Public workshops to help inform Creative Scotland's priorities and funding approach

Published: 01 May 2019

Scotland’s creative sector and the general public are being invited to attend a series of events across Scotland to consider the value of public funding for arts and creative activity; help identify the strategic priorities that will best support Scotland’s creative life, and explore new ways to fund arts and creative activity.

Organised by Creative Scotland, the workshops will take place at 17 venues across the country from Wednesday 22 May – Friday 12 July 2019.

The events are being held as part of the organisation’s strategic update and funding review and are an opportunity for professional and voluntary creative practitioners, managers of creative organisations and businesses, and members of the local communities to inform the development of Creative Scotland’s overall approach to funding.

The events will be at the following places and dates - follow the links to book your place:

• Wednesday 22 May - Dundee, DCA
• Tuesday 28 May - Edinburgh, Grassmarket Project *Gaelic speaking staff present - (EVENT NOW FULL)
• Friday 31 May - Glasgow, Glasgow Women's Library *Gaelic speaking staff present - (EVENT NOW FULL)
• Thursday 6 June - Inverness, Eden Court *Gaelic speaking staff present
• Tuesday 11 June - Lewis, An Lanntair *Gaelic speaking staff present
• Friday 14 June - Shetland, Mareel
• Wednesday 19 June - Oban, Corran Halls *Gaelic speaking staff present
• Saturday 22 June - Glasgow, SWG3 (EVENT NOW FULL)
• Tuesday 25 June - Dumfries, Theatre Royal Dumfries
• Wednesday 26 June - Saltcoats, Saltcoats Townhall
• Tuesday 2 July - Skye, Aros Centre, Portree *Gaelic speaking staff present
• Thursday 4 July - Scottish Borders, MacArts, Galashiels
• Friday 5 July - Aberdeen, Aberdeen Performing Arts
• Saturday 6 July - Edinburgh, Creative Scotland (EVENT NOW FULL)
• Wednesday 10 July - Helmsdale, Timespan
• Friday 12 July - Dunfermline, Carnegie Library and Galleries
• Monday 15 July - Orkney - St Magnus Centre

Each workshop will explore priorities for public funding and how Creative Scotland should distribute the money it receives from Scottish Government and the National Lottery.

Iain Munro, Acting CEO, Creative Scotland said: “We welcome the involvement from all stakeholders and the public in these conversations. We will then develop and test potential new funding models during the Summer and Autumn this year. We will then communicate timelines on implementing any new ways of funding, as these depend on the solutions generated with the creative organisations, practitioners and the people and communities that take part in this review.”

Notes to Editors

Supporting information (including summaries of the research and online opportunities to take part) to help inform these conversations will be published shortly.

These public conversations are part of Creative Scotland’s Strategic Update and Funding Review which is being approached in five stages:

Phase 1: Research (Nov 2018–April 2019)

Three strands of research have been underway:

• a comprehensive analysis of different models of funding and cultural investment used by similar creative and cultural agencies across the world as well as investigating financing models used by enterprise development agencies and in social enterprise investments
• a statistical review of Creative Scotland’s historical funding; and
• a review of previous consultations undertaken with the creative sector, including Creative Scotland’s sector reviews, Scottish Government Culture Strategy consultations, recommendations from the evaluation of the 2018-21 RFO process, and feedback from RFO’s gathered through the Annual Reports returned in 2018/19.

Phase 2: Public conversations (May–July 2019)

We are now moving on to Phase 2: Public Conversations. Starting at the end of May we will be enabling discussions around Scotland, through public events and online for those who cannot take part in person, and to engage in a wider public conversation.

Phases 3-5

Following on from these public conversations, we will develop and test potential new funding models during the Summer and Autumn this year. At this point we will also be able to give more definitive timelines on implementing any new ways of funding, as these depend on the solutions generated with the creative organisations, practitioners and the people and communities that take part in this review.

Media Contact

Sophie Bambrough, Media Relations & PR Officer, Creative Scotland
Email: sophie.bambrough@creativescotland.com
Tel: +44 (0) 131 523 0016
Mob: +44 (0) 7747 606 146
Switchboard: +44 (0) 330 333 2000