Scottish arts leaders urge earlier funding decisions

Scotland's First Minister John Swinney has been warned not to leave decisions over allocating culture funding until December, as planned, because of the knock-on effect this will have on the nation's arts funding body, Creative Scotland.

Creative Scotland is due to determine which organisations it will invest in for its next three-year funding cycle in October. But Holyrood has said it will not issue cultural budgets until December. 

Last year Holyrood committed an additional £100 million in new funding for the cultural sector, which Swinney repledged again last week, however no details on how it will be distributed have been released.  

Speaking to The Scotsman, arts leaders describe the funding environment as “extremely precarious,” leading to potentially “devastating” decisions due in October unless the additional funding is “brought forward at both the levels and pace that are needed”.