Dr Jeremy Valentine examines why Creative Scotland will never be able to please everyone.
Since its establishment Creative Scotland has been subject to a stream of criticism and attack from many different directions. And it wasn’t just the stooshie that surrounded the appointment of its first CEO, Andrew Dixon, or the new funding mechanisms that were introduced which caused upset among the close-knit community of cultural producers and critics. Along with other similar organisations that form and implement cultural policy for national governments, Creative Scotland will always find itself in a no-win situation.
Its clients, from established heritage institutions to bootstrap performance spaces, are diverse, fractious and reluctant to agree on anything, especially what culture actually is. Its main funders, the citizen taxpayer and National Lottery gambler, suffer its existence and very few of them are interested in what Creative Scotland actually does. Although it’s not a particular vote winner or loser, government exercises its rule by insisting that culture is subordinate to the demands of economy and society, which are usually understood as problems for culture to fix. In budget allocation competitions within government, culture will always come off worst against things like health, schools, roads, energy and poverty... Keeping reading on The Scotsman
Since its establishment Creative Scotland has been subject to a stream of criticism and attack from many different directions. And it wasn’t just the stooshie that surrounded the appointment of its first CEO, Andrew Dixon, or the new funding mechanisms that were introduced which caused upset among the close-knit community of cultural producers and critics. Along with other similar organisations that form and implement cultural policy for national governments, Creative Scotland will always find itself in a no-win situation.
Its clients, from established heritage institutions to bootstrap performance spaces, are diverse, fractious and reluctant to agree on anything, especially what culture actually is. Its main funders, the citizen taxpayer and National Lottery gambler, suffer its existence and very few of them are interested in what Creative Scotland actually does. Although it’s not a particular vote winner or loser, government exercises its rule by insisting that culture is subordinate to the demands of economy and society, which are usually understood as problems for culture to fix. In budget allocation competitions within government, culture will always come off worst against things like health, schools, roads, energy and poverty... Keeping reading on The Scotsman