Motion 17
The Arts Need Stability and Transparency
“That this Congress notes after years of campaigning, the Musicians’ Union, welcomed the increase of funding for the arts by the Scottish Government in its November Budget. This positive development theoretically could remedy a lot of the ailments that the culture sector within Scotland has been suffering, particularly after the pandemic. Despite this good news, there are reasons to be cautious. There are concerns within the culture sector that the relationship between the Scottish Government and Creative Scotland has been damaged amongst accusations of brinkmanship when a number of Creative Scotland funds were closed or cancelled. This was hugely damaging as large swathes of the sector and ongoing work ultimately shut down. This affected livelihoods, security of income and stalled opportunities.
“Now the Scottish Government has shown it can, and wants to, fund the arts we need to push onto the next stage which is to fight for stability and clarity within the culture sector. Without clear and transparent mechanisms in place, there will be continued uncertainty within a sector that is already hugely precarious and the sector will risk losing a highly skilled workforce which contributes significantly to the Scottish economy as well as cultural identity.
“Congress calls on the STUC General Council to:
- campaign to hold the Scottish Government, and future Scottish Governments, accountable and keep the promise to invest in the arts in Scotland;
- work with the Creative Unions to ensure that Fair Work principles are established as robustly as possible within the culture sector, including establishing mechanisms to hold employers and engagers of freelances to account;
- support Culture Unions to make sure the internal review of Creative Scotland actually makes funding for the arts more transparent and democratic; and
- campaign for the Scottish Government to improve the spending for National Companies.”
Mover: Musicians’ Union
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