Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Belmont cinema’s former boss sounds alarm at new culture funding cuts

The SNP is under fire for a U-turn as Scotland's leading arts body sees £6.6 million slashed

Colin Farquhar criticised the Creative Scotland funding cuts. Image: Kenny Elrick/DC Thomson.
Colin Farquhar criticised the Creative Scotland funding cuts. Image: Kenny Elrick/DC Thomson.

A huge £6.6 million cut set to hit Scotland’s leading arts body will greatly hurt in the sector in the long-term, a former Aberdeen cinema boss has warned.

SNP ministers were criticised for a U-turn, months after they initially rowed back on plans to slash support for arts agency Creative Scotland.

Colin Farquhar, who used to run Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen, said the bombshell decision was “galling” for creative workers constantly under pressure.

The ex-movie theatre boss was in charge at the Belmont when the cinema’s parent company went into administration last year and 20 staff were made redundant.

At the time, Mr Farquhar signalled alarm bells over the scale of the emergency facing arts venues across Scotland.

The Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen was recently given a lifeline. Image: DC Thomson.

The closure of Belmont Cinema – which has since been given a lifeline – sparked widespread local anger and major fears for the future of popular cultural hotspots.

Following the latest cuts, Mr Farquhar told us: “The direction of traffic just seems to be in one way at the moment. It’s hard.

“We were told earlier in the year this cut was going to be reversed. It’s difficult to read.”

Mr Farquhar warned arts groups will suffer as creative workers go elsewhere due to uncertainty and poor pay.

‘People want stability’

He said: “Arts organisations are struggling to keep up with pay increases in other sectors.

“People will leave, they’ll go and do other work. Organisations will find themselves vulnerable.

“People want stability from their job. They’re not going to come and work in a sector if the funding is only going in one direction.”

Creative Scotland will be able to stave off immediate cuts by dipping into reserves from National Lottery funding.

But Mr Farquhar warned this will not be a long-term solution for the arts body, which funds hundreds of creative projects north of the border.

He said: “That just parks the problem further down the road.”

Speaking at a Holyrood committee on Thursday, Creative Scotland director Iain Munro claimed the cuts were even worse than they might appear at first.

‘Tipping point’

He warned that without this vital £6.6 million down the road, up to 20% of funding for arts schemes over a whole year would potentially need to be slashed.

Mr Munro said: “That is enormous in terms of the fragility that already exists in the sector and would in effect act as a tipping point in terms of the risks to organisational closures.”

It’s feared up to 900 jobs could be lost and 12,000 artists would risk being impacted by the massive cuts.

Recently, Creative Scotland said one in three arts bodies are at risk of insolvency.

SNP culture chief Angus Robertson. Image: Wullie Marr/DC Thomson.

The Scottish Government argus the £6.6 million reduction is not a direct cut, claiming money has been dished out to compensate for shortfalls in National Lottery funding.

SNP culture chief Angus Robertson said: “Over the past five years, the Scottish Government has provided £33 million to Creative Scotland.

“As a result of rising costs and pressure on budgets across government, we are unable to provide funding to support the lottery shortfall this year.

“However, I expect this funding will be able to be provided as part of next year’s budget, subject to the usual parliamentary process.”

Conversation