Windfall for Scottish arts

A £250,000 funding boost for Scotland's traditional arts sector has been announced by culture minister Fiona Hyslop, who stressed the "great economic importance" of the cultural sector.

The money will come from the arts body Creative Scotland, which has also been tasked with taking forward a series of recommendations aimed at helping to preserve the traditional arts, such as music, dance, poetry and storytelling.

A working group had been set up to examine how the sector could best be supported.

And Creative Scotland is working with others to examine how to run a traditional arts apprenticeship scheme.