The Scottish Government’s draft budget for 2016/17, announced on Wednesday, has delivered a 3.6% cut to arts funding body Creative Scotland’s Grant in Aid budget for the same period. Taking in other reductions to arts and culture funding also announced, nearly £20m has been shaved off the country’s culture budget.
The cut to Creative Scotland’s budget means that funding from the Scottish Government for 2016/17 stands at just over £32m. Creative Scotland also receives significant funding from the UK National Lottery (£34m in 2014/15).
A statement from Creative Scotland said: “While we made a strong case for something more positive, we appreciate that the Scottish Government had difficult choices to make.
“Creative Scotland will now look closely at how we apply our reduced budget for 2016/17, both in terms of our own operations and the Grant in Aid funding that we disburse, much of which is used to support Regularly Funded Organisations across Scotland.
“Our Board will be meeting next week to agree our approach and further communications will be issued as appropriate after that.”
The draft budget also saw cuts to Scotland’s cultural collections, which includes National Galleries of Scotland, National Museums Scotland and National Library of Scotland. Funding has been reduced by £7.3m, down to £78.6m.
There are also cuts of nearly £5m to Scotland’s five national performing companies: National Theatre of Scotland, Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, the Royal National Orchestra, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
