scots music group

The Board of the Scots Music Group met earlier this week to respond to the Scottish Arts Council’s decision not to offer us funding for next financial year. Follow this link to read decisions of the SAC about which proposals are to receive funds and which are not.

We decided that there are grounds for appeal, and we’ll follow that route, according to the procedure set out by the SAC.

We also ask all our supporters to write to their MSPs and the press. Your MSP‘s name can be found here, and their contact details here. Don’t forget that besides your constituency MSP, you also have 7 list MSPs – if you can write to them all, that is best.

The Scottish Arts Council have recently changed their focus for the funding they provide, and are now prioritising innovation and top quality performance. The result of this shift is that a number of grassroots Scottish traditional arts organisations have lost their funding.

Personal letters and e-mails are most effective. The points we would urge you to get across in letters are:

• The result of the Scottish Arts Council’s decision is that many organisations that develop grassroots involvement in Scottish traditional arts have lost their funding, which will seriously impact on the infrastructure of the traditional music sector. We provide regular employment to top-class tutors, and stimulate increasing participation in traditional music within communities. This involvement at community level is essential to supporting and developing the innovation and top quality performances of the future. The Scottish Arts Council change in funding priorities represents a real threat to Scottish culture.

• The arts are not just about performance, they are about participation. We make a real impact in communities across Edinburgh and much further afield, spreading playing, dance and song far beyond the classes we run

• Will the Scottish Arts Council make provision to lessen the immediate impact of these cuts on individual organisations?

• Add your own personal views on any other benefits you have experienced through being involved with the Scots Music Group
  

Our plans for extending the work, and reaching out to groups who do not normally participate in Scots music and song are threatened by this decision. At a time of increasing interest in all aspects of Scottish culture, this is a short-sighted and mean-spirited decision.

Please ask your MSPs to raise this decision with Linda Fabiani MSP, the minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture, and ask her what she plans to do to secure the health and well-being of the Scots Music Group in 2009 and beyond.