Leader: Lean times ahead but the arts must not be left unfunded

IN ITS first major statement yesterday, Creative Scotland, the new arts quango, signalled a new and altogether more difficult era for Scotland's cultural sector.

Whatever hardships and frustrations arts bodies and event organisers have had to contend with in the past are set to pale in comparison with a marked and prolonged tightening of budgets in the period ahead.

That is the unfortunate background to the signals yesterday from Creative Scotland, a body that has been seven years in the making, all of these years ones in which the Scottish Government enjoyed real-terms increases in the money available for spending. Now an austerity period has arrived, with severe public spending reductions set for the next five years. At the same time budgets in the private and voluntary sectors have also been squeezed, pointing to a slowdown in the amount of money available to the arts through corporate sponsorship and charitable giving.

As if to head off an early and substantial queue at their door, the leaders of Creative Scotland made clear yesterday that the body was not the continuation of the Scottish Arts Council by another name and that it did not want to be seen as a grant-giving institution. Chief executive Andrew Dixon and chairman Sir Sandy Crombie made clear to an audience of industry figures in Edinburgh that they wanted Creative Scotland to be seen as a promotional and development agency for the creative industries, and "not just be something that hands out money".

It will devolve many funding decisions to other arts bodies under a new strategy it plans to have in place by next year. And it is set to call a halt to direct funding of major film productions because of a lack of available finance, on the argument that Scotland was a "bit-player" in the film industry. The organisation says its main focus will be to raise the profile of the arts and creative industries and to support and develop initiatives to rear new talent and attract greater public and private sector investment in the arts.

That will be easier said than done, and not at all easy to swallow for many organisations dependent on support through the former Arts Council and its successor bodies. They are not businesses with finance and marketing directors, but artists, writers, actors, singers and musicians who need financial support to show their talents to best effect. And Creative Scotland will still have a 60 million budget to administer with, one hopes, overhead and administrative costs kept to a minimum. Literally hundreds of arts organisations across Scotland will be looking for support from Creative Scotland in order to survive. It cannot therefore abandon this main function. That said, the thrust of the remarks from the leadership is broadly correct, and the intention to encourage arts organisations to look to their own resources to tap new funding support is a recognition of the challenges ahead. It now needs to ensure that the help and guidance it will give will be of real practical value to the many organisations that enrich Scottish life.