Creative Scotland emails reveal ‘political’ belief

EMAILS from former Creative Scotland chief executive Andrew Dixon reveal his belief that criticism of the body was “highly political”.

Andrew Dixon, the former head of Creative Scotland. Picture: Contributed

ARCHIVE: Artists pull no punches over Creative Scotland, full text of letter

In the October 2012 email revealed after a Freedom of Information request by The Herald, Dixon claims that a protest letter signed by one hundred of Scotland’s top artists was part of a campaign against the organisation itself.

Dixon said in the email: “I was warned in the press on my appointment of ‘back biting’ arts community and a previous ‘loss of trust’ through the birth of Creative Scotland but what you can see here, and will get from Ewan Brown [former chairman of Creative Scotland’s transition board] is the history of over 400 artists, many of them on the list yesterday who fundamentally opposed the creation of Creative Scotland.

“This was highly political.”

The letter made a series of demands of the body responsible for £83 million of arts funding, including ending “business speak and obfuscating jargon” in official communications, redesigning overcomplicated application forms and ensuring complaints are dealt with quickly.

Dixon resigned in December, and said in his resignation statement: “I have been disappointed, given my track record, not to gain the respect and support of some of the more established voices in Scottish culture.”

The artists’ intervention led to a series of meetings, widespread criticism of Creative Scotland’s practices, and the resignation of Creative Scotland’s senior director Venu Dhupa along with Dixon.