On 30 October 2014, Creative Scotland announced three years of regular funding of around £100m to 119 organisations.
Bonnar Keenlyside has compared the funding for organisations with that in 2014/15 and by genre or type or organisation. We have further analysed the funding according to geography, using both local authority divisions and additionally in terms of investment per head within Scotland’s 14 Health Boards.
Download the PDF here BK Analysis Creative Scotland Funded Organisations 2015
Analysis of Creative Scotland’s Regular Funding to Organisations 2015- 2018
- Context
Creative Scotland has announced regular funding for three years 2015-2018 of £99,696,859 to 119 organisations.
These organisations can be viewed as the core infrastructure which Creative Scotland will support to deliver its overall policy objectives over the next three years. Inclusion within this portfolio is associated with a recognition of value and significance by Creative Scotland, including in terms of excellence.
The awards need to be seen in the context of other public funding available to the arts and culture in Scotland: Creative Scotland itself will be funding artists, companies and projects through other programmes over the next three years; the Scottish Government’s culture budget (draft) for 2015-16 totals £174.7m; Scottish local authorities can be expected to expend close to £100m; the British Council will fund some arts activity; and UK Lottery funds are available not only through the arts lottery, by Creative Scotland, but also through HLF and the Big Lottery.
The 119 organisations in receipt of Creative Scotland’s regular funding will receive an estimated £33,232,286 in 2015/16, one-third of the three year total.
This represents a significant chunk of Creative Scotland’s overall funding, which comprises both grant-in-aid and ring-fenced funds from the Scottish Government and also funds from the UK Lottery[1]:
| Creative Scotland Summary Budget 2014-15 | |||
| Income | GIA (£) | Lottery (£) | Total (£) |
| Scottish Government Grant In Aid funding | 33,412,000 | 33,412,000 | |
| Scottish Government Restricted Funds | 19,633,000 | 19,633,000 | |
| UK Lottery income | 34,861,000 | 34,861,000 | |
| Funds from project partners | 246,698 | 246,698 | |
| Total committed income | 53,291,698 | 34,861,000 | 88,152,698 |
The funds available to Creative Scotland are part of a total of £150.6m (2014-2015) designated for culture by the Scottish Government[2]:
- Creative Scotland Funded Organisations: Comparison 2014/15 with one-year average 2015/16
Regularly funded organisations comprise a group which is not directly comparable with a single similar group in 2014/15.
There were three groups of funded organisations in 2014/15 according to Creative Scotland’s website:
- 45 Foundation Funded Organisations which received £18,734,703 in the year 2014/15;
- 36 Programme Organisations, receiving £4,634,050 in that year;
- 47 Annual Clients, receiving £ 7,485,540 in the same period[3]
These three sectors total 128 organisations with funding in 2014/15 of £30,854,293 which can be compared with the one year average from 2015/16 of £ 33,232,286 to 119 organisations:
| 2014-15 | |||||
| Foundation Funded Organisation | Programme Organisation | Annual clients/other | Total | Regular Funding Awarded 1 year average | |
| No. of funded organisations | 45 | 36 | 47 | 128 | 119 |
| £’000 | 18,735 | 4,634 | 7,486 | 30,854 | 33,232 |
The full list comparing funded organisations 2014/15 and those announced for 2015/18 is included in Table 1.
The amounts awarded to many of these organisations is only one part of the awards they have received and are receiving in 2014/15. There have been various additional awards made not only through application by organisations to other funds held by Creative Scotland, for example for touring, specific festivals or programmes, or organisational development; but also for specific non-recurrent initiatives introduced by Creative Scotland, for example, for Culture 14. In certain cases, organisations have regularly received a variety of funds which are not reflected in the 2014/15 figures used here but which have been rolled in to the regular funding awards from 2015/16.
This analysis includes all those listed on the Creative Scotland website as funded organisations.[4]
Comparison of sectors
Arts and Business Scotland, Creative Carbon Scotland, The Cultural Enterprise Office, Culture Republic and the Federation of Scottish Theatre have been removed from the regular funding portfolio and transferred to a new group supported through the Targeted Funding route as strategic partner organisations.
The analysis which follows removes these from the comparisons.
Types of organisation
Creative Scotland has categorised the funded organisations according to artform. The largest category is multi-artform which, with 47 organisations, includes a wide range of organisations from DCA to the gaelic festival association Fèisean Nan Gaidheal.
