Arts councils pledge support for minority languages

A policy aimed at developing Gaelic arts and their potential in the mainstream of Scottish cultural life has been unveiled by the Scottish Arts Council (SAC). The new Gaelic Arts Policy aims to recognise the relationship between Gaelic arts and language and the contribution both make to Scotland’s cultural landscape.

The new policy sets out SAC’s ten point action plan for maintaining direct support for Gaelic arts activity, which it defines as being inclusive arts activity informed by Gaelic culture and/or presented through the medium of the Gaelic language. The policy emphasises the importance of the involvement of Gaelic arts in national initiatives such as the Writers Factory, Playwrights Studio and the new National Theatre of Scotland, and a draft proposal is being prepared in consultation with Bòrd na Gàidhlig, the Gaelic development agency, for a delegated Lottery arts development fund, set against specific strategic priorities and actions. Internally, SAC will be encouraging Gaelic-speaking representation on all committees, and will be setting targets for raising awareness of Gaelic issues among staff, committee members and core funded organisations. The policy builds on SAC’s investment of over £4m in Gaelic arts projects over the last 8 years and its support for the development of three arts centres serving Gaelic speaking communities. It has also given core funding status to a number of key Gaelic arts organisations.

SAC’s Gaelic Arts Policy was launched at the annual reception of the Scottish Parliament’s Cross-Party Group on Gaelic, which was preceded by a meeting between SAC, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) and the Irish Arts Council.

ACNI has made a firm commitment to supporting Irish language and has allocated funding totalling £27,000 to the not-for-profit daily Irish language newspaper Lá to publish two arts supplements each week for the next 12 months. The paper will distribute information about Irish language arts and showcase new literary works for the Gaeilge community. The supplements will be pioneered by the new Lá arts editor and Irish language author Philip Cummings, who said “…it’s my intention to provide a platform for the best of new Irish language writing as well as creating a forum for criticism and debate.”