EU Flag

Photo: MPD01605 via Visualhunt / CC BY-SA

News

Creative Scotland warns Brexit may limit RFO funding

Deputy Chief Executive Iain Munro has said that new arts funding models will have to be considered in these unprecedented times.

Christy Romer
2 min read

Creative Scotland has warned that the number of Regularly Funded Organisations (RFO) it is able to support may be cut following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.

“Pressure on Scottish Government budgets is expected to continue in the coming years,” Deputy Chief Executive Iain Munro wrote in a statement on Creative Scotland’s website. “We can expect this to impact on the amount of funding we have available for Regular Funding in future and consequently the number of organisations we are able to support through this funding route.”

Munro described these as “unprecedented times” and said “new models will undoubtedly have to be considered to protect Scotland’s artistic lifeblood”.

He added that although Creative Scotland is still planning to open applications for its 2018-21 RFO programme in the autumn, the need for continued discussions with the Scottish Government could require it “to be flexible in terms of the timing”.

Creative Scotland is currently reviewing the criteria and guidelines for applications for its RFO programme. Munro said these would be set against its ten-year plan, industry strategies and new priorities for 2017-21, which are due to be published in the autumn.

Government budgets

The Scottish Government will not set its budget for 2017/18, the final year of Creative Scotland’s current RFO portfolio, until later this year.

Munro said: “As soon as we have received confirmation from the Scottish Government on how future budget announcements will be made, we will be able to offer clarity on the impact to both the final year of the current RFO portfolio (2017-18), and separately how we will manage the application process for funding beyond 2018.”

2016/17 saw a 3.6% cut to the funding body’s Grant in Aid budget, which it avoided passing on to its funded organisations thanks to “careful budgeting” and “efficiency savings”.

Correction 25.07.16: A previous version of this article suggested that Scottish Ballet and the National Theatre of Scotland are funded by Creative Scotland, whereas they are directly funded by the Scottish Government.