Theatre companies join clamour for arts funding rethink

The director of the Federation of Scottish Theatres, representing 17 theatre companies whose annual funding has ended, called on the arts agency to ensure there is a level playing field in a process that is “transparent and fair”.

Jon Morgan warned that the changes will leave Scotland with just ten theatre companies with stable revenue financing, compared with 19 in Wales and 179 in England.

“There is more money available, but they could have made that money available in a more secure and stable way than they have. There were other ways this could have been done that were less destabilising,” he said.

Creative Scotland was warned yesterday it could face a flood of new piecemeal funding applications from theatres and galleries desperate for cash after the “mishandled” spending reforms.

The announcement last week that arts companies, ranging from the award-winning Grid Iron theatre company to the Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh, would no longer receive two-year “flexible funding” agreements, has fed a tide of criticism.

The agency disclosed yesterday that more than £2 million had been put aside as transition funds to help the groups “meet commitments or plans that they already have agreed”. It is to meet with them before 21 June to explain the arrangements.

Creative Scotland chief executive Andrew Dixon insisted in a blog that without the changes, “we would have had to cut 20 per cent of the organisations we currently support”.

The move was described as a shift from reduced Scottish Government funds to a growing pot of lottery cash.

But organisations say they are confused and concerned over whether funding will be available for one-off projects or broader programmes of work.

Dougie Irvine, director of Visible Fictions theatre company, called for “real clarity, because we are not there yet”.

He said: “When there’s lack of clarity, people’s imaginations go, talk starts, there’s a knock-on effect for the arts community.”

Di Robson, executive producer of Fire Exit theatre company, said: “It doesn’t seem to have been thought through.”

Her company produces the work of director David Leddy. Its show Susurrus has toured 17 countries and it is collaborating with theatre companies in New York and Denmark.

Ms Robson said: “We have been able to do this and plan ahead, and suddenly everything screams to a halt because we have nothing to bargain with or negotiate. No system is perfect, but this isn’t even a system.”

Fire Exit currently receives £150,000 a year, employing about 13 people in full- or part-time work, staging one new production a year and running several tours and development. It could be forced to draft five or six separate grant applications, Ms Robson said.

A Creative Scotland spokesperson said last night: “It has never been our intention that organisations will have to complete more than one application – unless they want to.”