Creative Scotland dropped a mid-August bombshell last week when they announced the unexpected closure of their Open Fund for Individuals.
As part of their annual plan for 2024-25, Creative Scotland had stated that £6m would be made available for the Fund this year, offering awards of between £500 and £100,000 to support creative activity from individual artists, producers and other creative professionals in Scotland, supporting “periods of research, development and/or delivery of creative activity for up to 24 months.”
In backtracking on this commitment, Creative Scotland pointed the finger firmly at the Scottish Government for “being unable to confirm release of £6.6m in Grant-in-Aid budget in the current financial year”, claiming that £3m of this had been earmarked for the Open Fund for Individuals, alongside another £3m of National Lottery funding.
The Scottish Government in turn insisted that the problem comes from Westminster, a spokesman stating that “the Scottish Budget continues to face significant challenges. We are considering the implications of the actions announced by the Chancellor (of the Exchequer) on 29 July for our public finances, and the next steps required by the Scottish Government.”
Whatever the ins and outs of the political blame game, the fact remains that, once again, freelancers have found themselves first in the firing line when it comes to funding cuts.
Creative Scotland have argued that imposing the cuts elsewhere is impossible owing to the way funds are allocated, and that taking money from, for example, their Open Fund for Organisations would damage freelancers too, since those organisations are all employers of freelancers themselves.
It sounds very much like the all-too-familiar, failed “trickle-down” economics. All the talk of the “New Normal” during lockdown seems a long time ago - far from “building back better”, there’s a legitimate fear that the industry’s instinctive comfort zone is to head all the way back to the Old Normal, with all its deep-seated long-standing flaws, the moment things begin to get difficult.
Freelance theatre maker Emma Jayne Park observes: “This decision does not mark an end to the cultural sector, it marks an end to art made by those without independent wealth. It will have the greatest impact on the most marginalised in our society. It will ensure we no longer hear the stories that can re-shape societies, those that could save us from the very rapid descent into fascism that we are seeing play out in real time. We are called freelancers but in real terms we are more like zero hour contract workers. We wait to be given work in unpredictable conditions without the same benefits and rights as those on standard contracts. Artists share an unfair burden of risk in the cultural sector with limited reward.”
Prioritising organisations over individuals ignores the vital role initial seed funding plays in the entire theatrical creative process. Glasgow-based independent theatre company Vanishing Point have identified two of their recent productions, Love Beyond by Ramesh Mayyappan and Love the Sinner by Imogen Stirling, as being successes which started from the Open Fund for Individuals. Even large-scale productions frequently begin life as a light bulb going off in one head - neglecting to back those individuals will inevitably mean that fewer of these sparks of inspiration reach their potential audiences.
Creative Scotland have stated that “if and when budget clarity becomes available from the Scottish Government, we will aim to reinstate direct funding support to individuals as soon as is possible.” That urgently needs to happen much sooner rather than later.
As Emma Jayne Park puts it, “if the Edinburgh Festivals are worth £200 million annually, how can it be that many of Scotland’s artists are beside themselves with worry about how they are going to pay their rent, or feed their children, or simply afford to be able to do their job. If an industry is built on the very people it chooses not to pay and chooses not to offer any security to - it is not an industry. It is a ship waiting to sink. And it is sinking.”
Campaign for the Arts are hosting a petition calling on the Scottish Government to provide clarity on the situation and honour its commitment to arts funding - you can find that here.
Emma Jayne Park has shared details of an open drive where where information relating to these latest events can be gathered and stored - more information is available from: ScottishArtsOpenSpace@gmail.com and the drive can be accessed here.
Equity are also organising a rally outside the Scottish Parliament at 12.30pm on Thursday 5th September - details of that are online here.