jo. It's so frustrating so much of our energies are distracted by this fight at the moment, but you said this so clearly and directly (and with MATHS) that I thank you wholeheartdly for this. And as ever, the greatest love and respect.