Warnings over future for the arts as demand for Creative Scotland funding soars to more than double available budget

Around £113m worth of bids expected from 500 organisations

Pitlochry Festival Theatre is among the arts organisations on a long-term funding agreement with Creative Scotland.

Creative Scotland has warned it will have to provide regular funding to “far fewer” venues, events and organisations despite a huge surge in demand for year-on-year financial support unless there is a rethink over government support for arts and culture.

It has admitted that some organisations will face having to shut down completely or move to a completely different operating model if they are unsuccessful.

Around £113 million worth of applications are expected to be made within a few months for a funding pot that currently stands at around £45 million.

The Budapest Festival Orchestra have been performing at this month's Edinburgh International Festival. Picture: Jess Shurte

The total value of potential bids is more than double the amount available to the national arts agency.

The number of organisations seeking regular funding had leapt up from around 350 currently to more than 500, with the overall value of applications even outstripping Creative Scotland’s overall budget of £96 million.

The Edinburgh International Festival, Celtic Connections, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Eden Court in Inverness, the Glasgow Film Festival, the Wigtown Book Festival, the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, Dundee Rep, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh and Perth Concert Hall all have long-term funding deals at the moment.

Creative Scotland, which has warned that its next round of funding will be “highly competitive,” said the new figures were a reflection of the impact of rising costs and inflation, the prolonged impact of the pandemic and the need to tackle historic low pay problems after years of standstill funding.

However it also said the level of demand was “a clear indication of the scale of ambition and need” across the cultural landscape .

Creative Scotland has suggested that without a significant increase in its budget it will provide funding to “far fewer” organisations, but on a “more sustainable” basis.

Arts organisations have until October to submit their initial bids, will be told whether they have made it through the first round of funding in February. Final decisions are due to be made by October 2024.

Creative Scotland has been lobbying the Scottish Government about the need to tackle the growing demand for funding, but is says it has given “no indication” of any increase in its future budgets.

The next round of regular funding decisions will be the first by Creative Scotland for more than five years due to the impact of the pandemic.

Organisations who had to register an interest in applying earlier this month will be able to seek funding for up to three years with no upper limit.

However an announcement on the level of demand makes it clear that some organisations will lose out completely.

It states: “Just over 500 cultural and creative organisations registered their intention to apply, with an indicative annual request in excess of £113 million.

“This provides a clear indication of the scale of ambition and need that exists across Scotland’s culture and creative sector.

“It is also a reflection of the rising cost of operations being experienced by cultural organisations due to increased inflation, the continued impact of the pandemic, and the need to address historic low pay issues, all against a backdrop of standstill funding over a number of years.

“Based on current levels of funding, these figures also underline the fact that we will not be able to support as many organisations on a multi-year basis as we currently do, and the application process will be highly competitive.

“We continue to advocate on a daily basis for increased funding for culture and creativity in Scotland, and this will continue as we progress through the multi-year funding process with a view to maximising the budgets available to us.”

A spokesman for Creative Scotland said it was not surprised at the level of demand and overall value of potential applications.

He added: “The multi-year fund replaces three funding routes for organisations through which we currently support 350 organisations on a year-on-year basis.

“The level of interest also reflects the level of ambition and potential that exists for publicly-funded culture across Scotland, where demand has always significantly outstripped the budgets available.

“The increased value of indicative requests also reflects the fact that funding for culture has been at standstill levels for a number of years against a backdrop of increasingly challenging operational conditions for cultural organisations, including spiralling costs and the impact of the pandemic.

“Creative Scotland currently has a one-year budget settlement from the Scottish Government and no indication of budgets beyond March 2024.

“We are in continuous dialogue with the Scottish Government on budgets and they are aware of the level of interest in this fund. There are no indications at this time that our budgets will increase.

"Unless the budget situation changes, we anticipate funding far fewer organisations on a multi-year basis than the 350 we do at the moment, but our aim is to fund those organisations more sustainably.

"This will inevitably mean that some organisations will have to change what they do, move to a different funding model or, inevitably and unfortunately in some cases, cease operating.

“It’s important to note that we have a one-off fund of £17m in National Lottery reserves that our board has allocated to support organisations who are currently in receipt of year-on-year funding, but who are unsuccessful in their application to the new multi-year fund.”

Peter Arnott, co-chair of the Scottish Society of Playwrights, said Creative Scotland’s update as “very interesting and terrifying in equal measure, if not entirely unexpected.”

He added: “Wearily and with an increasing sense that we are banging our heads against a brick wall, can we please commit as a civic society to at least talk about what we actually want from the theatre, before it's entirely made of the blood that we shed on the carpet as we fight each other for table scraps?”

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “The Scottish Government provides significant funding to Creative Scotland. We will continue to work with the sector to support its long-term recovery from the impacts of the pandemic.”