Scotland

Plans to redevelop performing arts venue The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen are being placed “under review” over funding concerns.

The £8.3m project received the green light from Aberdeen Performing Arts (APA), the organisation which manages the venue alongside another two of the city’s main arts spaces, last summer.

The development of the 550-capacity venue would see its performance space expanded, as well as new rehearsal and studio spaces. 

Aberdeen Council asked for an update on progress during an annual performance report into its arm’s length organisations last week.

When Councillor Marie Boulton asked if APA was moving ahead with the project, Chief Executive Sharon Burgess said: “It’s not off the table, it’s just under review”.

“The ambitions to develop it are still very much at the forefront of our mind,” Burgess said. “However due to the uncertainty around funding, this has been pushed back ever so slightly.”

During the meeting, Burgess also said there wouldn’t be an “immediate impact” to APA following the Scottish government’s decision to reinstate a £6.6m cut to Creative Scotland but added the whole sector could feel a hit in time.

The Lammermuir Festival has released an open letter to Creative Scotland calling on the funding body to change its system.

The letter was penned after the festival’s funding was cut, leaving its future uncertain. It accuses Creative Scotland of placing “Scotland’s cultural ecology on a downward trajectory”.

Organisers announced last week that the funder had withdrawn its support for the festival after 13 years, leaving it in “an urgent financial position”.

The open letter, addressed to Chief Executive of Creative Scotland Iain Munro and Chair Robert Wilson, has been signed by 362 composers, education workers, participants, supporters, audience members and local businesses.

It claimed that the festival’s 2023 funding application was rejected despite strong internal support.

“According to the panels judging Open Fund applications at Creative Scotland, Lammermuir Festival does not sufficiently align to your priorities,” the letter said.

“This is despite having the full support of the Music Officers at Creative Scotland who approved its application and strongly recommended funding without conditions.”

The letter outlined the festival’s cultural, community and economic benefits, which include giving work to 350 musicians a year, securing returns of £750,000 for East Lothian annually, working with 1,700 children, young people and adults over two years as part of the McOpera programme and collaborating with diverse local community groups.

“This decision by Creative Scotland flies in the face of the expressions of support for culture in Scotland, and in particular for festivals, that the First Minister Humza Yousaf, Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy Neil Gray, and Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture Angus Robertson have made in recent days,” the letter said.

“The Open Fund process appears to have no strategic overview of provision, and no clear artistic, quality or geographic priorities.”

It added that Creative Scotland’s process “places huge pressure on organisations” and said that invitations to make multiple applications for the same activity took the festival’s “nerves to the wire”, with a final verdict issued just 16 days before the festival began.

“Without Creative Scotland’s support the Lammermuir Festival’s future is under threat,” the letter said.

“Your decision not to fund the 2023 festival destabilises the organisation and undermines the festival’s ability to plan for or run a festival in 2024 and beyond. In order to secure the future of this festival beyond 2023, urgent support is needed.”

It called on the funder to reverse its decision. “This festival cannot be allowed to disappear,” it concluded.
 

Edinburgh Filmhouse has launched a campaign to secure its future, after it agreed a short-term lease with the building's owner to allow fundraising to take place.

The cinema closed its doors in October last year following the collapse of its parent company,  the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), which ceased trading amid rising overheads and reduced business.

The fundraiser is being spearheaded by the newly formed charity Filmhouse (Edinburgh) Ltd, which has entered into a 6-month interim lease with the building’s owner, Caledonian Heritable. During that time, it hopes to raise an initial  £1.25m for essential refurbishment to reopen in 2024.

If successful, the charity will take on a 21-year lease to operate the cinema independently, with a café bar to help support it financially.

Caledonian Heritable, which owns other hospitality businesses in Edinburgh, has already started upgrading the fabric of the cinema. The company has pledged to gift all projection equipment to the new Filmhouse, including the customised analogue 35mm and 70mm projectors.

After the announcement of the agreement between Filmhouse (Edinburgh) and the privately-owned Caledonian Heritable, national funding body Screen Scotland confirmed it had awarded the charity £60,000 to support its planning and development work.

