What Scotland's political parties have planned for arts and culture
The parties’ manifestos differ dramatically in their focus on culture
The degree of focus on arts and culture varies widely between the manifestos of the different political parties.
While Scottish Labour, the SNP, Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Conservatives have put forward initiatives ranging from a universal basic income for artists, to plans for reforming arts quangos - and the Scottish Greens have submitted an 18-point plan to boost the sector - Reform Scotland’s 17-page document does not mention the words “arts” or “culture” at all.
Here, we take a look at the major cultural reforms and proposals being put forward.
Minimum income for artists
The SNP has vowed to pilot a minimum income for artists, following a similar scheme introduced in Ireland earlier this year. The Scottish Artists Minimum Income would give “targeted support” to an unspecified number of artists to allow them to develop their craft and “contribute to Scotland’s cultural life”.
Similarly, Scottish Labour has said it would spend £30m on giving Scottish artists and musicians a living wage. The “creative entrepreneur’s allowance” would support up to 1,000 creatives and artists who have a commercial business plan with their living costs as they establish their enterprise.
The Scottish Greens, however, stayed short of a minimum income, but said they would improve pay and conditions for arts and cultural workers, by adding greater conditionality on public funding to ensure all workers receive the Real Living Wage.
To merge or not to merge? The future of Scotland’s cultural quangos
Under the SNP’s plans, and also supported by the Scottish Greens, Screen Scotland would be established as a distinct organisation to Creative Scotland to support Scotland’s screen sector, funded directly by the government.
The new spun-out body would lead the creation of a dedicated film and TV school at a Scottish university. The move follows on from the introduction of screen studies into the Scottish curriculum, an initiative which was unveiled last year.
The Scottish Conservatives have, however, raised the possibility of amalgamating various non-specific cultural quangos in a bid to cut costs as part of a culture act - as detailed below.
Scottish Labour has not detailed how it would change the current quango structure, but it has pledged to reform Creative Scotland. It said it wanted to improve transparency and accountability to ensure the body, which was the subject of a government review last year, known as the Leitch Review, is “representative and responsive to people from all backgrounds”.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Liberal Democrats, who want to streamline funding applications to Creative Scotland, said they also want to take forward the recommendations of the Leitch Review.
New National Performing Company for traditional music
The SNP has suggested the creation of a national performing company for traditional music. The company would sit alongside the six existing national performing companies, which include Scottish Ballet, the National Theatre of Scotland, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Scottish Opera.
The national companies are funded directly by the government, outwith the funding scheme administered by Creative Scotland which allows all other arts venues and organisations to apply for support.
Culture act and capital projects
The SNP, Scottish Greens and Scottish Conservatives have all included a Culture Act for Scotland in their manifestos.
Arts network Culture Counts, which is backing calls for a culture act, has said such a move would establish the framework Scotland needs to facilitate cross-portfolio collaboration, bringing the public sector, communities, arts and culture organisations and health care professionals together.
However, while campaigners have focused on the benefits a culture act could bring in terms of widening access to culture in society, some parties have interpreted it differently.
The Scottish Conservatives’ pledge focuses on how an act would guarantee multi-year funding for cultural organisations.
The party’s manifesto said this would enshrine the principle of multi-year funding into law, but would also take the legislative steps necessary to merge some of Scotland’s culture quangos in order to reduce the costs of running them.
It also said it would support access to arts and cultural endeavours for everyone, by targeting public funds towards projects that have “broad popular appeal”.
Malcolm Offord, leader of Reform in Scotland, has said outright that he would not support the creation of a culture act, while councillor Euan Davidson , spokesperson for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said at a culture hustings early in the campaign that he believed there were “multiple things we can do to embed [culture] without going down a legislation route”.
Scottish Labour has championed the idea of designating a creative capital fund, to deliver financial support to upgrade and protect venues across the country. The Scottish Lib Dems want to create a Games Innovation Centre to boost the gaming industry.
Culture pass
The SNP has pledged to create a youth culture pass as part of plans to ensure the sector goes “from strength to strength”.
First Minister John Swinney is to set out plans to hand everyone in Scotland a culture pass worth £200 when they turn 18, which can be spent on tickets for theatre or musical performances, or in bookshops.
He said the scheme would “learn from the experience of other European countries like Italy, France and Spain”.
Major events
Scottish Labour unveiled plans to establish a “Major Events Bureau”, which it said would strengthen the Edinburgh festivals, support the expansion of the Scottish Events Campus, and position Scotland as leading destination for world‑class sport, culture, and international conferences.
Meanwhile, the SNP said it would create a “Festival of Scotland” programme, providing more Scottish artists across the country “greater opportunities” by being showcased at the biggest arts festivals in the world. Although the festivals are not named, it is likely to be referring to events such as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
For the Scottish Greens, the focus is the introduction of a stadium tax, which would put a £1 levy on tickets for all arts, cultural and music events over 2,500 capacity.
Free access
The Scottish Greens have said they want to maintain existing free access to national museums and galleries, as have the Lib Dems - however for the Greens, it would come with the condition that all recipients should commit to research, interpret, and share the histories of Scotland’s links to empire, colonialism, and historic slavery. It also wants to review all publicly owned artefacts to support the “restitution and repatriation” of looted or unethically acquired items.
Broadcasting reform
The Scottish Greens want to support Scottish Broadcasting to deliver a more decentralised BBC in the current charter renewal process, and work with Ofcom to end the erosion of Scottish and local news., while the Lib Dems say they want to stand up for the BBC, BBC Alba and Channel 4 as independent, publicly owned, public service broadcasters, backing Liberal Democrat proposals for a permanent BBC charter ratified by the four nations.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.