With the need for culture organisations to diversify and expand their skills more acute than ever, Culture & Business Scotland have unveiled a series of training opportunities and events designed to help the nation’s creative professionals equip themselves with new knowledge.
The charity, which works to facilitate mutually beneficial connections between the culture and business sectors, will host a series of upcoming events giving organisations well-rounded education in a range of subjects including fundraising through storytelling, legacy giving and the principles of board membership.
Next week, a short course on board membership taking place on Tuesday 4th June will give new trustees and board members access to two informative, hands-on sessions introducing them to their new roles and responsibilities.
On Tuesday 4th and Tuesday 11th June two sessions will explore the five stages of the copywriting process, while additional training courses will help participants to deeper their understanding of corporate sponsorship and discover the benefits and possibilities of legacy giving campaigns.
Along with full-length courses, Culture & Business Scotland run a series of Insights Webinars designed to empower individuals and organisations in the culture sector with knowledge and expertise from industry experts, and networking events, allowing attendees the chance to connect and collaborate with like-minded professionals in the culture sector.
David Watt, Chief Executive of Culture & Business Scotland said: ‘Our programme of events is designed to help both members and non-members to expand their skillsets and knowledge and empower them to feel confident in all aspects of their work.
“Thanks to expert guidance and structured, practical sessions, participants will gain a solid foundation in skills that are crucial in the evolving landscape of Scotland’s culture environment’.
Culture & Business Scotland Edinburgh event brings the sectors together to ‘cultivate connections‘
With both climate change and the recent slashing of government funding to the culture sector continuing to make the headlines, Culture & Business Scotland will be hosting a Members’ Forum focussing on how sustainability strategies can be incorporated into culture organisations.
Taking place on Thursday 26October at the National Museum of Scotland, the Forum will unite members for a series of presentations, success stories and sustainability strategies, with the aim of fostering collaboration and initiating a dialogue around environmental issues ahead of the launch of COP28 next month.
The cross-sector event will be attended by representatives from businesses of a range of sizes and geographical backgrounds, facilitating networking opportunities as well as providing a platform for businesses to forge connections with culture sector organisations and secure creative solutions to challenges within their practices.
The event will also feature speakers from across the industry, who will be sharing insights into how sustainability can be embedded within culture organisations’ practices.
Dr Ben Twist, Director of Creative Carbon Scotland, will compare the different ways that arts councils are addressing climate change, while Scott Mackay, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Scottish Youth Film Foundation, will showcase COP TV, a project aimed at amplifying the voices of Scotland’s youth in the context of the crucial COP event.
Meanwhile Hannah Schlesinger, Director of Development & Marketing at Edinburgh Science, will discuss TheNetZeroToolkit, a product of the organisation’s Climate Co-Lab initiative, designed to help businesses reduce their carbon emissions. Ruth Gill, Director of Public Programmes at National Museums Scotland, will also introduce the event and give a presentation on how the museum is progressing on its quest for Net Zero.
David Nelson, Head of Development and Programmes at Culture & Business Scotland, said: “The significance of ‘sustainability’ in the culture sector is huge. Incorporating sustainability strategies within our practices should be at the forefront of all our minds as the climate crisis worsens, and our Members’ Forum is set to create a dialogue around how best to do that.
“With funding to culture organisations under threat, it’s also crucial that we maximise opportunities to build strong and sustainable relationships between the culture and business sectors.
“Amongst the many benefits of membership to Culture & Business Scotland is the chance to access these networks and build innovative solutions to the challenges we’re currently facing, as an industry and as a society”.
Individuals interested in attending the Members’ Forum can find out more about Culture & Business Scotland membership here:
In that submission, we stated the following regarding our Grant in Aid budget from the Scottish Government for 2023/24:
“While we welcomed the Scottish Government’s decision in February 2023 to reverse the 10% cut to our Grant in Aid Budget which was originally announced in December 2022, it should be noted that the £6.6m this cut related to has not yet been confirmed in Creative Scotland’s budget.”
We are extremely disappointed to report that the £6.6m budget has not been included in the Autumn Budget Revisions.
This has been confirmed in writing by the Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Angus Robertson, in a letter to our Chief Executive, Iain Munro on 20 September.
This relates to Grant-in Aid funding that we receive from the Scottish Government and that we use to support 119 cultural organisations across Scotland through Regular Funding.
Given the extensive messaging and advocacy regarding the pressures on culture budgets and risks to the culture sector that we, and many others have been making, this is a concerning development.
