Published: 30 Oct 2014
Following an open application process, Creative Scotland is pleased to announce the portfolio of organisations that will receive Regular Funding for the three-year period, April 2015 to March 2018.
Regular Funding supports a range and breadth of creative organisations making a vital contribution to the current health and future development of the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland.
This portfolio enables more organisations, an increase from 45 (2012-2015) to 119 (2015-2018), to benefit from stable, three-year funding, reflecting both sector feedback and commitments made by the Creative Scotland Board.
The portfolio consists of 119 organisations demonstrating creative excellence, potential and ambition, with significant reach throughout Scotland and across many areas of practice.
Of the 119 organisations in the portfolio, most are artist led, 20 are entirely new to long-term funding, 57 are moving from shorter-term funding arrangements, and 42 are already in receipt of three-year funding.
In response to the large number of high quality applications received for Regular Funding, Creative Scotland has increased the available budget to £100m from the £90m originally published, within our existing budget.
Janet Archer, Chief Executive of Creative Scotland said:
“I am delighted to announce such a creatively rich and diverse portfolio of regularly funded organisations. It represents some of Scotland’s most important, innovative and exciting cultural organisations, producing and presenting great work across craft, dance, film, literature, music, theatre and visual art.
“Importantly, these organisations will also provide significant support for thousands of individual artists and the broader workforce across Scotland’s creative sector.
“Following a clear and robust decision making process, the final portfolio includes a mix of organisational scale as well as reflecting Scotland’s social and geographical diversity.
“I’m delighted that the portfolio includes 20 organisations that are new to regular funding alongside more established organisations that continue to be critical to cultural provision.
“I’m particularly pleased that this portfolio has a greater geographical spread than in previous years with organisations based in 21 local authority areas and more than three quarters of them operating beyond their base location, reaching audiences across the country.
“In direct response to the high number of fundable applications that we received, and by re-profiling our budgets over the next three years, we have been able to increase the overall budget for this round of regular funding from £90m to £100m. This enables us to provide better levels of support for more organisations in the portfolio to produce high quality work, strengthen audience bases and be operationally resilient.
“We received 264 applications for Regular Funding of which a significant number could have been supported through this funding route if more resources were available.
“I’d like to personally thank all the organisations that applied for the hard work that went into their submissions.
“While this is a clear illustration of the scale of creative potential and ambition that exists across Scotland, it also means that many of these organisations will be disappointed by the outcome this time round.
“While we will be able to fund some organisations through Open Project and Targeted Funding, this underlines the importance of Creative Scotland’s role in making the case for culture at every given opportunity in order to increase levels of support available in the future.
“Arts and creativity can create a sense of wellbeing and transform the quality of life for everyone. Evidence shows they can play an important part in all of our lives offering meaning and connection in a wealth of different ways. The organisations in this portfolio will make a significant contribution to this in Scotland.”
Some key facts about the portfolio include:
Regular Funding is one of three routes to funding through Creative Scotland, alongside Open Project Funding for individuals and organisations, which opens for applications on 31 October, and Targeted Funding.
ENDS
This follows a two stage decision making process:
Stage 1: all applications were assessed individually against published criteria by staff with the appropriate art form knowledge and discussed in detail by art form teams.
Stage 2: those applications recommended for consideration were then discussed in detail by the senior team at Creative Scotland, including art form leads, with the aim of building as balanced a portfolio as possible of regularly funded organisations across the arts, screen and creative industries, geography, scale and diversity.
Creative Scotland distributes funding from two main sources, the Scottish Government and the National Lottery. We do this through three funding routes:
This new funding approach was announced on 9 April 2014 and reflects Creative Scotland’s commitment to introduce a clear and simple funding approach that provides access to both long-term and project funding for individuals and organisations, as set out in our Action Plan for Change, published in March 2013.
On 9 April, we published our 10-year plan, Unlocking Potential, Embracing Ambition, which sets out a ten-year vision for the arts, screen and creative industries and Creative Scotland’s role in helping to deliver that vision.
The Plan presents a shared vision for the arts, screen and creative industries, one that is a call to action for everyone working, or interested in the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland.
The publication of the plan followed a period of extensive consultation and the contribution of almost 1000 people from across the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland.
There are 5 ambitions that frame our work over the next 10 years, covering themes of:
9 April also marked the launch of our new Regular Funding Programme, marking the next phase of implementation of a new simplified approach to funding.
For further information, please contact:
Kenneth Fowler
Director of Communications
kenneth.fowler@creativescotland.com
07970 557 960
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. We enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life. We distribute funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery.
For further information about Creative Scotland please visit www.creativescotland.com. Follow us on Twitter @creativescots, Facebook www.facebook.com/CreativeScotland and Instagram www.instagram.com/creativescots.
