Statements from the Minister for Culture, External Affairs & the Constitution
Mike Russell and the chair of Creative Scotland 2009 Ltd Ewan Brown at The
Future for Arts and Cultural Policy: A Creative Scotland? Conference can be
downloaded from the Scottish Government website at the link below.

The SAU is troubled by the some of the Minister's new figures of speech,
particularly his dismissal of the "dichotomy" between art and creative industry,
preferring to place them on a "spectrum or continuum". This directly
contradicts the information we had received from his predecessor's office
concerning their categorisation of Creative Scotland's inherited (direct support
of art) and new (advocacy for creative industry) work as discrete streams. We
are also disappointed to learn that no further framework document is
forth-coming, despite assurances we received in February from the Minister's
chief civil servant that having published a document on the new work, a second
looking at the approach to the inherited work would follow.

We are also worried about his foreshadowing on the economic crisis and
Westminster budget cuts. Undoubtedly the Scottish Government faces a challenge
in the coming years. However we have been assured all along that Creative
Scotland as an exercise will save money and is therefore in keeping with any
drive for efficiency, even austerity. To place so much emphasis on the limits
of government spending at this early stage while simultaneously promising no
cuts in direct support to artists suggests that Creative Scotland as an
organisation will have to very aggressively pursue alternative income streams.
We'd like to know if this is the case, and if so what effect this is likely to
have on the priorities and decision-making processes of the Creative Scotland
2009 Ltd board.

That the fifth and final appointment to the management board of Creative
Scotland 2009 Ltd, the company charged with bringing Creative Scotland into
being, has yet to be announced is also disappointing. Since his appointment the
Minister has stressed the importance of artists at the centre of
decision-making. We sincerely hope the last face to join the table will be that
of an arts practitioner, otherwise a great opportunity to assure the sector of
his determination will have been lost.

We found the comments of Ewan Brown, chair of Creative Scotland 2009 Ltd,
nothing short of alarming. He describes Creative Scotland NOT being in its
final form when his company concludes its work. That's incredible, considering
his is the third transition body to be given the task since the new agency was
first proposed in 2006. All his entreaties for the sector to "pull together" to
help the Public Services Reform Bill through the parliamentary process betray,
in our opinion, a severe lack of confidence on the part of those in charge of
the legislation that must pass in order to make Creative Scotland a reality.

We have letters from members of the parliamentary committees for Finance and
Education, Lifelong Learning & Culture stating that there are concerns within
both that the Public Services Reform Bill will not be properly scrutinised in
the time between its "late May" introduction and the end of this year. Mike
Russell's shadow ministers are sceptical an act will be passed in time to allow
the "seamless transition" Ewan Brown talks about, especially in the current,
fractious parliament. We ask the Scottish Government: If Creative Scotland 2009
Ltd dissolves in March 2010 (as we are told it must) but there has been no
dissolution of the Scottish Arts Council's Royal Charter and no Public Services
Reform Act enabled (either because the bill is still being examined or has been
defeated), what then? Will there be any goodwill left for yet another
transition body? The Minister's framing metaphor in his talk was "endgame", but
that is double-edged; if the bill fails, Creative Scotland is surely finished
and reform of the Scottish cultural sector will be rendered impossible in this
generation.

That is why, following the publication of the Public Services Reform Bill, ALL
parts of the arts sector must be heard by the Scottish Government and the
Creative Scotland 2009 Ltd board. The promised quarterly meetings are a good
start, but only if they are truly open and inclusive. The Future for Arts and
Cultural Policy: A Creative Scotland? conference, with its exorbitant ticket
fees, excluded individual practitioners, the very workers who should have been
front and centre, questioning those on stage. Despite his feeling of having
"met everybody", there were at least two organisations represented at the event
(Voluntary Arts Scotland and the SAU) who have not yet spoken with the Minister.
His and Ewan Brown's communications with the Cultural Alliance are to be
encouraged, but that alliance does not (and has never claimed to) speak for the
whole sector. The Public Services Reform Bill will, we trust, describe the
founding structure of Creative Scotland. But for a constructive dialogue, the
Minister and the chair will need to provide the sector with detailed information
on funding levels and clarity on how the four big policy strands so often
identified by the minister (artists at the centre, access, inclusion,
internationalism) translate into strategy. If not, the SAU fear their calls for
support will fall on deaf ears.

Watch videos of the statements or download them as podcasts at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/ArtsCultureSport