Screen Scotland has been working with the City of Edinburgh Council and the Scottish government to ensure a future for independent cinema in the city since CMI’s collapse, which also resulted in the demise of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen.

Culture Minister Christina McKelvie said: “The Scottish government is absolutely clear on the value of cultural cinema and the importance of ensuring its future.

“I am delighted to see that work to secure its future is progressing, and I am grateful to all involved for their ongoing hard work and dedication.”
 

A contemporary art venue in Scotland has warned politicians that it is facing “unimaginable financial precarity” and will soon face closure without changes to its public funding, according to a report in The Scotsman.

In a new report to the Scottish Parliament, MEPs have been told that Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) is facing a £300,000 deficit for 2024 and an uncertain future.

Founded 25 years ago, DCA houses two large-scale galleries, two cinema screens, a print studio and a cafe bar in its £9m city centre facility.

The centre's director, Beth Bate, told The Scotsman that rising costs, stagnant funding and reduced audiences had left the registered charity “wrung dry,” and it would be forced to tap into its £450,000 reserves to "keep our doors open and staff employed”.

She said, “We’re so prudent. We’ve made efficiencies everywhere, including restructuring teams, losing hours and posts, restricting hours, delivering work with external partners, investing in fundraising, and setting high and hard income-generating targets.

“But we’re now at the point where we’re stripped back enough. Any more cuts will fundamentally change the organisation and the impact we have in Dundee, Scotland and internationally. We simply don’t have enough money.

“It’s hard to describe the exhaustion and frustration these working conditions induce. Staff retention, health and wellbeing, confidence and resilience are all affected, particularly as we start to see other organisations struggle and fold, and talented staff leave the sector.”

Bate said the only way to meet the deficit would be to cancel their exhibitions programme, children's film festival, and all learning and engagement projects. She added, "This would take us so far from our charitable aims and the function for which we’re funded, that we couldn’t operate.

“It is short-termism and stunting in the extreme, to have to work not knowing whether your successful, popular, efficiently-run organisation might not have a future.”

A new association of 27 Edinburgh Fringe venues has been formed in a bid to “ensure the future of the Fringe ecosystem”.

The membership of the newly-formed Fringe Alliance includes most of the festival's venue producers who account for around 85% of Fringe ticket sales.

Among those who have signed up are high-profile venues/producers Assembly, Pleasance, Underbelly, Gilded Balloon and Summerhall. 

A statement from the Alliance said it had been founded due to the “external economic and political challenges" facing the Fringe.

In recent years the Fringe has attracted increasing criticism over the rising cost of participation and accommodation, and how this has made it less accessible to new artists without financial backing.

The Alliance statement continued: “Formed to represent those who make the fringe happen, support the fringe community, and safeguard the future of the fringe, Fringe Alliance marks an important step forward in ensuring the sustainability and growth of the festival.

“By fostering collaboration, advocating for those who take risks to make and present work at the fringe, and promoting best practice, the alliance is poised to create a positive and enduring impact on the cultural landscape of Edinburgh and beyond.”

Scotland’s film and TV industries are continuing to grow, according to latest figures published by Screen Scotland.

The independent report, The Economic Value of the Screen Sector in Scotland in 2021, reveals inward investment in film and high-end TV (HETV) increased by 110%, from £165.3m in 2019 to £347.4m in 2021.

An estimated £617.4m was spent on the production of film, TV and other audiovisual content in Scotland in 2021, up 55% on the 2019 figure of £398.6m.   

The screen sector in Scotland contributed Gross Value Added (GVA) of £627m to the country's economy in 2021, in the process providing 10,930 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs.

This compares to £568m and 10,940 FTEs in 2019. 

Isabel Davis, Screen Scotland’s Executive Director, said the growth shows "that public investment via Screen Scotland in infrastructure, development, production and skills development, combined with attractive levels of production incentive are the catalyst for a successful industry".   

She continued: "Now is the time to build on these newly created jobs and growth with a sustained funding commitment towards skills development, attraction of large-scale productions and a focus on the development of locally originated film and television. "