Scotland's culture crisis has escalated after Creative Scotland closed down its multi-million pound fund to artists. Image credit: Shutterstock.
The MU is gravely concerned about the news this week that Creative Scotland has taken the decision to close the Open Fund for Individuals and subsequently delay opening the YMI Access to Music and Strengthening Youth Music funds.
This is due to Creative Scotland not having received the Grant-In-Aid funding from the Scottish Government as part of a wider spending freeze.
Stop the cuts – tax wealth instead, rally called outside Holyrood
We are encouraging members to join MU Regional Officer Louise Stanners Pow, along with Equity, in a rally outside of the Scottish Parliament at 12.30 pm on Thursday 5 September to protest the Scottish Government's funding cuts.
- When: 12.30 pm, Thursday 5 September
- Where: Outside the Scottish Parliament, Holyrood
- What: Speeches, banners, chants – let’s make them hear us loud and clear!
Find out more and confirm your attendance.
Additionally if anyone finds themselves directly affected by the cuts, or is speaking to other musicians who are, these will be helpful examples to collate and for us to have (anonymously) for advocacy purposes, so please do speak to your fellow musicians about this and if they are happy to feed this information back to us.
Scotland's music industry is under extreme pressure
These decisions will have a significant and far-reaching impact on the sector, for those whose livelihoods depend on the successful delivery of projects funded by these programmes, as well as the young people who will be deprived of the opportunity to engage in learning music.
As we are all too aware, working musicians along with other creative freelancers have found themselves navigating some of the most challenging conditions the industry has ever seen - simply to be able to do their job and earn a living.
In recent years, the global pandemic, Brexit and the current cost of living and arts funding crises have had a profoundly corrosive impact on musicians’ ability to create and deliver projects and to earn a living from this work.
It is also important to remember the pre-existing precarity of this work which tends to be sporadic, project-to-project and is, for many, low-paid.
The decision comes after years of chronic underfunding
However, even with all of these challenges, Scotland’s music industry has always punched above its weight in terms of vibrancy and output. The significant contribution that the creative industries make to the economy in general is extremely well documented.
Despite this, this essential workforce is continually left high and dry through years of chronic underfunding, and continuing uncertainty around funds cut, reinstated then not delivered; or with promises of ‘jam tomorrow’ with no provision of detail which sets out how and where this will be delivered.
Years of standstill funding and underinvestment has meant that the creative industries, organisations, and individuals who practise within it desperately need stability now more than ever.
Many organisations are on the brink of collapse
Many organisations are on the brink of collapse and many working musicians are considering whether they can afford to continue to work in the industry – many more will be asking that question following the devastating news this week.
The Scottish Government has committed to become a Fair Work Nation by 2025.
However, it is clear to us that these latest developments will contribute to and exacerbate the existing lack of security of work and income, as well as the lack of opportunities for vast numbers of people across the sector.
These developments stifle the ability of young people to engage in music
Of further concern is the wider ripple effect of these developments. The closure of the Open Fund will further impact creative freelancers and will have ramifications across the sector from record labels to festivals.
The Access to Music Making fund is aimed at reaching children and young people who face barriers.
We hear much from the Scottish Government about prioritising dealing with the unacceptable levels of child poverty and closing the poverty related attainment gap, and yet these developments fly in the face of this position and stifle the ability of young people to engage in music.
Long-term consequences for the health of Scotland’s cultural sector
“There is no other funding mechanism in Scotland that offers this kind of direct support to individual musicians”, says Yvonne Wyroslawska, Chair of the MU Education Section Committee.
“If [the Open Fund for Individuals] is not reinstated, we will see a marked decline in the richness and diversity of our cultural output, with long-term consequences for Scotland's cultural and economic well-being.”
We have written to the relevant Scottish ministers to request a full explanation as to why we have come to this point so abruptly, and to seek an explanation as to how the Scottish Government and Creative Scotland plan to mitigate the damage caused.