Scotland (Scots: Scotland; Scottish Gaelic: Alba) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom’s land area. The population of Scotland at the 2022 Census was 5,436,600 and makes up about 8% of the population of the United Kingdom. The devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament and Executive (the Scottish Government) particularly through the Scotland Act 1998, has given Scotland significant autonomy in shaping its cultural policies. The Scottish Parliament has control over areas such as arts and culture, education, and heritage, allowing for the development of policies that are reflective of Scotland’s unique identity. Broadcasting is not included in the devolution.
The Scottish Government has a specific focus on promoting and preserving the Gaelic language and culture. Initiatives include Gaelic language education, support for Gaelic media, and efforts to integrate Gaelic into various aspects of public life. There are 4 official languages in Scotland: English, Scots, Scottish Gaelic and BSL.
Scotland House Brussels (SHB) is a key part of Scotland’s international network. It is the centre of Scotland’s engagement with the EU and a conveyer of relationships between Scottish, European and international partners. The Delegation of Flanders in the United Kingdom and Ireland is covering Scotland for the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Flanders. Flanders is a priority area for Scotland: in 2023 an MOU was signed between Flanders and Scotland covering cultural matters.
Cultural policy in Scotland is shaped by a combination of national and devolved government initiatives. The Scottish Government plays a key role in supporting and promoting culture through various policies and funding mechanisms such as Creative Scotland.
At the national level Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland. It was established in 2010 as a result of merging the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen. Creative Scotland provides funding and resources to artists and organisations working in various creative fields, including visual arts, literature, performing arts, and film. Creative Scotland distributes funding it gets from the Scottish Government and The National Lottery.
In 2021 Creative Scotland established a refreshed Strategic Framework. This Framework was setting out broader aims as well as priorities for supporting recovery and renewal of the arts, screen and creative industries across Scotland, the priorities being:
How this is put into action is outlined in the Annual Plan 2023-24. Grant-in-Aid budget remained after a reversed reduction at the same level of 2022/23, but in real terms this is a reduction of over 20% in the current climate. Additional funding of the National Lottery is taken up by the sector and is of vital support to the sector across Scotland. A new approach to supporting organisations through Multi-Year Funding was developed in 2023.
Kunstenpunt-Flanders Arts Institute connected with the following staff in Scotland in relation to our BAR project: (Emails: name.surname@creativescotland.com)
Europe remains a key priority for Scotland. Pre-Brexit funding for touring and international collaboration was often accessed via international collaboration in the Creative Europe framework in addition to existing Creative Scotland funds for international exchange. There is a strong collaboration with the other arts councils in the UK through its collaboration in the Arts Infopoint UK and the Four nations Fund. The Cultural Bridge partnership programme is an example of the promotion of cross-border collaboration between Germany and the UK focusing on participatory arts based methodologies.
Due to the impact of Covid19, inequalities, BlackLiveMatters, climate change, cost of living crisis and Brexit as well as a different approach to funding, the landscape of the arts sector changed in Scotland.
Prior to Brexit there were a lot of exchanges between arts professionals in Scotland and the EU supported by the Creative Europe programme and Creative Scotland. In some Creative Europe programmes companies from Scotland such Imaginate were collaborating with Flemish companies e.g. in the PUSH programme, a 2-year Creative Europe cooperation 2016-2018.
The British Council and Creative Scotland released in 2022 an interesting research report on the perceptions about Scotland’s arts and cultural assets. It gives good insight into different aspects of the creative sector from an inside and outside perspective.
Here are some reflections stated in the report:
As part of the BAR project, a mapping of contacts in Scotland was done by Kunstenpunt-Flanders Arts Institute. Online meetings were held with Creative Scotland to better understand the arts sector in Scotland. End of May 2023 a Kunstenpunt-Flanders Arts Institute delegation visited Scotland to meet with key players in the sector, with a special focus on understanding themes of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Sustainability. Here below are reports from those meetings, organised according to disciplines.
If you have any questions or seek more information please don’t hesitate to reach out to our colleague Lissa Kinnaer.
In 2023, Flanders Arts Institute has been undertaking research to explore the (negative) impact of Brexit on the cultural sector in Flanders. We identified struggles and exchanged insights around inclusion and multi-voicedness.
