The Stage

SAC branded “limp and illogical” by departing TAG artistic director

Published Tuesday 27 January 2004 at 12:45 by Jeremy Austin

TAG theatre company’s artistic director Emily Gray has attacked the Scottish Arts Council, damning it as “limp and illogical”, after she resigned over an almost 50% cut in the group’s annual grant.

Gray, who only started work with the Glasgow-based company in August, said she was devastated by SAC’s decision in November to cut its subsidy from £236,000 to £129,000 in 2005/2006, putting it on a par with three other children’s theatre companies, newly given annual funding by the body.

In a personal statement explaining the reasons for her decision to quit, Gray said: “The timing of the cut seemed to take advantage of a company in a period of change. The process of decision-making has not been supported with coherent reasoning and the result was clumsily communicated.

“Making the commitment to work with TAG and uproot my family to Scotland required energy, belief and a sense of future. The SAC’s decision undermined all of these on a personal and professional level. My decision to leave is based on the failure of the SAC to maintain its commitment to TAG, its reputation, achievements and potential. The artistic programme for TAG was imaginative and provocative. The response from the SAC was limp and illogical. TAG deserves better.”

Gray, who will become artistic director of Trestle Theatre Company in April, added: “As a director with ambition, I want to work with an arts council with vision and a strategy. This seems sadly lacking in Scotland at present. I hope a thorough review will ensure the right people are in charge for the future.”

Her comments echo those of Hamish Glen when he resigned as chairman of the Federation of Scottish Theatre and left Dundee Rep at the end of 2002. He said it was the lack of investment from the Scottish Executive that had forced him to move elsewhere - in this case, the Belgrade, Coventry. He was also highly critical of the SAC.

A spokeswoman for the SAC said TAG, a leading touring theatre company for young people, was “generously funded” compared to other similar organisations and reducing their annual budget would put them on a “similar financial footing to other companies”. She added the council hoped TAG would now work more closely with fellow Glaswegian organisation the Citizens’ Theatre.

“In order to maintain a dramatic drama sector, we must encourage and support new ideas, new work and new companies. There must be a creative ebb and flow,” she said.

“There is no doubt, that with so much good work going on in Scottish drama, it is difficult to make decisions about what to fund. The fact there is fierce competition for funding must be interpreted as a healthy sign of a vibrant sector. We would obviously like to fund more but since funding will always be finite, these difficult decisions will have to be made. We regret Emily’s decision to resign but are aware there has been, and will continue to be, a free flow of artists between England and Scotland.”