To address this reduction, the Creative Scotland Board agreed on 27 September, to use £6.6m of our National Lottery reserves to prevent us having to pass it on to the Regularly Funded Organisations, especially given the next payments are due in 2 weeks’ time.
Whilst the unprecedented pressures on public finances are understood, we are disappointed that the Scottish Government has taken this decision. However, Creative Scotland is acting swiftly and pragmatically to help stabilise the situation in the short term.
This step of using our National Lottery reserves in this way will only happen once. The budget for 2024/25 will not be decided by the Scottish Government for some months yet but should the Scottish Government choose to sustain this reduction, we will require to pass it on to the sector.
Creative Scotland appeared before the Culture Committee at the Scottish Parliament on yesterday (Thursday 28 September) to give evidence as part of the Committee’s ongoing inquiry into culture budgets in Scotland.
David Watt, chief executive of Culture & Business Scotland, said: “At a time when Scottish Government ministers repeatedly speak about the importance and value of culture to our society and economy, the reinstatement of the £6.6M cut to Creative Scotland’s annual budget for the current year is unfathomable.
““Just yesterday (Thursday September 28), I, alongside other cultural representatives, gave budget evidence to the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee to hopefully ensure that this shortsighted budget decision does not extend into the 2024-25 budget for culture settlement.
“Investment in culture is essential for society, local communities, tourism, the economy and Scotland’s international reputation. The ongoing challenges of the legacy impact of Covid, Brexit and the cost-of-living crisis, are very real, with many arts and culture organisations operating on a knifes edge.
“These issues are exacerbated as the majority have a lack of unrestricted reserves and continue to struggle to build these up due to slow growth in ticket sales and increased overheads due to high energy prices.
“A reduction in public funding will rapidly increase the firefighting our culture organisations and venues are facing against challenge after challenge. If this budget pattern continues, with little opportunity to ensure future sustainability, there will be an inevitable shrinkage of the culture sector, and the economic and social impact of this will be significant for us all.”
As part of the Autumn budget review, the Scottish Government has re-instated a 10% cut to Creative Scotland’s 2023-24 annual budget (totaling approximately £6.6m), which following mass campaigning from the cultural sector, was overturned earlier this year (writes SMIA Interim CEO and Creative Director ROBIN KILPATRICK).
As the organisation which exists to strengthen, empower and unite Scotland’s music industry – representing a diverse membership of over 4,000 people working across all music genres and industry subsectors – we’re compelled to highlight the devastating impact of this decision; not just to music and culture, but to Scottish society at large.
The cut directly relates to the funding allocated to support Creative Scotland’s Regular Funding Network, comprising 119 cross-artform organisations (RFOs) that are structurally integral to both supporting and delivering Scotland’s cultural output. The SMIA is one of them.
In the short-term (for the rest of this financial year), Creative Scotland has had to divert to utilising National Lottery reserves to plug the gap and prevent the cuts from being passed on to members of the RFO network.
If this hadn’t been the case, in two weeks’ time when the next RFO funding payments are due, each of the 119 organisations would, in effect, have received a ~40% cut to projected funding.
In the SMIA’s case, this would have been two weeks ahead of the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award Ceremony, and would have put the delivery of Scotland’s national music prize at significant risk.
The cut would have again been replicated in January at the next (and final) RFO payment for this financial year, which in the case of many organisations, would have meant the end. Whilst immediate disaster has been avoided, the use of Creative Scotland reserves at this stage means that they are now significantly depleted for what was their intended purpose.
Last month, Creative Scotland highlighted that over 500 cultural organisations stated their intention to apply for Multi-year funding; a new funding scheme that will replace the current Regular Funding one. From the intentions to apply, the indicative annual request was in excess of £113m – far exceeding what Creative Scotland expects to have available.
Inevitably, this means that Creative Scotland will not be able to support as many organisations on a multi-year basis as they currently do, and the application process will be highly competitive. Causalities are expected and imminent. Cultural organisations across all art forms are worried about their future, and the reserves that Creative Scotland has had to use now means that there’s far less available transitional funding for unsuccessful applicants.
Whilst the future for Scottish culture was looking bleak, there was at least some hope that organisations that are unsuccessful in securing Multi-year Funding would have some time to remain operational, pivot their business model and potentially find an alternative way forward. With Creative Scotland’s reserves now depleted, many unsuccessful organisations will soon vanish from the fabric of our cultural landscape, and with them, many creative opportunities and a significant part of our cultural identity as we know it today.
