Culture Counts, the collective voice of Scotland's cultural sector, has written to Fiona Hyslop MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture, to ask for the announcement of a three-year culture budget in January 2021.
While Culture Counts members, which includes Literature Alliance Scotland, are aware that the Scottish Government has to manage annual uncertainty from Westminster over budget allocation, they do not believe that a three-year-agreement would be an unmanageable commitment for the Scottish Government to make. The letter also acknowledges that the level of Scottish Government investment in culture in Scotland is similar to other countries of its size.
The culture sector has experienced an awful year, with precarious-work quickly turning into no work for many. The high levels of precarious work that exist in the sector, caused in part by uncertainty and the inability to plan ahead, have a knock-on impact on its lack of diversity. The inability to plan ahead means organisations are less able to engage in sustainable partnerships across portfolio areas. Precarious work in the sector is a structural issue, linked to one-year funding arrangements from the Scottish Government.
Jennifer Hunter, Executive Leader, Culture Counts said:
"While working on the crowd-sourced manifesto the issue of sustainability came up again and again. The sector's ability to align with Sustainable Development Goals, the National Performance Framework and the Culture Strategy requires an absolute minimum of a three-year funding deal. The positive difference that certainty would make to a sector that's been reeling with the uncertainty of Brexit for years and who are currently at the sharp-end of Covid-19 should not be underestimated. This, in my view, is not beyond the ability of the Scottish Government."
The letter in full is available on the Count Counts website.
Contact Andy Robertson, Communications Manager of Culture Counts
on andy@culturecounts.scot
Notes to Editor
Culture Counts is the collective voice of Scotland's cultural sector. Our members work collaboratively to place the arts, screen, heritage and creative industries at the heart of policy-making.
@culturecounts
The Scottish Government's budget will be published on 28 January 2021, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes has announced.
The Crowd-Sourced Manifesto for Scottish Parliament Elections 2021 was published in November 2020 The manifesto has been crowd-sourced by Scotland's culture sector. It identified 8 asks for the next Scottish Parliament & Scottish Government for the next five-year parliamentary term.
https://culturecounts.scot/cultural-manifesto-2021
Tags: Culture budget, Culture Counts, Fiona Hyslop, Scottish Government