Holyrood<\/a>\u2019s culture committee, Culture Counts said there had \u201cnot been a coherent approach\u201d to the government\u2019s role in supporting individual artists.\n<\/p>\n\n It has suggested that ringfenced support for open funding in the Scottish Budget would send an \u201cimportant signal\u201d about the value the government places on artists and the work they create.\n<\/p>\n
\n Creative Scotland\u2019s \u201cgrant-in-aid\u201d funding from the government went up from around \u00a368m in 2024-25 to \u00a389m in 2025-26 as part of a commitment by ministers to invest an additional \u00a3100m in the culture sector by 2028-29.\n<\/p>\n
\n Creative Scotland was able to fund just 688 projects out of 2126 open funding applications worth \u00a342m made in 2024-25, with the government\u2019s grant contributing \u00a34.23m to the available pot of \u00a313m.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, government support accounted for just \u00a3515,000 of the open funding pot in 2025-26, despite \u00a333m worth of applications being received, as the number of successful applications dropped to 668.\n<\/p>\n
\n Just 1990 applications out of 5556 made to Creative Scotland over the last three years were successful, with 3566 rejected.\n<\/p>\n
\n Culture Counts has told MSPs the figures \u201calmost certainly understate\u201d the true level of demand from artists for funding.\n<\/p>\n
\n The group has claimed that the number of unsuccessful applications and persistently low success rates is having a \u201csignificant impact on morale\u201d across the cultural sector.\n<\/p>\n
\n Culture Counts has revealed its demands almost a year after an independent review of Creative Scotland raised concerns about \u201cinsufficient\u201d support for individual artists and the \u201clow success rates\u201d among applicants to the national body\u2019s open fund.\n<\/p>\n
\n The report from Angela Leitch, the former local authority chief executive who led the review, said she found \u201cwidespread agreement\u201d that funding levels did not \u201cmatch the ambition\u201d of the cultural sector in Scotland, adding that the handling of the open fund was limiting \u201cinnovation and creative risk\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Leitch also highlighted concerns that the \u00a350,000 cap on awards to individuals was seen as \u201ca barrier to delivering ambitious projects\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n The government says it has rolled out more than \u00a370m in new culture funding over the last two years. However around \u00a340m of this has been ringfenced for Creative Scotland\u2019s current long-term funding programme for organisations, which was announced at the start of 2025.\n<\/p>\n
\n In his report for the culture committee, Joseph Peach, policy and public director at Culture Counts, said the \u201cstabilising effects\u201d of the additional investment had not been felt by individual artists, freelance arts workers and organisations outside of Creative Scotland\u2019s multi-year funding portfolio.\n<\/p>\n
\n He added: \u201cThe primary source of investment available to these individuals and organisations to create new artistic works, undertake career and artistic development activities, generate opportunities and produce projects is Creative Scotland\u2019s open funding.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere is no art without artists. The Scottish Government must treat investment in their work as a strategic priority.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cUntil now, there has not been a coherent approach to the Scottish Government’s role in supporting this work. There has been an enormous variance in government grant-in-aid reaching the open funding over the past 10 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis volatility has arisen because Scottish Government has never stated, at budget time, how much it intends to invest in artists making work.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe recommend that the 2027-28 Scottish Budget sets a dedicated grant-in-aid allocation for open funding, or similar future funding mechanisms, and that this allocation is maintained as a permanent feature of subsequent budgets.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cA dedicated allocation would send an important signal about the value Scottish Government places on artists and the work they create.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Peach said the role of open funding was \u201cfundamentally different\u201d from that of a minimum income for artists scheme, which the government had promised to roll out over the current parliamentary term and is based on a model introduced in Ireland.\n<\/p>\n
\n He added: \u201cA minimum income can help create the conditions in which an artist can sustain their practice, while open funding provides the resources through which that practice can become new artistic works and projects.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey enable artists to develop ideas, bring other people into the creative process, make and present work, and create opportunities for audiences to experience it.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBoth forms of support therefore have a role to play, but neither is a substitute for the other.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The government has said it is developing a \u201cprogramme of work\u201d to take forward the recommendations of the review of Creative Scotland.\n<\/p>\n
\n Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, culture secretary M\u00e0iri McAllan admitted that careers in the creative industries were \u201ccharacterised by insecurity for too many people\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n She added: \u201cFreelancers and artists often find it difficult to begin and to sustain a long-term career.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOpportunities remain unevenly distributed, particularly for people from backgrounds that remain underrepresented in the sector.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf we are serious about growth, which the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament are, we must ensure that creative opportunity is open to everyone.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cArtists and creative practitioners are central to our cultural life and our international reputation, yet too many of them face financial insecurity and barriers to accessing the profession.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThat is why we are taking forward a minimum income pilot for artists, reflecting our determination to support artists to begin and sustain their careers and to pursue artistic excellence in Scotland\u2019s name.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesperson for Creative Scotland said: \u201cOur National Lottery funds work hard to support open funding and we would welcome any further funding to enable more artists and projects to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Campaign group Culture Counts wants ministers to commit an annual budget for Creative Scotland\u2019s \u201cOpen Fund\u201d, which has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-785552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}