Nicola Benedetti: Arts funding slips away from the responsibility of government at our peril

The Scottish Government will be failing in its duty to the public if it does not come good on a promise to provide a £100m injection of cash for the arts sector, renowned violinist and Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) director Nicola Benedetti has said.

Last year then first minister Humza Yousaf used his speech to the SNP conference to pledge the additional funds for arms-length agency Creative Scotland by 2028, calling it “a huge vote of confidence” in Scotland’s cultural sector.

It came after the budget for Creative Scotland, which distributes funds to arts organisations on the government’s behalf, was cut by £6.6m in December 2022 only for the sum to be reinstated in February last year and cut again in September.

However, the exact terms of how and when the extra money will be made available have yet to be revealed and, speaking exclusively to Holyrood, Benedetti said it is currently “a very trepidatious time” for the arts.

“It is a responsibility for government, unless you begin to think that arts, culture – and by that I mean all the activities that fall into the general psychological, mental, emotional wellbeing and health of the nation, of society and individuals, everything that falls into that category I would relate to a civic pillar you can call culture – if as a nation we start to believe that that’s not one of the civic pillars that we hold ourselves to we are essentially changing our goal posts and our identity,” she said.

“We’re shifting what post-the Second World War we believed was a society that was increasing in equality and elevating civilisation.

“If we don’t consider it to be that then that’s a major identity shift. If we do consider it to be so then a portion of what’s raised in taxes and spent by the government should be on the fabric of the life we live and what we call culture and art.

“We would allow that to slip away from the responsibility of the government at our peril.”

In its budget for 2024-25 the government said an additional £15.8m – which includes the £6.6m that was cut then reinstated – was being made available for culture and heritage this year as a “first step” towards fulfilling the £100m pledge.

It said that would take the total spend on culture for the year to £196.6m, with the bulk of the increase being allocated to Creative Scotland.

While a further uplift of £25m has been promised for next year, arts industry collective Culture Counts has estimated that up to 55 per cent of the organisations applying for Creative Scotland funding could lose out when the agency makes its long-term funding announcement in October.

Earlier this year Creative Scotland announced that 361 organisations had collectively applied for funding of £96m and that 351 were deemed eligible to move forward to the next stage.

That was whittled down to 281 organisations with a total ask of £87.5m, but Creative Scotland warned that “due to lack of clarity regarding longer-term funding” from the Scottish Government it expects to have just £40m available to distribute.

“As we have emphasised consistently, our budgets remain extremely limited and we anticipate being able to fund only a proportion of the organisations which have applied,” Creative Scotland chief executive Iain Munro said.

In the wide-ranging interview, which appears in the latest issue of Holyrood, Benedetti noted that EIF has a range of different funding streams, including donors, membership and ticket sales, but said the organisation relies on government funding to be able to put on a varied programme that includes offering a proportion of free tickets to the public.

In 2019, 15,000 people attended a free Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra concert conducted by Gustavo Dudamel at Tynecastle Park while in 2022 the festival marked its 75^th birthday by giving away 35,000 free tickets. This year Scottish Ballet will present a mass-dance piece for Healing Arts Scotland outside the Scottish Parliament.

Speaking to Holyrood in December last year EIF executive director Francesca Hegyi cited a study compiled by economists at BOP Consulting that found that for every pound of public money invested in Edinburgh’s festivals a return of £33 is generated to the Scottish economy.

However, she said that by failing to capitalise on the opportunity that presents the government was treating arts and culture as an expendable add-on rather than an asset to be grown.

She warned that the arts industry in Scotland had “about 18 months to figure this out before we lose a global asset that we will never get back”.

“The sector has been ignored for 15 or 16 years on the basis it will take care of itself,” she said.

“I don’t know if there’s a connection [to that being the length of time the SNP has been in government] but one thing that makes me sad is that if you look back over the achievements and investments and really bold things the government has done over those years like free university tuition, free prescriptions, travel, it’s made decisions about what it values for society.

“There hasn’t been that same bold vision for the arts and that makes me sad. If for every pound invested in the festival you get £33 back the return to Scotland would be immense, but it’s still seen as a nice to have and that infantilises what we do.”

Speaking to The Scotsman newspaper last week, Hegyi said the sector faces a “house of cards” collapse unless the Scottish Government delivers on its funding promise within months.

“It’s a good thing that the £100m has been announced, but the government hasn’t started to deliver it yet,” she said.

“Words often don’t translate into action. You can have ambition, but that doesn’t necessarily mean delivery.

“I’d have expected to at least see a delivery plan by now, and to know when the £100m was coming, how it was coming, and how decisions were going to be made on how it was going to be dispersed.

“We need clarity on that £100m. All we have is an aim to increase the overall culture budget by £25m in the next year, but at the moment it is just words.”

Asked about the roll-out of the £100m last month, culture secretary Angus Robertson told parliament that the government remains committed to its promise to increase funding by £15.8m this year and £25m next year.

“Discussions with Creative Scotland and the rest of the sector about additional financial support will continue,” he said.

In an interview in the latest issue of Holyrood Robertson said it is the “international norm” to have a mix of private and public funding for the arts, adding that the government “cannot do everything”.

“I’m keen to look at all workable models of being able to do that,” he said. “We’re right at the start of this.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Ministers have committed to investing at least £100m more annually in the arts and culture by 2028-29, starting with a £15.8m increase this financial year to £196.6m.

“As set out in the December 2023 Budget speech, this is the first step on the route to investing at least £100m more annually in culture and the arts, and ministers aim to provide an additional £25m to the culture sector in 2025-26

“In line with normal budgetary procedure the Scottish Government will publish a draft budget for 2024-25 later this year. This timing is necessary in order to follow the UK Government Autumn Statement, which directly determines what consequentials the Scottish Government will receive for allocation in the next Scottish budget, and any impact inflation may have on the spending power of that funding.”