We have re-categorised some of these, where they are primarily associated with only one art-form and further created additional categories:
| CS Category | BK category | |
| Aberdeen Performing Arts | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
| An Lanntair | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
| Ankur Productions | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Company |
| The Arches | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
| Ayr Gaiety Partnership | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
| The Beacon (Greenock Arts Guild) | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
| Bord Na Gaidhlig | Multi Artform | Agency |
| Centre for Contemporary Arts | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
| Comar | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
| Cove Park | Multi Artform | Artists Residency |
| Cryptic | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Company |
| Cumbernauld Theatre | Multi Artform | Theatre |
| Dundee Contemporary Arts | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
| Eden Court | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
| Edinburgh Festival Fringe | Multi Artform | Festival |
| Edinburgh International Festival | Multi Artform | Festival |
| Fèis Rois | Multi Artform | Festival |
| Fèisean Nan Gaidheal | Multi Artform | Festival |
| Gala Scotland Ltd/Glasgay! | Multi Artform | Festival |
| Horsecross Arts | Multi Artform | Festival |
| Imaginate | Multi Artform | Festival |
| Luminate | Multi Artform | Festival |
| MacRobert Arts Centre | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
| North East Arts Touring | Multi Artform | Agency |
| NVA | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Company |
| Platform – Glasgow East Arts | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
| Proiseact nan Ealan – Gaelic Arts Agency | Multi Artform | Agency |
| Shetland Arts Development Agency | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
| Touring Network | Multi Artform | Agency |
| Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland (TRACS) | Multi Artform | Agency |
| Tramway | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
| Traverse Theatre | Multi Artform | Theatre |
| Voluntary Arts Scotland | Multi Artform | Agency |
| Woodend Barn | Multi Artform | Multi Artform Venue |
The number of organisations funded includes increases in the number of crafts, dance, film and theatre organisations and in multi-art form venues, with reductions in the number of literature and music organisations and festivals:
The relative financial value of the awards has increased in all areas, except music.
However, £400,000 of the music awards in 2014/15 was allocated to the Sistema organisation. It could be argued that this should more appropriately be described as a project:
On this basis, the relative changes to the financial value of the awards are:
| Category | % change |
| crafts | +46% |
| dance | +40% |
| film | +100% |
| literature/publishing | +20% |
| music | +4% |
| theatre | +4% |
| visual arts | +4% |
| multi-arts companies | -13% |
| multi-arts festivals | +4% |
| multi-arts venues and arts centres | +20% |
| multi-arts agencies/other | +100% |
Geography
Creative Scotland categorises the awards according to the local authority in which the organisation is based.
The number of organisations is highly clustered in Glasgow and Edinburgh, followed by Highland:
A number of local authorities do not contain any of the 119 organisations:
Clackmannanshire, East Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, Falkirk, Midlothian, Moray, North Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders Council, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire.
The value of the awards by local authority is more heavily weighted towards Edinburgh, then Glasgow with Dundee in third place. Edinburgh and Glasgow both include a number of national agencies and organisations which have headquarters in the cities and which operate nationally, for example Voluntary Arts Scotland and Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland and these are included within these figures.
We have further analysed the awards by locating the organisations within one of Scotland’s 14 local health board areas. These areas represent a means of providing public services for clusters of local authority populations:
This illustrates that the Islands attract the highest investment per head, followed by Lothian, then the Highlands, then Tayside and Greater Glasgow at similar levels. Tayside attacts £8.55 as opposed to £2.15 in Grampian.
Some of the organisations in the portfolio are organisations which primarily operate across Scotland as opposed to being primarily sited in one place. We have identified a number of these and removed them from the comparison. This has the effect of reducing the investment per head in Lothian, Glasgow and Highland (and on this basis, would place Tayside above Greater Glasgow in the spend per head tables):
| CS awards to funded organisations, expressed as investment per head | ||||
| all funded organisations | organisations primarily place based | |||
| Health Board Area | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 |
| Greater Glasgow and Clyde | £7.09 | £8.82 | £4.95 | £6.41 |
| Highland | £6.90 | £9.20 | £6.08 | £8.06 |
| Lothian | £14.69 | £16.05 | £10.56 | £10.51 |
Even when using the larger health board areas, there are some parts of Scotland where Creative Scotland’s funded organisations are scarce and, most notably in the Scottish Borders, which has attracted no awards to funded organisations this year or last, while Ayrshire and Arran, Fife and Lanarkshire are relatively low.
By the same token, the Islands, Highland and Tayside have attracted relatively high amounts.
There are a number of factors which contribute to this: a place’s tradition of engagement in the arts and culture and in encouraging arts organisations; where artists have found support; where local authorities and civic leaders have weighed in – and some great applications. Equally, there might be a dearth of compelling applications from artistic organisations in those areas which have not attracted support.
In making this historic three year commitment to a national portfolio, Creative Scotland now has the opportunity to look at gaps and to work with the members of its portfolio, its funding streams and its partners including the Scottish Government, national performing companies and local authorities to support artistic and cultural activity where there is little.
TABLE 1
[1] http://www.creativescotland.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/26696/Creative-Scotland-Annual-Plan-2014-15-Printable-v1-2.pdf
[2] http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0046/00462284.pdf
[3] 46 annual clients are listed on CS website; a 47th, Youth Theatre Arts Scotland has been added to this list to reflect CS reference as in receipt of regular funding of £105,000 in 2014
[4] Youth Theatre Arts Scotland is not included in the lists of funded organisations for 14/15. It is named as a recipient of regular funding 14/15 in the comparative tables produced by Creative Scotland http://www.creativescotland.com/funding/latest-information/funded-organisations/regularly-funded-organisations-2015-18/the-portfolio
and has therefore been included here in the ‘other’ category.