RFOs have been on stand-still funding since 2018. In the face of high inflation, rising interest rates, cost of living challenges, issues around staff retention and recruitment, the impact of Brexit, the legacy of Covid and a whole myriad of broader problems currently facing our sector, for Creative Scotland’s budget cut to have been re-instated, the future of music and culture in Scotland is now at significant and immediate risk. The foundations upon which it supported are being eroded at an increasingly alarming rate, and unless intervention is made by the Scottish Government, it will have impacts for decades to come.
Outwith the significant economic contribution that music makes to Scotland’s economy (£581m through music tourism alone in 2022, as noted in UK Music’s ‘Here, There And Everywhere’ report – and this is only based on events with 1500+ capacity), it’s important to remember that the value generated by the sector far extends an economic one.
With the Scottish Government has stated that they’re committed to building a well-being economy – which serves and prioritises the collective well-being of current and future generations – it’s fundamental to highlight just how intrinsic music and culture are to achieving that vision.
Culture is our identity; it’s how we see ourselves, how we see our place in the world and how we relate to others. It’s the stories of life in Scotland, and it underpins mental well-being – both collectively and individually – in many different ways. The silences that echoed across 2020 as live music vanished from our lives serve as a firm reminder of this. Unless intervention is made now, we’ll be lucky if there are whispers in the years to come.
We urge the Scottish Government to recognise the desperate situation of a vitally important sector; economically, socially and culturally. It’s essential that Creative Scotland has the resources to both support and preserve it.
Robert Kilpatrick – Interim CEO and Creative Director, Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA)
CAMPAIGN FOR THE ARTS
The Scottish Government is breaking its promise on arts funding.
In February, thousands joined our campaign against plans for a £6.6 million cut to Creative Scotland, the public body responsible for investing in Scottish arts and culture. Ministers responded by abandoning the cut and instead heralded a “£6.6 million uplift … supporting the arts and cultural sector at this challenging time”.
But seven months on, the £6.6 million pledged to Creative Scotland hasn’t been delivered. And now the Culture Secretary Angus Robertson has told them that it won’t be.
This extraordinary short-changing of Scottish culture midway through the year has forced Creative Scotland to raid its limited reserves as a one-off, emergency measure. Otherwise, regularly funded arts organisations in Scotland would have seen their funding cut by as much as 40% as soon as next month.
This is absolutely no way to treat Scotland’s arts and culture, let alone in a perfect storm of economic pressures and post-pandemic challenges. This ‘U-turn on a U-turn’ puts treasured venues and companies, thousands of jobs and access to Scottish culture at risk.
We urge the Culture Secretary Angus Robertson to:
Honour the Scottish Government’s commitment in February to provide “an uplift of £6.6 million for Creative Scotland for 2023-24″.
Scrap any proposal to cut Creative Scotland funding from the 2023-24 Autumn Budget Revision.
Commit to maintaining and increasing investment in arts and culture from 2024-5, for the benefit of everybody in Scotland.
The SNP’s 2021 manifesto said “culture is central to who we are as a nation”, and that “the pandemic has demonstrated more than ever how vital it is to our wellbeing, mental health and sense of belonging”.5
But Scotland’s cultural sector has not fully recovered from the pandemic, during which it was one of the hardest-hit sectors. For many, incomes have fallen and reserves have dried up. Now, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, costs are rising and uncertainty is rife. This is not the time to cut vital, core funding on which artists and organisations depend.
Economic pressures have already led to the permanent closure of the Filmhouse cinemas in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, the Blue Arrow Jazz Club in Glasgow and the Nevis Ensemble, which worked across the country. We cannot afford to lose any more arts organisations – or the benefits they bring to our lives, communities and society
Creative Scotland’s 120 Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs) directly employ 5,000 workers, support 25,500 individual artists and provide millions of opportunities for people across Scotland to engage with the arts and culture.
Of these, Edinburgh-based arts organisations include:
(Organisation – Art form– Average annual grant)
Arika – Multi – £200,000
Arts and Business Scotland – Creative Industries – £200,000
A fund that connects visionary culture organisations with business sponsorship opportunities will open for its seventh round of applications this month.
Managed by the charity Culture & Business Scotland and supported by the Scottish Government, the fund will provide backing of up to £12,000 each to as many creative organisations as possible ranging from grassroots initiatives to established cultural events.
When distributing funds, Culture & Business Scotland also account for an organisation’s ethical and environmental credentials, with a focus on supporting organisations which have implemented Fair Work policies, incorporated carbon neutral plans and embedded equality, diversity, and inclusion into their activities.
Many organisations and businesses have benefited from this fund in the past. A significant beneficiary of the Culture & Business Scotland fund is Edinburgh-based theatre company Vision Mechanics, which used that investment to lever funds from A.T. Best Handlers Ltd in 2019, enabling the creation of Scotland’s largest puppet.
