Leading playwrights speak out against funding changes

SEVEN of Scotland’s outstanding playwrights have called on Creative Scotland to correct a “catastrophic error of judgment” in a funding overhaul they said will create “insecurity and misdirected management”.

SEVEN of Scotland’s outstanding playwrights have called on Creative Scotland to correct a “catastrophic error of judgment” in a funding overhaul they said will create “insecurity and misdirected management”.

They include David Harrower and David Greig, whose work has represented Scotland to world audiences at all levels in the Edinburgh festivals and on world-wide tours.

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Creative Scotland has been engulfed in a bitter backlash after announcing that nearly 50 Scottish arts organisations, including touring theatre companies, will move off regular annual funding of £8 million to one-off funding for individual projects or programmes.

The agency argues it has been partly forced into the change by a shift in resources to lottery cash from direct government support.

The letter – addressed to the agency’s chairman, Sandy Crombie – acknowledges the need for a funding review, but said the organisations “have shown they can manage public funds sensibly and responsibly and taken the name of Scottish arts across the world”.

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