The current media frenzy over spending cuts seems to reveal only one thing clearly; that nothing makes the press lapse into histrionic hyperbole quite like an unpopular government decision. Indeed, its hard to know what to believe. Following Wednesday’s announcement that the Arts Council Budget will be slashed by 30%, for instance, the prevailing image conjured by the angered arts writers has been one of Britain’s cultural landscape collapsing into a void of philistine devastation.

Of course, with such substantial changes looming ahead, its impossible to realistically foresee the quotidian impact on our lives. However, in an effort to shed some light on the confusion, The Student has contacted a number of local arts organisations to gain a clearer picture of how we, in Edinburgh, may be specifically affected by budget cuts. And the reality, it seems, may in fact be far less calamitous than we’ve been lead to believe.

Lets start with the good news; the largest art galleries in Edinburgh, the National Galleries of Scotland complex, are partly sheltered by the governments specification that ‘Front Line’ museums will only be cut by 15%, in an effort to maintain their free entry policy. More controversial is the fate of smaller, independent galleries around the city, yet, with a little bit of investigation, it seems their resonating with surprising optimism.  Sarah Price at Edinburgh Printmakers, a gallery reliant on Creative Scotland (formerly Scottish Arts Council) has informed me that they have heard of no announcement of cuts to their 2011-12 future budget, and in fact their “Flexible Funding” has been approved until 2014, and even increased from £140,000 to £160,000. Similarly, the Embassy Gallery receives programme funding from Creative Scotland, but co-director Luke Cooke-Yarborough informs me that they have not experienced any increased difficulty procuring funding so far.

Furthermore, the fact is that fewer of the smaller arts organisations around Edinburgh are actually funded by Creative Scotland then we perhaps realise. Such organisations as the Roxy Art House, Artachat, Rhubaba Studios and Edinburgh Film Focus, to name but a few, are not funded by Creative Scotland at all, but rely on largely self-sufficient models. Indeed, the more you examine the issue of spending cuts, it becomes clear that reliance on Creative Scotland is by no means an exclusive necessity for public arts organisations.

Several people have commented that being solely dependant on government funding lead to a restriction on creative freedom. Naturally, applying for funding is extremely competitive, and therefore Creative Scotland have been criticised by some for a perceived unwillingness to invest in aberrant or excessively eccentric ideas, as well as not being able to support any student ventures at all.

One can understand their reluctance, with the constant threat of being disparaged in Daily Mail headlines for the squandering of government money on unconventional contemporary art. But, of course, for creative talent to develop and progress it cant be limited to the confines of populist expectation. This is exactly why arts organisations are keen to assert their independence from Creative Scotland. Bareface magazine, a new platform for emerging artists and writers issued the following statement; "We don't feel the planned funding cuts will have a great effect on us. We appreciate that it must be difficult for an institution such as CS/SAC to make decisions about funding, but there has seemed to be an apparent lack of willingness to invest in young, possibly risky, ideas. Emerging artists have a wish to practice, the institution appears to have a criteria for emerging artists which is unrealistic for the majority. Bareface Magazine was created in reaction to this gap in opportunities for funding and we aim to provide a platform for showcasing new work (that may have otherwise gone under the radar) in an engaging and inventive way.” Similarly, Rachel Cloughton, co-founder of Line magazine commented on the difficulty with Creative Scotland; “We host training events, workshops, temporary co-editorial positions and a platform for emerging as well as established artists and writers. Therefore, I believe it is something of great benefit to the Scottish Art scene and should be supported by the arts council. The administration and red tape that comes with applying alone is what prevents these type of projects being further realised and reaching their full potential”.

Both of these magazines are exemplary of the need of new arts organisations to be inventive about funding options, in this case depending on a self-funding model as well as fundraising events.

This seems to be the key message for arts organisations in the face of budget cuts; that an entrepreneurial motivations and the willingness to use initiative to sidestep the funding vacuum are the only ways to keep going. And indeed, the resilience and inventiveness seen so far in Scotland is impressive.

Mark Daniels from New Media Scotland (a national development agency fostering and promoting all forms of new media practice) notes that they received a 100% cut in core public funding in April 2009, followed by a subsequent 66% cut in staff. However, emblematic of the determination required to persist in public art endeavor, he notes “we have evolved and through new partnerships, particularly with the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, we are thriving”.

Dane Sutherland from Deveron Arts has noted they are not especially affected by funding cuts due to their methodology of sourcing funding. “Arts Council and other arts funding although necessary, are only a small part of our funding structure” he informs me. Much of their other funding comes from non-arts related sources, such as Cairngorm Leader Fund or Climate Challenge Fund. This increased need for creative approaches is so crucial to the current cultural climate that he has documented it in a book Artcocracy, a guide for arts institutions which shows a great deal of their practice and is due for release in October.

The arts scene in Edinburgh, then, looks promisingly resilient against financial depletion. The Guardian this week has suggested that Britain may have to rely on the sorts of philanthropic donations common in the States to compensate for spending cuts. Yet, the real resolution, it seems, lies in inventive thinking. As Ros Davis from Edinburgh Film Focus tells me “We will all need to get more inventive, some will fall by the wayside”. In general, however, it seem that ambition and enterprise are not in any short supply at the moment, and we can still look forward to a promisingly varied cultural calendar.

 Originally published 26th October 2010