Stage and screen star Bill Paterson warns Scottish culture funding is in 'dire need' of rethink

The leading Scottish actor Bill Paterson has thrown his weight behind a new campaign to demand the Scottish Government finally delivers £100m in promised new investment in the arts.

The Glasgow-born stage and screen star said Scottish culture was in "dire need" of a rethink over how it supported artists and performers.

Actor Bill Paterson. | Supplied

Paterson, whose recent screen credits include Fleabag, Outlander and Good Omens, said culture funding needed to be seen as an investment rather than a "handout."

The actor has backed a campaign calling on the government to deliver "essential increased investment" for the arts in the forthcoming Scottish Budget, as he declared that a new era of “enlightenment” was needed to restore confidence and kick-start a revival.

Actor Bill Paterson. | Supplied

The actor suggested support for the arts had declined significantly since the 1960s, when he made his professional acting debut at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, when he appeared in Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.

Paterson rose to prominence in stage shows like Billy Connolly's Great Northern Well Boot Show and John McGrath’s The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil.

The show paved the away for a lengthy stage and screen career which has included the TV series The Crow Road, Guilt, Shetland, His Dark Materials, Doctor Who and Sea of Souls, and the feature films Comfort and Joy, Complicity, Miss Potter, Truly Madly, Deeply and The Killing Fields.

Bill Paterson starred in the 7:84 theatre company's production of The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil in 1973.

Four separate campaigns have been launched over the last two years amid growing anger over funding cuts and undelivered promises of new investment, as organisations have battled with a combination of rising costs and long-term “standstill” funding.

Arts organisations have joined forces with leading cultural figures including singer Shirley Manson, playwright Rona Munro and artist Nathan Coley on the new "Invest In Culture" campaign, which has highlighted how Scotland has slumped to the bottom of an international league table for investment in the arts, with just 0.56 per cent of government spending ring-fenced for culture compared to a European average of 1.5 per cent.

The government announced plans to "more than double" its culture budget, which is around £196m, in October 2023 weeks after imposing a 10 per cent cut on its own arts agency.

Creative Scotland was due to decide on 281 long-term funding applications, which would be worth £87.5m a year, last month.

But there was widespread dismay when it was forced to delay the long-awaited announcement of its next three-year programme until January, after the government refused to commit any funding in advance of its own budget announcement.

Industry leaders last week warned that Scottish arts workers are facing "burnout, stress and existential threats to their work and livelihoods" due to a lack of clarity over future support for the arts in Scotland.

They have demanded the government set out a "coherent timeline" for how £100m in new investment - which it has promised by 2028 - will be delivered.

Paterson said: "Enlightened arts support in the 1960s allowed the Glasgow Citizens Theatre to throw open its doors to my generation. It became my second home and changed my life.

"Sixty years later, the arts in Scotland are in dire need of the same enlightenment.

"Supporting the arts isn’t a handout. It’s an investment.

"The arts in Scotland need to feel the same confidence today. The rewards are so much greater than the investment.”

Fellow stage and screen star David Hayman said: "The arts bring immeasurable benefits to any Society while at the same time bringing millions of pounds of revenue into the public coffers. It is a no brainer. It is value for money in anyone’s book.

"Through theatre, literature, music, film and dance we tell the stories that reflect who we are, stories that reflect the health and vibrancy of our country, that reflect and release the potential of our youth and give shape to the dreams of our people.”