Creative Scotland reveals it will be able to to fund 'many more' organisations than expected

Cultural venues, festivals and events have been given a new £20 million boost weeks ahead of crucial decisions on their future funding by the Scottish Government's arts agency.

The Scottish Government has committed to provide a record £74m a year for long-term funding programmes by 2026 - much more than had been expected by Creative Scotland.

The cast of The Outrun staged a protest against funding cuts for the arts during the 2024 Edinburgh International Festival. | Supplied

The figure will more than double the amount which is currently ring-fenced in the government agency's budget and will help meet record demand for long-term support.

Confirmation of the additional £40m will raise hopes that arts organisations will escape funding cuts when Creative Scotland finally decides on three-year funding bids after a series of delays due to a lack of clarity over its government budget.

Scottish Ballet's new production Mary, Queen of Scots will be premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in August. | Gavin Smart/Scottish Ballet

Chief executive Iain Munro said the confirmed budgets available for multi-year funding for the next two years meant Creative Scotland would be able to support "many more organisations" than it had previously anticipated.

Just 119 organisations have had long-term funding since the last round of decisions in 2018. However 281 organisations have applied for annual support worth £87.4m in total for the next three years.

The Edinburgh International Festival receives most of its public funding via Creative Scotland. | Jess Shurte

Further details of a new investment package have emerged since the government announced "transformational" funding for the arts after more than two years of campaigning by artists, organisations, union leaders and Creative Scotland for more support to tackle the combined impact of rising costs, the cost of living crisis, dwindling local authority support and prolonged standstill government funding.

Mr Munro previously told MSPs that Creative Scotland may have to support "far fewer" organisations in future to ensure their support was sustainable and warned of the prospect of widespread "collapse" across the culture sector if it was left on standstill funding.

There was widespread dismay in the summer when it emerged that more than £10m of government funding for Creative Scotland in the current financial year had either been cancelled or put on hold, forcing the temporary closure of a crucial fund for artists.

Creative Scotland was then forced to put off decisions on long-term funding bids for three months in October after the government refused to commit any support ahead of the Scottish Budget.

When its spending plans was announced in early December, the government confirmed that an additional £20m would be available for the first year of Creative Scotland's new multi-year funding programme, which is due to be announced at the end of January and take effect at the beginning of April.

However culture secretary Angus Robertson has now confirmed that a further £20 million the government has pledged for the arts in 2026-27 will be ring-fenced for the second year of Creative Scotland's programme.

Creative Scotland has also been told that its overall budget will be increased from £66.5m to £89m in the next financial year.

In a letter to Holyrood's culture committee, Mr Robertson said: "The Scottish Government welcomes CS’ plans to introduce multi-year funding from 2025/26, which will see the largest ever number of Scottish cultural organisations securing regular funding.

"The government has set out £20 million in the draft budget for the multi-year funding programme in 2025/2026 and aims to provide a further £20 million in 2026/27 – taking the uplift to £40 million a year from 2026/27.

"The government has made funding available for organisations successful in multi-year funding from almost £34 million this year to £54 million in the next financial year and to £74 million in 2026/2027 and beyond."

Mr Munro said: “The very positive outcome for culture, and for Creative Scotland, means that we can now move forward with confidence in concluding the multi-year funding application process.

"The additional funding to be provided for this programme both in the next financial year and, significantly, in the year to follow, is very welcome.

"We will be able to support many more organisations that are successful in their applications than we had previously anticipated.”

"We can now commit to announcing the outcome for all organisations that have applied on 30 January.”