Creative Scotland has been forced to delay decisions on its Multi-Year Funding programme until the ‘the overall Scottish Government draft budget announcement’ on Wednesday 4 December. The delay means that funding decisions will be postponed until the end of January 2025, leaving 281 applicants in limbo and adding further strain to a sector already weathering cuts in an adverse economic climate.

One such organisation is Dundee Contemporary Arts, which outlined the problem eloquently on social media earlier this week: ‘We are deeply concerned to learn that Creative Scotland's Multi-Year Funding decision has been delayed until the end of January as a result of ongoing uncertainty about their funding from Scottish Government. The impact of this announcement, and the ongoing lack of clarity about the level of additional funding available to organisations through this fund, means that we face an extremely uncertain future. This delay will affect our audit report and our ability to be declared a going concern, jeopardising our ability to fundraise elsewhere; and will force us to escalate scenario planning for receiving less support than we have applied for, putting jobs and our ability to serve our audiences at risk.

‘We are working very hard to ensure as little disruption as possible for our audiences and team, but after years of standstill funding and warnings about its impact, we are running out of ways to maintain our activity at its current levels.’

In a press release from Creative Scotland, chair Robert Wilson wrote, ‘While we would have preferred to announce the outcome from this application process in October as planned and have been working collaboratively with Scottish Government to endeavour to do so, we also understand the extreme budget pressures that exist.

‘These pressures mean we are required to postpone the outcome until such time as we have budget clarity. This will enable us to make final decisions in a context of budget confidence and to support as many organisations on a multi-year basis as we possibly can.’

In the same press release, Angus Robertson, cabinet secretary for culture, said, 'The cultural sector is an integral part of our identity as a country. This is why we’re working hard to help the sector to fulfil its potential in Scotland by assuring at least £100 million more annually in funding by 2028-29.

'We await the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s budget announcement on 30 October which has a hugely significant bearing on the Scottish budget. Following that we will be able to set detailed budgets for the coming financial year including for the culture sector.

‘I will continue to work in collaboration with Creative Scotland and the sector over the coming months to ensure stability until Creative Scotland have sufficient clarity to be able to announce the recipients of their multi-year funding awards.’

Earlier this year, Creative Scotland almost shut down the Open Fund For Individuals after delays in funding clarification from the Scottish Government, a decision which was later reversed following uproar from Scotland’s arts community and the release of £3 million from the Scottish Government. The Open Fund For Individuals will reopen at 2pm on Tuesday 8 October.