Nicola Benedetti Calls on Scottish Government to Fulfill Arts Funding Pledges

Benedetti warns of a “major identity shift” to the arts sector if promises of funding fall through

The culture sector in Scotland faces a “very trepidatious time” due to funding issues, explained the Scottish violinist and Edinburgh International Festival’s artistic director, Nicola Benedetti in Holyrood news. 

As arts and culture are key to the “wellbeing and health of the nation,” Benedetti has warned of a crisis and “major identity shift” to the sector if the Scottish Government does not provide its originally set £100 million in funding.

This comes after then-first minister Humza Yousaf told the 2023 Scottish National Party (SNP) conference that he pledged additional funding for Creative Scotland by 2028, calling it a “huge vote of confidence” in the cultural division, reported The Herald.

The country’s development body for the arts and creative industries, Creative Scotland, had its budget reduced by £6.6 million in December 2022 — an amount that was reinstated in February 2023 before being cut again in September that same year.

When and how the promised additional funds will be made available or granted to Creative Scotland is yet to be announced, Holyrood explained. 

Previously, the Scottish Government said an additional £15.8m (including the £6.6m that was then reinstated) was being made available this year as a “first step” to fulfilling the £100m, bringing the funding to a total of £196.6 million — the majority of which will go to Creative Scotland.

While a further £25m has been promised for next year, arts industry collective Culture Counts has estimated that up to 55% of the organizations applying for Creative Scotland funding could lose out when the company announces its long-term funding plan in October.

“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,” Benedetti told Holyrood reported in an exclusive interview. “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 civilization. If we don’t consider it to be that then that’s a major identity shift,” she explained. “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.”

Earlier this year, Creative Scotland stated that 361 organizations had collectively applied for funding of £96m and that 351 were deemed eligible to move forward to the next stage, Holyrood reported. 

As these applicants were narrowed down to 281 organizations with a total ask of £87.5m, Creative Scotland warned that “due to lack of clarity regarding longer-term funding” from the Scottish Government, it would expect to have just £40m available to distribute.

“As we have emphasized consistently, our budgets remain extremely limited and we anticipate being able to fund only a proportion of the organizations which have applied,” said Creative Scotland’s CEO Iain Munro in The Scotsman.

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