Last Word

Chant and drone
If you’re an aficionado of the great art of piping, you will know that the chant is that part of the bagpipes which carries the tune, and the drone is the bit that provides the underlying continuous note without which our hearts could not be stirred. And the tune seems to be quite a jolly one at the moment, despite the UK Government imposing overall cuts totalling £500m on Scotland. Most Scottish arts organisations will be heaving a sigh of relief that the cuts have not fallen heavily on the arts and culture portfolio (p1). Culture Minister Mike Russell seems genuinely to care about the fate of the sector. Yet the underlying tone still hums that Scotland’s government is continuing with a nationalist trend in cultural policy, which AP has noted before. There is much talk on the wider political stage of presenting Scotland’s face to the world, bigging up its cultural, touristic and economic identity to appeal to the EU and beyond. Recent frolics undertaken by the SNP include a week-long profile-raising jamboree in April, criss-crossing northern America and Canada, taking in New York, Vancouver, Seattle and California. In July it was Japan’s turn to feel the force of the haggis. The movement for ditching the BBC and creating a special TV channel for Scotland is gradually being repelled, but the SNP’s desire to create cultural as well as political independence remains. The arts sector has obviously been cast as a handmaiden to this highly political agenda, and, while arts organisations and the arts as a whole might benefit financially, it might be worth considering the implications. For those for whom Scottish independence is a longed-for goal, this harnessing of culture to the cause may be welcome. To those who retain a belief in the Union, or who feel that politicising the arts for whatever reason cannot be a good thing, it could be seen as unwarranted interference. It’s not just how much the piper is paid, or even by whom, but why.

Show me the money
Where is the arts going to get its money from in the future? Research shows that charitable giving is problematic (p3), and Arts & Business has also spotted a downturn in business investment in London. Wales is grappling with a funding review in the face of as-yet-unknown cuts (p3 and p5), while Scotland has decided, significantly, to protect its culture sector in its latest cost-cutting round (p1). The Tories, whose conference comes up this week in Manchester, have been playing a long game of cosying up to the arts sector – particularly to its large-scale movers and shakers – and appealing to its business side. It will be interesting to see how their policies have moved on (if move they have) since Jeremy Hunt’s speech in June 2008 (AP173) which included gems such as “it is difficult to see the State backing a promising young violinist in a way that an individual philanthropist would do” – which would have been news to County Music Services across the country. The Conservatives have committed themselves to a “mixed economy”, but with private giving on the slide, corporate donations yet to recover from the recession and cuts in public funding likely, however strenuously opposed by ministers, it seems that the idea needs work.