The Stage

Replace SAC and provide extra £100m for Scottish culture, report concludes

Published Tuesday 28 June 2005 at 12:30 by Nuala Calvi

The Scottish Arts Council should be replaced by two separate organisations dealing with funding and promoting the arts, according to the independent commission charged with reviewing provision in the country.

The Cultural Commission’s report, the result of a year-long consultation, also says an extra £100 million is needed for culture in Scotland and calls for the Scottish Executive to plough 1% of its annual budget into the sector.

It backs the view of arts organisations that the arm’s-length principle of funding should be retained. More than 90 organisations had signed a letter prior to the report’s publication, calling for the Scottish Arts Council to keep its relationship with government at a distance.

Under the plans, a proposed Culture Fund would act as a bank for the arts, distributing funds and offering financial services to arts organisations, while a second body, Culture Scotland, would assess funding applications and be a “voice” for the cultural sector. The authors steer clear of recommending a new government department be set up to oversee arts spending as in Wales, where large arts organisations will soon be funded directly by the Cardiff assembly.

Eddie Jackson, chair of the Federation of Scottish Theatre, said the proposals could provide much-needed leadership for the arts in Scotland. “That was the SAC’s role in theory but it could never quite deliver,” he said. “It has always had difficulty in its role of evaluating funding and at the same time advocating for the arts.”

Set up as independent companies, the two bodies would raise funds from the private and business sectors. Their remit would be expanded to cover the cultural sector as a whole, including heritage and the creative industries.

SAC welcomed the call for increased resources and to keep funding at arms length from government. A spokeswoman said: “Naturally, we need to investigate the model proposed, which will require detailed thought before we are able to give a considered view. Our own submissions to the Commission recognised that cultural planning was fragmented and expressed our own will to develop a collective responsibility for developing the arts.”

Responding to the report, culture minister Patricia Ferguson said she was interested in the options put forward by the commission on infrastructure change but needed to look at them in more detail.

She said executive spending on the arts was at an all-time high and her priority was to spend money on the arts rather than unnecessary bureaucracy.