Holyrood puts more cash in the frame for arts scheme

THE Scottish Government is putting extra cash into a business-sponsorship art scheme which has helped put more than 150 paintings on the walls of four Lothian hospitals.

The Art in Hospitals project was one of the beneficiaries of the scheme which saw the government provide £300,000 for arts organisations as long as they could attract a similar amount from businesses.

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said the arts sponsorship initiative had been so successful the government was investing a further £150,000 in the scheme. In Edinburgh, an arts sponsorship grant of £11,000, matched with sponsorship from Laing O’Rourke Scotland, paid towards Art in Hospitals installing 156 paintings in four NHS Lothian hospitals – four at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, 47 at the ERI, 69 for the Royal Victoria Building and 
36 at the Western General Hospital.

Edinburgh’s Still Gallery also received £15,000 to match sponsorship from Tony Macaroni restaurants towards art projects informed by the historical and contemporary 
contexts of Italian people and their culture in Scotland.