Andrew Dixon, chief executive, Creative Scotland: ‘We need to welcome expertise’

We need to export our Scottish artists and curators to do work internationally.

From my point of view, coming in, I’ve been bowled over by the work here and the scale and depth of cultural activity.

If anything Scotland is more open to international collaboration than England was. Scotland welcomes the world through culture.

The Edinburgh festivals are based in, and are of, a place, but they embrace the UK and the Far East and whoever is invited to come in. When I reflect back [to working in the North East of England], we had some fantastic Scottish people running cultural institutions in Newcastle. It is a non-argument, for me, the English-Scottish thing.

When I was recruiting for the first director of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, people were surprised that the shortlist didn’t have any English people on it. It only had international people, and we appointed a Swede. There was no issue. It was only the London Press who picked up on it.

Jonathan Mills is the top festival director in the world. What Vicky Featherstone’s achieved is being emulated everywhere, look at the National Theatre of Wales.

Scotland is proud of its culture and there’s still a lot to be done to package and celebrate that pride and position ourselves on a world stage.”