New Scotland arts funding pledges may be welcome, but do not add up - Brian Ferguson

SNP conference commitments around Scotland’s arts and culture sector raise many questions

There is little doubt that Humza Yousaf’s big promise of more support for arts and culture was a big moment for an industry that has had a frankly brutal few years.

Arts organisations and workers have waited a long time for the Scottish Government to respond meaningfully to their pleas for proper backing. Before the pandemic, there was a weary resignation that securing standstill funding was the best that could be hoped for year after year.

This time last year, it had become crystal clear that historic funding deals were no longer fit for purpose. But the First Minister’s speech was the first announcement of new funding from the Scottish Government to help organisations cope with the impact of inflation, rising energy bills, Brexit and reduced audiences since Covid restrictions were lifted.

Humza Yousaf pictured outside V&A Dundee. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

A long-term commitment of additional funding is clearly welcome, as is the promise that Government arts spending will “more than double” within five years. But it seems hugely premature for anyone to have real cause for celebration, despite the prospect of another £100 million being spent on arts and culture.

For a start, the two key pledges from the First Minister simply don’t add up. Government arts spending actually accounts for at least £175m. If it is to deliver on its pledge to “more than double” that figure, it clearly needs to find upwards of another £75m.

Once the dust had settled on Mr Yousaf’s SNP conference speech, the Government was left to try to explain the discrepancy. The comparable figure he was referring to (£90m) seemingly did not include the £87m currently allocated to the national collections, although it did include funding for the national performance companies.

This raised the question of what additional support, if any, would be going to the national museum and galleries, and National Library of Scotland.

First Minister Humza Yousaf after his speech during the SNP's annual conference in Aberdeen. Picture: Andrew Milligan

The response I got from the Government did not inspire much confidence that it was working to a clear plan or firmed-up policy.

It completely avoided the question of whether the national collections would have to share the additional £100m announced by Mr Yousaf, even though that would defy all logic and make a total mockery of his boast that arts spending would more than double.

My overriding impression was the additional funding was hastily agreed by Mr Yousaf to take the sting out of the criticism over its reinstatement of a 10 per cent funding cut for Creative Scotland in this financial year and a demand that it should raid £6.6m from its reserves. There was certainly no detail of where the extra £100m will be targeted – or indeed when it will be allocated.

But the Campaign for the Arts and Culture Counts, two organisations which have done so much to hold the Government to account over the past year, were quick to stress the importance of getting as much of the additional funding into the sector as soon as possible to prevent the closures and job losses that so many are fearful about.

The Government must set out a five-year vision for where this new funding is going in December, when it announces its next Budget plans, as the one thing the culture sector has been pleading for more than anything is to be able to at least try to plan ahead.