The head of arts body Creative Scotland has insisted his “hands were tied” when the organisation closed a key fund for artists.
Iain Munro, the organisation’s chief executive, said while shutting the open fund for individuals was “regrettable” and “unpalatable”, it had also been “necessary” as the fund was going to run out of cash in the autumn.
While the Scottish Government later stepped in, with First Minister John Swinney announcing in his programme for government in September that Creative Scotland would get the cash to reopen the fund, Mr Munro insisted the Government had been told it would have to shut the fund down if it could not get £6.6 million restored to its budget.
Speaking about the decision to close the fund, Mr Munro told MSPs on Holyrood’s Culture Committee that they “knew the money was going to run out in the autumn”.
His comments came as he told how Creative Scotland is working with bodies in the arts sector who are “at rock bottom” to help them survive.
Mr Munro said: “We’re working very hard, privately, behind the scenes, with a number of organisations who are in crisis and on cliff-edges.
“The resilience within the sector, financial and human, is essentially at rock bottom and we are doing all we can within available resources to be flexible with partners, to support organisations to continue to survive.”
While he would not name the organisations at risk, Mr Munro added that “people would be very concerned to know who they are”, describing some as being “nationally and internationally significant”.
His comments told how Creative Scotland had had to “make the unpalatable decision, but the necessary decision” to close its open fund for individuals to new applications at the end of August.
Mr Munro insisted: “I am afraid our hands were tied and I am very sorry about the upset that has been caused, it is regrettable that that happened, but we had no alternative.”
He added that “the closure of any fund is not something we do lightly, it very rarely happens and there is a lot involved in it”, telling MSPs that Creative Scotland was “very concerned about the clear distress and upset that it would cause to close the fund”.
A backlash from the arts community saw a host of stars, including singer Lewis Capaldi, Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson and bands Biffy Clyro and Franz Ferdinand, claim that cuts to arts funding in Scotland could deliver a “cultural catastrophe”.
Mr Munro said that with the money in the open fund “clearly going to run out at a certain point”, Creative Scotland had asked the Scottish Government for more information on when it would get the promised £6.6 million.
While he said they told the Government they could have to shut the fund down without the cash, he told the committee: “The Scottish Government weren’t able to confirm when or if the funding of £6.6 million was going to be released.”
It was only in Mr Swinney’s programme for government, which came after the fund was closed to new applications, that the First Minister confirmed the “resources required to enable Creative Scotland to continue the work of the open fund are now available”.
Mr Munro said Creative Scotland was “very grateful” for this, adding that he did “not underestimate at all the public finances and the pressures”.
His comments came after leading figures from the creative sector said “urgent” support was needed from the Scottish Government.
Lori Anderson, of Culture Counts, a network of organisations in the arts and creative sectors, said there was a “huge amount of fear and trepidation” in the sector for October, when Creative Scotland will announce the funding decisions which have been “hugely oversubscribed” with a “very large number of applications” for the cash
Lyndsey Jackson, deputy chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, warned in a few weeks there could be “a flood of organisations making crisis calls”.
She added: “We need urgent action, because Scotland is at risk of losing the powerhouse of its creativity.”
Previous first minister Humza Yousaf had pledged the Scottish Government would invest at least £100 million more annually in culture and the arts by 2028-29, adding that the aim was to provide an additional £25 million in 2025-26.
Liam Sinclair, executive director of the Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre, told the MSPs: “I think £25 million isn’t enough as an initial commitment.”
