Nicola Benedetti warns of Scottish arts sector crisis without £100m of funding

Nicola Benedetti warned of a crisis in the arts sector which would amount to a “major identity shift” if the Scottish Government fails to provide £100 million funding.

Speaking to Holyrood Magazine, Benedetti, a violinist who has won multiple awards, warned the culture sector in Scotland faces a “very trepidatious time” due to funding issues.

She said that arts and culture were key to the “wellbeing and health of the nation”.

It comes after then first minister Humza Yousaf told the SNP conference last year that he pledged the additional funding for Creative Scotland by 2028, calling it a “huge vote of confidence” in the cultural sector.

Creative Scotland, the country’s development body for the arts and creative industries, had its budget cut by £6.6 million in December 2022, with the sum then reinstated in February 2023, and cut again in September the same year.

However, it remains unclear when the additional funding promised by Mr Yousaf will be granted to Creative Scotland.

Benedetti, who is the director of the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), said: “It is a responsibility for government, unless you begin to think that arts, culture – and by that I mean all the activities that fall into the general psychological, mental, emotional wellbeing and health of the nation, of society and individuals, everything that falls into that category I would relate to a civic pillar you can call culture – if as a nation we start to believe that that’s not one of the civic pillars that we hold ourselves to, we are essentially changing our goalposts and our identity.

“We’re shifting what post-Second World War we believed was a society that was increasing in equality and elevating civilisation.

“If we don’t consider it to be that then that’s a major identity shift. If we do consider it to be so then a portion of what’s raised in taxes and spent by the government should be on the fabric of the life we live and what we call culture and art.

“We would allow that to slip away from the responsibility of the government at our peril.”

The Scottish Government previously said an additional £15.8 million, including the £6.6 million that was cut then reinstated, was being made available this year as a “first step” to fulfilling the £100 million, bringing the total spend on culture to £196.6 million, with the majority to go to Creative Scotland.

While a further uplift of £25 million has been promised for next year, arts industry collective Culture Counts has estimated that up to 55% of the organisations applying for Creative Scotland funding could lose out when the agency makes its long-term funding announcement in October.

Earlier this year, Creative Scotland announced that 361 organisations had collectively applied for funding of £96 million and that 351 were deemed eligible to move forward to the next stage.

That was whittled down to 281 organisations with a total ask of £87.5 million but Creative Scotland warned that “due to lack of clarity regarding longer-term funding” from the Scottish Government it expects to have just £40 million available to distribute.

Creative Scotland chief executive Iain Munro said: “As we have emphasised consistently, our budgets remain extremely limited and we anticipate being able to fund only a proportion of the organisations which have applied.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Ministers have committed to investing at least £100 million more annually in the arts and culture by 2028-29, starting with a £15.8m increase this financial year to £196.6m.

“As set out in the December 2023 Budget speech, this is the first step on the route to investing at least £100m more annually in culture and the arts, and ministers aim to provide an additional £25m to the culture sector in 2025-26.

“In line with normal budgetary procedure the Scottish Government will publish a draft budget for 2024-25 later this year.

“This timing is necessary in order to follow the UK Government Autumn Statement, which directly determines what consequentials the Scottish Government will receive for allocation in the next Scottish budget, and any impact inflation may have on the spending power of that funding.”