Artists are invited to sign a letter composed following the public meeting in Glasgow on Wednesday 10th December 2008. The letter reflects the artists who attended the meeting’s concerns about the formation of Creative Scotland, and will be forwarded to the relevant parties listed.

For more information about the original meeting, click here

• To be included, please sign and return by 20th December 2008*

Invitation to Sign (from Guyan Porter and Leigh French, chairs of the Glasgow meeting)

Creative Scotland has been deemed as a wholly negative proposal that will have a major impact on culture, and on artists based in Scotland

This matter has reached a crisis point and requires urgent attention. If you support the majority of concerns raised in this letter and the request for MSPs to stand against the formation of Creative Scotland, we ask you to electronically sign below. The letter will then be sent to those stated.

Please sign and return by 20th December 2008

To be included as a signatory, send you confirmation to:

arts.futures.scotland@googlemail.com

Please include your full name and email address.

The letter will then be compiled and sent to:
Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Culture and Media
Culture spokespersons of individual Parties in Scotland
Scottish Parliament Members of the Art Advisory Group
Heads of National Parties
Other concerned MSPs
The media [all email addresses will be kept confidential]

Thankyou

For further information, please contact:
Guyan Porter : guyanporter@bulldoghome.com
Leigh French: variantmag@btinternet.com

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Letter

Dear MSP

It is with great concern, that we, the undersigned are contacting you.

No doubt you will be aware that there has been growing apprehension regarding the formation of Creative Scotland, and the effects it will have on artists’ welfare and practice.

The situation regarding Creative Scotland has now reached crisis point.

We believe the following measures to be particularly damaging to the cultural freedoms and ‘entitlements’ originally envisaged by the Culture Commission:

- The lack of meaningful consultation with the arts communities during the transition process, culminating in a refusal to refer to artists within the strategy at all, has exposed the abandonment of freedom of expression as a central issue.

- The expanded remit to support the creative industries, without additional funding being reallocated from Scottish Enterprise, will be at the expense of the public funding of artistic independence.

- The huge costs of setting up a new institution, coupled with over-stretched resources, will inevitably result in a damaging cut in grant aid funding for artists and arts organisations.

- The proposed exploitation of Intellectual Property Rights and the introduction of loans coupled with a cut in grant aid, will all act to reinforce artists’ poverty. The case of Catalonia shows that increasing artists’ debts has been disastrous for all concerned.

We feel strongly that this bureaucratic process has not concerned itself with representing artists’ needs, nor does it address UNESCO declarations on culture and freedom.

We have no confidence in the process of the formation of Creative Scotland, or the confused and inappropriate proposals that have arisen.

We are simply not convinced that the proposals will promote the development of and entitlement to culture in Scotland.

Whilst many of us have been critical of the existing institutions, Creative Scotland does not offer improvement on the current provision managed by the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, and will impact negatively on Scotland’s international reputation.

For these reasons, we urge you to vote against the formation of Creative Scotland and instead refocus on supporting artists.

Signed:

Additional information:

‘The future of the arts in Scotland : Creative Scotland, an artists briefing paper’
here

‘Artists warn of mass exodus if bill is passed : Union urges MSPs to vote down legislation’
By Edd McCracken, Arts Correspondent, Sunday Herald, December 14 2008
here

http://creativescotland.blogspot.com