In spite of the £1.57 billion arts bailout from the UK government, leading figures in Scotland have warned that the sum is not enough to save the Scottish culture scene from “devastation”.
First minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has praised the “significant” financial package announced by the chancellor on Sunday evening. As a result of the Barnett formula, Scotland stands to gain £97 million to be used for the arts. This sum, coupled with the £10 million previously pledged by Holyrood, will be used to aid the arts sector who have been heavily impacted by the pandemic.
Playwright and theatre director, David Greig, welcomed the “very significant intervention”, but continued that the “economic catastrophe facing culture was so enormous that £1.5 billion doesn’t come close to what the losses are”.
Greig, who is currently the artistic director at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre criticised the timing of the announcement, saying that it had been made “very close to the wire”.
“The last few months has been awful for people who work in theatre, whether that was people facing redundancy, or freelancers who have lost income,” he noted, “This money will not save all the jobs in our sector. That’s not possible given the scale of the devastation, but it is a positive and, as an industry, we haven’t had positive news for a while.”
Sturgeon has promised to consult the arts sector regarding the distribution of the funds, stating that: “Arts and culture and heritage is important in every part of our country and it’s important that this funding supports arts and culture in every part of our country.”
