Major institutions applaud changes as long overdue

THE leaders of Scotland’s major arts institutions have lined up to praise the Executive’s cultural rethink as long overdue, and yesterday rallied behind the man to lead it.

"It has taken a long time for them to get it out, but I suppose they want to get it right," said Gordon Rintoul, director of the National Museums of Scotland. "It’s good that the sector is going to be consulted and involved in identifying the future in Scotland. I think it’s very positive that James [Boyle] has been asked to chair it."

The message was the same from such figures as Simon Crookall, chief executive of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. "The review process itself is a very positive thing. It shows that the executive is concerned and interested in the cultural sector."

Behind the scenes yesterday, however, there were other voices, and they were not nearly as enthusiastic.

"People were expecting a strategy. They were expecting a hint of the outline of the proposals," said The Scotsman’s theatre critic, Joyce MacMillan. "Instead, it’s been kicked into touch for a full year of further investigation and then, according to their own timetable, no legislation for another two years after that. There is a strong sense that for some reason decisions are not being made and in that sense it just creates more uncertainty."

The promise of radical change, one observer noted, hangs heavily on Mr Boyle, and the members of the commission that he chooses. It will be up to him to ensure that the exercise does not dissolve into a hopeless muddle of bureaucratic gobbledygook, just another review.

Mr Boyle may sit more happily in his new job than he did as chairman of the arts council, where he has been a "semi-detached" figure. Rattling cages is his business, as he proved at Radio 4. Diplomacy, however, is not said to be his strong suit, and it will take a good deal of that to chair this commission.

The job as outlined is a vast one. Under section 4, infrastructure, the cultural commission is to judge institutions’ "impact on sector"; to assess the national companies; look at the adequacy of "built infrastructure", ie buildings and assess the need for a "cultural think-tank". The scope of the commission’s work is to include galleries, museums, libraries, archives, architecture, drama, dance, literature and the visual arts. Phew.

What, exactly, is wrong with the arts in Scotland? The "cultural policy statement" issued yesterday noted that the Edinburgh International Film Festival is the UK’s biggest and best; that Scottish Ballet is world-class.

Scottish Opera is struggling, as are audiences for classical music. But the Edinburgh festivals last year saw ticket sales soar to new records; Glasgow wants to turn its Art Fair into an arts festival.

If a streamlining of Scottish arts organisations is meant to save money, the Scottish Arts Council is presumed to be the major target. But where is the evidence that the arts council is not succeeding?

The review seems to be saying that it will save money by streamlining. Of all the complaints that can be levelled at the SAC, however, bloated bureaucracy is not one. Understaffed, confused, underfunded, maybe.

If Scottish culture is in such great shape and to be celebrated, then why change the institutional structure that has fostered that creative boom? If it ain’t broke, why fix it? The first job of the commission may be to define the problems it is meant to be solving.