A widespread review of Scotland’s cultural activity is to “look again at [the country’s] cultural infrastructure and ask if it fit for purpose.” The review, heralded by Scotland’s First Minister, Jack McConnell in his St Andrew’s Day address in November 2003, will run for a year and investigate the current status of arts activity in Scotland.
The process will be driven by a newly formed Cultural Commission, which will provide an interim report in October 2004 before making final recommendations in June 2005. The Commission will be chaired by James Boyle. He is standing down from his current post as Chairman of the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) to lead the investigation, despite having announced his decision to continue as Chair of SAC for a further three years only last month.
Announcing the initiative, Scotland’s Culture Minister Frank McAveety declared, “We need a new cultural vision for our country and a radically different way of delivering and sustaining our cultural services. …The review of the cultural sector will take as its starting point the premise that each person in Scotland has cultural rights – rights of access to cultural activity in this country.” The Commission has been specifically asked to explore the notion of cultural rights and define how this might be translated into a scheme of entitlements. Speaking in March, McAveety had proposed Catalonia in Spain as a model of a region that had founded its approach to arts provision on the principle of access to culture being a fundamental human right.
In response to the announcement of the review, Graham Berry, Director of SAC said, “We are very pleased that the Scottish Executive has announced its ambitious approach to culture in Scotland… We are eager to ensure, in open partnership with others, that the power of the arts and culture to build a confident, cultured and better Scotland is fully explored and appreciated. The concept of cultural entitlement is an interesting one and we are very willing to work with the Commission to explore a variety of models.” SAC had withheld £400,000 from its 2004-05 budget allocation for use in response to the announced review but has now released part of this into general arts funds.
The Scottish National Party’s Shadow Minister for Culture, Roseanna Cunningham has questioned what impact the current review will have on the current Culture Strategy. This was launched in 2000 following a review which expressed serious misgivings about the Scottish arts infrastructure and particularly the role of the SAC, “Is it just the case that they feel the need to do something about culture in each four year term?” she said. “I am left with a real concern that this Commission will be little more than an exercise in shifting the furniture about.”
Councillor Graham Garvie, Arts and Leisure Spokesperson for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities said: "To some extent, today's announcement represents a missed opportunity. We are very disappointed not to have been involved with the Scottish Executive in their thinking on the Cultural Review that so far has been developed in isolation. Given the lack of information until this point, COSLA will require time to assess the full implications of the Minister’s statement before we are able to give the Cultural Review our unqualified support.”
One of the first areas for the Commission to address will be the future of Scottish Opera, which is currently operating with a rolling deficit and has become the focus of an ongoing debate about access to the arts and excellence in the arts. Recent calls for increased funding to national companies look unlikely to be heeded. In Jack McConnell’s St Andrew’s Day speech he declared, “We will not shore up institutions for historical reasons or sentimental attachments.”