News – Windfall for Scotlands national companies

Scotlands five national performing companies, the funding responsibility for which is currently being transferred to the Scottish Executive, will share a revenue increase of over £2.7m next year. Together, the organisations will receive grants totalling £22.5m for 2007/08, an increase of almost 14% in core funding. The funding will come from the additional £20m the Executive pledged to the arts when it announced a string of changes to arts funding earlier this year. Key among those changes was the transfer of the five national companies from the umbrella of the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) to the remit of the Executive.
Scottish Ballet will receive the largest single increase of £1.2m, bringing its funding to over £4.5m, while the Royal Scottish National Orchestras revenue funding will increase from £2.9m this year to £3.8m in 2007/08. Scottish Opera, with an increase of £390,000, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with £190,000 and the National Theatre of Scotland with £100,000, will receive more modest increases in funding. All the figures include increases of between 2% and 3% which were already anticipated by the national companies. Some of the money has been earmarked for specific activity, with £350,000 going to Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet to enable the companies to tour outside Scotland. Announcing the increases, Scottish Culture Minister, Patricia Ferguson, said, This additional funding will ensure that [the companies] continue to excel and attract new audiences so more people can enjoy their performances. New funding has been set aside to help our national companies perform overseas. International exposure underlines Scotlands standing as a country synonymous with world-class artistic performances. The transfer of responsibilities for the funding of the national performing companies from SAC to the Executive is ongoing and will be completed by the end of March 2007.