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 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.
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