Made from recycled materials, the puppet, known as ‘Storm’, undertook a tour of the country to raise awareness of marine pollution and the urgency of caring for the environment.
The project culminated in the appearance of Storm at Cop26. As well as this, the project addressed community and social empowerment and equalities, diversity and inclusion and also generated significant local cultural tourism benefits.
For the business, it met a number of external facing business needs, such as image enhancement, business and brand awareness, marketing, but also addressed internal business aspirations, including staff relations and development and creative development.
Tommy McCormick, Culture & Business Scotland Fund Manager, said: “Since its launch, the Culture & Business Fund has helped to forge impactful relationships between culture organisations and businesses, with powerful and innovative results.
“We are delighted to reopen the fund for a seventh year, extending opportunities to a wider range of organisations and providing creatives with the resources to bring their artistic visions to life.”
Vision Mechanics, the organisation behind the Storm puppet, added: “We could not have made Storm without this sponsorship. It was a nail-biting budget and this deal made it possible.
“The additional funding from CBFS was essential. If it had not been available, we might have had a telehandler, but perhaps not been able to build the puppet.”
Since its inauguration in 2017, the fund has enabled over 200 projects across Scotland to transform their artistic and creative visions into reality.
Over £1.2 million of funding has been awarded so far to creative projects across the country, from Grampian Art Hospital Trust in the north to Dumfries and Galloway Art Festival in the south.
The fund serves Culture & Business Scotland’s commitment to facilitating meaningful connections between the culture and business sectors, creating the possibility for businesses to sponsor creative projects with vision and scope.
The former Arts & Business Scotland has today announced its rebranding to Culture & Business Scotland, as well as launching its strategy for the next five years.
Since the charity’s demerger from Arts & Business UK over a decade ago, it has significantly extended its reach across both the Scottish business and culture sectors, now encompassing heritage as well as the arts and further developing its offer to businesses.
Uniquely positioned as the only agency in Scotland to act as a conduit between the two sectors, the organisation has now repositioned itself as Culture & Business Scotland, part of its aim to ensure that potential beneficiaries across both the culture and business sectors better recognise the value of its work.
Along with its rebranding, the newly renamed Culture & Business Scotland is setting out its strategic plan. In alignment with its commitment to helping both sectors to thrive, the strategic plan accounts for the challenging economic backdrop the organisation is operating in and focusses on ways to mitigate the effects of this.
The legacy of Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and economic crises continue to present challenges to the cultural sector, compounded by pressures on public funding. Culture & Business Scotland’s strategic plan addresses this by supporting the cultural sector to access new opportunities and models of working, while ensuring that businesses gain an edge over competitors by mobilising the innovation and creativity offered by cultural organisations.
The organisation’s Strategic Plan outlines three key strategic goals:
· A commitment to championing the benefits of cultural experiences, both for individuals and collectively, and advocating for investment in culture based on the value it brings to social, civic and economic life;
· Further cultivating relationships between the cultural and business industries, including expanding membership to the organisation itself, facilitating funding opportunities between the two sectors and delivering and promoting the Culture & Business Marketplace Scotland initiative;
· and offering sector-specific training and development possibilities, as well as collaborating with industry partners to offer insights into compelling industry issues and provide professional expertise on relevant topics such as governance, fundraising and sponsorship.
Collaboration remains key to Culture & Business Scotland’s ethos, and the strategic plan will continue to uphold the organisation’s dedication to forming and building strong connections with other agencies, local authorities, higher education institutes and third-sector interfaces.
David Watt, CEO of Culture & Business Scotland, said: “As an organisation, we have grown and evolved immeasurably over the past decade, and the new naming and repositioning of our identity reflects this.
“Our rebranding to Culture & Business Scotland demonstrates our fundamental commitment to both sectors while ensuring that all potential beneficiaries can recognise the scope of our work and the value it can offer them”.
Jane Morrison-Ross, Chair of Culture & Business Scotland added: “Scotland’s cultural industry faces a challenging set of circumstances, but it also has immense potential.
“By helping to forge connections between the cultural and business sectors, providing genuinely meaningful training and development opportunities for creative and industry professionals and advocating for the value of cultural experiences, we’re supporting the cultural sector to fully harness this potential and strengthening its ability to weather the challenges ahead.
“Our new strategic plan is a manifestation of our values, vision, and mission, and reinforces our resolve to enable mutually beneficial connections and relationships between the cultural and business sectors – a unique commitment amongst Scottish organisations”.
For more information on Culture & Business Scotland please visit:
