A Culture Strategy for Scotland

There are very real challenges around defining culture, and rather than over-focus energies on definitions, we agree it is more important for this strategy that the vision is broad and inclusive, to reach beyond existing cultural divisions. There is a strong alignment with the aims and values of the Edinburgh Festivals around introducing audiences to new ideas from creatives across Scotland and around the world across a wide range of art forms, together with other areas of culture including politics, philosophy, science and technology. We are also pleased that openness to the wider world is central to the vision, as a critical success factor for Scotland as a small nation and its people to thrive.

TRANSFORMING THROUGH CULTURE

Aim 1: Place culture as a central consideration across all policy areas

• Action 1: Develop a new cultural leadership post within Scottish Government, supported by strategic thinkers from across the culture sectors and beyond. The role will support creative and innovative thinking and highlight the benefits of a more connected and multi-disciplinary approach across all areas of Government and its major stakeholders to consider the big societal issues faced in Scotland today and in the future.

Aim 1/Action 1: For a cultural leadership post within Scottish Government to make a lasting impact, it will be important for there to be cross-government engagement to achieve the transformation to culture being a central consideration all across policy areas. We think it is imperative that the post is filled by a leader with first-hand culture sector expertise as well as experience of cross-sector working; and that the role is accompanied by the adoption of internal measures to mainstream thinking across all departments about what the added value contribution of culture could be to help achieve their policy goals. In championing a more connected and multi-disciplinary approach, this drive could also encourage a greater engagement from national policymakers and public bodies with the insights that creative and cultural professionals can provide.

Aim 2: Open up the potential of culture as a transformative opportunity across society

• Action 2: Develop a national partnership for culture that includes working with academic partners to develop new approaches to measuring an extended view of culture and better articulate the benefits of culture to society

Aim 2/Action 2: We think that a more in-depth and long-term approach to understanding the benefits of culture is crucial. In order to embed learning and innovate, it is as important to develop robust logic models and other means of exploring how culture creates positive impacts - such as theories of change - as it is to develop quantitative measures. There is a wide base of publicly shared data and research available to the culture sector in other UK countries and at EU level, and looking at this could help a national partnership to prioritise what additional Scotland-level data would be most useful to developing culture sector provision. Increased collaboration with academics is very welcome but there are challenges due to different drivers and funders’ objectives that will need to be overcome. If this is a national strategic research priority, the Scottish Funding Council should be part of the partnership looking at how resources can be aligned to stimulate a long-term evidence programme around the research questions that are most relevant.

Aim 3: Position culture as central to progress in health and well-being, economy, education, reducing inequality and realising a greener and more innovative future

• Action 3: Develop alliances that support social change through culture and promote leadership and joined up working across the culture sector, other sectors, local and national government and communities.

Aim 3/Action 3: Undoubtedly joined-up working across sectors in a wide range of areas has the potential to enhance social change through culture. However, it must be recognised that to achieve sustained additional benefits there are overheads as well as efficiencies to collaborative working. For cross-sector collaborations to make a real difference, support should therefore be focused, targeted and resourced, and we would like to see more in the strategy about how this aim would be implemented. It will be critical to support an improved understanding across sectors of what sustainable financing models for collaborative working could look like. Targeting a selected number of collaborative projects for support could then deepen the understanding between sectors around specific opportunities and then create a framework to share the knowledge of cross-sectoral drivers and develop wider networks.

Other Comments: Collectively and individually, we are committed to reducing our environmental impacts and increasing our positive contributions to environmental sustainability, so we welcome the recognition of the role culture can play in influencing behavioural change in this area, and would like to see this more directly referenced in the analysis and actions.

While we see the demand for live experiences increasing hand in hand with digital culture, digital technologies are clearly driving significant changes in human behaviour. There is a welcome action in the ‘Sustaining Culture’ section about supporting the culture sector to understand the technologies, but no reference in the ‘Transforming through Culture’ section to how artists’ work itself could help individuals and society to shape and reflect on these new cultures and build psychological resilience in the face of disruptive change. We would expect to see the culture strategy acknowledge the rise of the digital society and reflect on what would need to be in place for cultural actors in Scotland to make a bigger difference towards shaping positive futures.

EMPOWERING THROUGH CULTURE
Aim 1: Extend the view of culture to include the everyday and emerging, the established and more formal
• Action 1: Promote an inclusive and extended view of culture which recognises and celebrates the value and importance of emerging, every day and grassroots culture and creativity

Aim 1/Action 1: The strong commitment to break down barriers by extending the national policy understanding of culture to include the everyday and emerging is very welcome, and this should feed through to definitions of cultural participation in key research and data sources such as the Scottish Household Survey.


Aim 2: Develop opportunities for people to take part in culture throughout their lives
• Action 2: Develop an approach that supports long term partnerships between cultural and creative organisations, businesses and organisations in Scotland’s most deprived communities, including schools, care homes and organisations working towards achieving social justice

Aim 2/Action 2: Support for long-term partnerships with organisations in Scotland’s most deprived communities will maximise the benefits of their cultural participation, as opportunities are all too often funded as short-term or annual projects constraining follow through. At a citywide level, Edinburgh has ambitions to bring together geographical data from different sectors on where cultural engagement is already taking place and where other potential needs, assets and agencies exist. If there was support for a national approach to this type of data-driven development, it could play a useful role in helping to achieve a step change in cultural engagement.


Aim 3: Recognise each community’s own local culture in generating a distinct sense of place, identity and confidence
• Action 3: Explore ways in which people can have a greater say in shaping the cultural life of their communities including participatory models of decision-making and community ownership

Aim 3/Action 3: A thriving local culture is at the heart of successful communities and we welcome the emphasis on local ownership and decision-making. Our work with artists and partners across the country also provides evidence of the strong demand for local cultural life to interact with the wider world, and this is a dimension that should be brought out more strongly in the ‘Empowering Through Culture’ strand. Bringing together global perspectives with local cultural opportunities can offer transformative encounters for individuals and communities, as well as making it possible for locally-based talent to sustain a living by finding wider collaborators and recognition. The Aims of this section should be expanded to recognise that a key part of the cultural enrichment of communities across Scotland will be to respond to their increasing demand to connect local, national and international perspectives and opportunities.

SUSTAINING CULTURE

Aim 1: Develop the conditions and skills for culture to thrive, so it is cared for, protected and produced for the enjoyment of all present and future generations
• Action 1: Explore new funding models to support the culture sector and to develop the creative economy that includes new partnerships and examining the potential of Scottish Government powers such as Scottish National Investment Bank, devolved tax and legislative powers that will generate a collective responsibility to supporting culture in the long term.

Aim 1/Action 1: As recognised by the draft culture strategy and by the Scottish Government’s protection of Creative Scotland’s overall funding levels, culture is allocated relatively small amounts within overall public sector budgets yet it achieves much for many. It is imperative that the culture strategy galvanises all parts of the sector and stakeholders to create an enabling environment for generating additional investment, if we are to realise the exciting ambitions of this draft strategy and avoid putting current assets at risk. We therefore welcome the commitment to explore the potential of Scottish Government powers such as the Scottish National Investment Bank, devolved tax and legislative powers.

In particular we think there is a key opportunity to empower local authorities to help find new solutions. The ten-year strategy for the Edinburgh Festivals, Thundering Hooves 2.0, recognised back in 2015 the need to develop alternative funding mechanisms to secure the quality and benefits of the festivals’ world-class assets for Scotland, and to avoid putting their premier division status at risk. Three years on, we support the City of Edinburgh Council’s initiative to stimulate thinking about how to reinvest a proportion of the additional revenues attracted by the cultural assets of the city, which generate exponentially greater economic impacts and benefits felt across the country. If there is further prolonged debate about the best mechanism to achieve this objective, we look forward to Scottish Government rapidly developing other options in line with their expanding powers and the planned actions of this strategy.

The strategy also needs to recognise the value and continuing future importance of major cultural institutions as hubs for generating increased investment, thanks to their capacity to leverage additional support for independent artists. This helps to multiply the investment of the public pound to support individual artists and arts organisations, connecting them with wider audiences and developing their creative livelihoods.

The strategy and its execution should prioritise this task of creating the conditions to help generate new investment, and be clear that this is a fundamental first-order issue for sustaining culture across Scotland. Current questions around how national public funding for culture is best distributed should not overshadow this primary aim.

However, this strategy inevitably will also set the context for debates on the future shape of the policy and funding landscape, given the ongoing review of Creative Scotland grant making and the launch of Screen Scotland. We do not believe that new governance legislation to change the institutional landscape would be the best use of time. However, we believe that arms-length non-political specialist expertise in arts funding has been critical to the development of Scotland’s cultural community, and that any future reforms must safeguard this. Recent debates on arts funding in Australia which we reference under Question 12 may provide useful points of comparison.



• Action 2: Develop programmes to support skills development, leadership and innovation to prepare for the future including digital
Aim 2: Value, trust and support creative people – for their unique and vital contribution to society and the economy
• Action 3: Support the freelance cultural workforce and nurture skills, talent and excellence by exploring ways to improve their economic and social status and adopt a broad and long term approach to supporting skills development from early years onwards.

Aim 1/Action 2; Aim 2/Action 3: We are pleased to see the ambition to increase sector communication and learning; information, skills and resource sharing; and mentoring and leadership development. The strategy could say more about how peer support, learning and collaboration might best be developed further for nationwide benefit.

It would also be useful to develop a clearer map of key flows of funding across Scotland benefiting different parts of the freelance cultural workforce, such as the programming and production budgets of large scale institutions. Understanding and maximising these economic flows is likely to be even more critical for the future as pressures continue to mount on all levels of public sector budgets, at the same time as further threats to lottery income.

On digital innovation, we would welcome more detail on how the strategy could support skills development. There is potential for mutual sharing of insights and models in the partnerships now being developed with education and creative industries partners around data driven innovation, including under the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal. Actions arising from the strategy could also support the culture sector to explore the opportunities and challenges of digital developments by developing a speaker series of key global thinkers and influencers on key topics such as integrating live and digital experiences; online streaming; ticketing; and intellectual property.


Aim 3: Encourage greater openness and diverse cultures to reflect a changing Scotland in the 21st century
• Action 4: Increase inclusive opportunities to broaden the backgrounds of those working and volunteering in the culture sectors.

Aim 3/Action 4: We strongly support the emphasis on ensuring that people from outwith majority and middle class communities see more people like them in the cultural workforce. To change this profile for the better, actions arising from the strategy will need to be tailored to specific groups and sustained to provide a pipeline of support for talented people to develop and progress as well as just to enter the culture sector. A limited number of co-ordinated opportunities to provide long-term pathways could prove more effective in growing a diverse new generation of cultural leaders than a higher volume of unconnected interventions that do not systematically address gaps and transition points. To increase diversity in programming, priorities across the festivals include reducing barriers to accessing our platforms and networks for creatives from under-represented groups, and developing outstanding artists with diverse voices to explore new directions.

In encouraging inclusive volunteering, the strategy also needs to acknowledge the amount of resource and support required to meaningfully diversify the volunteer base when there is often little organisational capacity or skill to consider innovative recruitment and management practices. Knowledge sharing across the sector, to ensure a realistic understanding of what is required and where financial support can be sought for the additional costs of working with a fully diverse range of volunteers, would be a significant contribution to moving thinking forward.


• Action 5: Develop a longer term and more strategic approach to supporting international ambitions and partnerships across the breadth of the culture sector

Aim 3/Action 5: We strongly support the commitment in the strategy to nurture and value international openness and collaboration for the way that they connect Scotland to the wider world and foster mutual understanding.

Given Scotland’s small domestic market, finding audiences and opportunities beyond our country is imperative to a sustainable career for many Scottish creatives. This section could also recognise more clearly that a global outlook is critical not just for professional and national success, but also for individuals navigating their lives in our increasingly interconnected world – so this priority also contributes strongly to the themes of transforming and empowering through culture. We also think that the strategy should cover the importance of sustaining international connections in the face of a hostile visa environment for global voices Scotland want to welcome, and consider how a national effort can push back against these inappropriate policies and ensure maximum access.

We would welcome a more strategic approach to supporting international ambitions and partnerships, making maximum use of the Edinburgh Festivals as un unparalleled asset for international exchange, innovation and learning as well as export. Every year the festivals attract to the north-west edge of Europe nearly 8,000 international participants, over 1,000 accredited media and 1,000 global producers, in additional to hundreds of cultural policymakers.

The networking programmes run individually and collectively by the festivals enable creatives and creative organisations based across Scotland to connect with people from 85 countries. Through the Momentum joint international delegate programme in 2018 alone, 115 Scottish cultural organisations had one-to-one meetings with targeted international delegates, and attendances by Scottish creatives at our international briefings by delegates rose from 225 to over 300. Most Scottish contacts are able to participate on the basis of a day-trip, but support for the cost of longer journeys could help to share these opportunities more broadly across the country. Even more important is the ability to support the follow-up by Scottish creatives on opportunities generated by the visits, so a new strategic national approach and resource for helping international opportunities develop to fruition will be an important priority.

Edinburgh’s Festivals have developed a wide range of international cultural policy and cultural diplomacy partners, many in collaboration with Creative Scotland and British Council Scotland. Below are some comparative case studies that may be of interest.

Québec has deemed culture to be the responsibility of everyone in government since its first cultural strategy in 1992. Their latest culture policy published in June 2018 deals with many similar themes to Scotland’s cultural strategy consultation document, including strengthening links between culture, education and communities; increasing resources to sustain culture; taking account of geographical diversity; ensuring strong international links; and improving livelihoods for artists. Their commitments to encourage cultural philanthropy through fiscal measures, and increase levels of government support to unprecendented levels for creation, production and sharing of high quality and innovative culture are worthy of consideration. Their cultural strategy also commits to practical measures for improving the lives and livelihoods of artists – including exploring means of adapting fiscal measures to their reality. Quebec has been a pioneer in adopting two statutes on the status of the artist and introducing assistance programs as well as tax or social protection measures for artists.

Canada’s cultural policy approaches to first nations peoples - supporting the ascendency of artists from first nations peoples and contributing to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples through the arts - provides thought provoking examples of how the country is committed to listening to, supporting and developing artists from outwith majority cultures, and thus driving culture shift and social change through the arts. The ability to invest in long-term development of these under-represented voices, and in a renewed ambition to strengthen Canadian arts through strategic international partnerships including with Scotland, has been made possible by the Trudeau Government’s 2016 policy decision to double funding to the Canada Council for the Arts over five years.

In Brazil, the cultural foundations SESC and SESI were set up by philanthropic leaders of the commerce and industry sectors in 1946 to promote social welfare, cultural development and improving the lives of workers, their families and the communities they live in. Their revenues come from a 1.5 percent payroll tax administered by businesses in these sectors. Their funded programmes focus on citizen engagement through a wide range of interventions including connecting grassroots cultural movements in favelas and community centres to the practice of world-renowned invited artists.

In Australia in 2014-15, the federal government decided to reallocate funding worth nearly £60m over four years - a third of the ongoing arts funding - away from the arms-length Australia Council for the Arts to create a directly run government programme. The arts sector protested and a subsequent Australian Senate inquiry published a report in December 2015. The report expressed strong support for the system maintaining arms-length non-political specialist expertise in arts funding through the Australia Council; and advised that the funding policy and framework should aim to support the whole cultural ecosystem including small and medium sized organisations and independent artists, having regard to the challenges of operating across urban and rural Australia. As a result of this controversy and policy changes following the 2016 elections, the frameworks of this period are no longer in place and the Australia Council has had its funding and its policy leadership in these areas reinstated.

The Edinburgh Festivals have based their collective development plans around a logic model agreed in 2010 as part of their first comprehensive economic, social and cultural impact study, which has driven collaborative leadership in identifying long term shared priorities across our cluster. In 2017 this was mapped to the strategic outcomes of the City of Edinburgh and Scottish Government to demonstrate the areas of common vision and ambition where there is potential for even stronger mutual benefits.

We believe the logic model demonstrates the strong opportunities for the festivals to enhance these contributions under the new strategy, and we are keen to play our full part in planning and delivery.

Our ten-year track record of impact studies also provides a growing body of knowledge and evidence about our outcomes that will be relevant to delivering deeper and wider benefit from the strategy.

The most recent overall audience and impact data demonstrates that:

• the festivals attracted audiences of over 4.6 million in 2017, with 49% from Edinburgh and Scotland, a further 28% from the rest of the UK and 23% from overseas
• over two thirds of city residents attended a festival in 2017, making festival going citizens’ most popular cultural activity
• the festivals generated at least £313m in additional economic impact for Scotland in 2015 and supported over 6,000 new FTE jobs
• they sustained their reputation as special places of cultural discovery, with 92% of audience members said they’d had the chance to see something they would not otherwise have seen

In addition, the 2018 follow up studies into cultural impact show that:

• the Edinburgh Festivals spent £14.4m with Scottish based individuals and organisations on creative talent and event production during 2016-17, representing 46% of the festivals’ collective total expenditure
• over the 10 years of Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund, one in ten festivals audiences have attended an Expo-funded event, illustrating the strength of Edinburgh’s Festivals as platforms to connect Scottish artists and audiences
• During each year, Expo Fund support has resulted in at least 55 new commissions, over 1,000 performances/events, and audiences of over half a million
• Scottish creative talent gets high profile promotion in local and international markets essential to their financial development
• a high number of formal and informal training initiatives are built around the rich opportunities that the Festivals present for practitioners, technicians and cultural managers, ensuring there is a strong pool of talent available
• the Edinburgh Festivals create a ‘halo effect’ bringing global recognition of Scotland as a home for culture, giving both cultural organisations and audiences pride and confidence across the nation.

Finally, the new five-year co-investment Platforms for Creative Excellence Programme, agreed as a legacy of the festivals’ 70th anniversary year in 2017, is in close alignment with the key themes of this strategy and will enable the festivals to further secure and enhance our local, national and international contributions.

The five-year commitment creates a strategic approach to evolving the future direction of the festivals and long-term developments with global as well as Scottish partners. The programme has a unique co-production model between the festivals, City of Edinburgh Council and Creative Scotland which may be of interest in designing future funding frameworks and processes.

The scheme has a £3m annual budget with equal contributions from each of the three partners, and it is designed to enable the festivals:
• to diversify their year-round partnerships with the culture sector across the city and Scotland;
• to drive transformation and creative innovation through long-term programming approaches;
• to increase career and skills development capacity for creatives and young people; and
• to build lasting new relationships with less engaged communities.

The strategy has influence but not control over a wide and complex landscape, so we believe the desirable outcomes will be around improved mutual understanding; wider agreement on underlying causes and key priorities; increased motivation to take action around shared ambitions; and improved mechanisms to deliver change.

Working in such a precious, complex and intangible area, it would be no small achievement to help create a new shared culture and shared language across sectors and organisations; new networks and partnerships; new thinking, learning and capabilities; new appetites for risk-taking and experimentation; and new models and cultural products that demonstrate Scotland is achieving the vision set out for the strategy.

We understand that the Measuring Change Group will need to be kept to a manageable number of members, but it will be important to have mechanisms to ensure dialogue with the key players involved in cultural impact evaluation across relevant sectors.

We agree with the desire to avoid a restrictive evaluation approach, that might stifle the independence and creativity of cultural activity, and we have made some comments in our answers on Transforming through Culture that set out our thoughts on the most constructive approaches. For example, in answer to Question 13 above, we have referred to the logic model the festivals have developed to map out a range of intermediate outcomes and how this has helped us identify shared impacts and benefits. We also strongly support the recognition that more focus is needed on longitudinal, qualitative data.