A provocative and detailed submission by the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) to the Scottish Cultural Commission has ignited the debate on Scotland?s cultural future.
The submission, which coincides with the Cultural Commission?s interim report to the Scottish Executive, sets out the case for SAC?s continued role at the forefront of Scottish arts policy. Several radical proposals are put forward in the submission, including the establishment of a National Cultural Partnership, led by SAC and funded by a trust with significant assets to remove the ?permanent air of crisis? that surrounds arts funding in Scotland. The document also calls for a Minister for Culture to be in the Cabinet and the establishment of Regional Planning Forums as a means of reflecting the ?cultural nuances of different parts of Scotland.?
The Cultural Commission, chaired by James Boyle, was established in April to carry out a comprehensive health-check on Scotland?s cultural well-being and has invited submissions from interested institutions and individuals. Boyle was previously Chair of SAC, a role to which he had been re-appointed for a further three years just weeks before he left to form the Commission. SAC has since been without a Chair. Commentators have alluded to bad blood between SAC and the Commission, with the suspicion widely held among staff at SAC and the wider cultural community that the Commission may recommend the elimination of SAC. The defiant tone of the SAC submission offers a robust defence of the organisation and its staff. Graham Berry, SAC?s Director says, ?This submission is offered in [the] spirit of open debate in order to help generate the genuinely radical discussion the Commission has been asked to facilitate.?
At the heart of SAC?s submission is a ?reconfiguration of the organisational structures, which re-thinks relations between existing bodies,? establishing a National Cultural Partnership (NCP), answerable to a Minister of Culture while retaining the arm?s length principle. This NCP would ?provide leadership for and co-ordinate such areas as the arts, museums, libraries, film and television, Gaelic development and the creative industries.? Funding would be delegated through the NCP to Regional Planning Forums, which would co-ordinate local arts activity in close co-operation with local authorities. The submission also seeks to ?break the mould? of arts funding by developing a mixed economy of endowment funding and annual investment. It suggests amending the constitutional structures of cultural organisations to enable them to build share capital and accumulate surpluses. This could involve many organisations having to forsake their charitable or not-for-profit status.
In submitting the Commission?s interim report to the Scottish Executive, James Boyle, stressed that at this stage the report largely covered process without strong conclusions. He said, ?The Interim Report is exactly that? Interim. It contains no final recommendations.? However, several key pointers can be found within the report as to the focus of the Commission?s ongoing investigation. Local authorities? activities are described as ?crucial to the Commission?s work? and attention will also be paid to community arts funding and the role and status of the national companies. ?New ways of disbursing cultural funding? are also likely to be considered in detail.