It's not just the first cut that goes deep

It’s hard to believe that here in the UK we are now in meteorological autumn. Here in Scotland, it does seem that we seem to have skipped summer, well certainly in meteorological terms. And as autumn rolls in, much of the optimism of early summer seems to have disappeared too as the UK and Scottish Governments are bracing us for even more cuts to public spending.

As ever, there is the public blame game from politicians - “they spent all the money”, “they won’t give us enough money” arguments are endlessly circulating across the media. Public finance is a complicated business, and I don’t have enough of a fiscally minded brain to really get to grips with it, or present alternatives in any meaningful way.

However, I do know that public spending is driven by choices. And it does seem to me that all too often these choices are driven short term actions. Often just kicking the really issues a little bit further away to deal with on another day.

If you are reading this, you are probably interested in arts, and arts funding and will have already heard about the proposed cuts by Creative Scotland to the Open Funding programme for individuals. Over the past couple of weeks I have been following this story, with a mixture of dismay and collective solidarity as artists, artists groups, unions etc have come together to lobby Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government to understand and try to reverse the decision. You may have seen the open letters circulating on social media. There’s also a march on the Scottish Parliament this Thursday.

It doesn’t look like there will be any reversal of the decision, and later today there will be more bad news. But after attending a really informative online session organised by SCAN (Scottish Contemporary Art Network ), I am even more confused about the cut of this funding. There seem to have been rounds of moving money from different budget headings (underspend, contingency etc) for years. Like I said, I don’t really have a head for budgets but there does seem to have been quite a few missed opportunities to ring-fence/save the monies for this fund.

Most visual artists work with financial uncertainty. My self included. I feel fortunate that I can balance another career that funds my artistic practice. The Open Fund was such a welcome opportunity to get relatively small amounts of funding to extend and explore practice. It has been a life line for many. And now it’s gone. But has the need for art?

As artists, we all also work without any official recognition of “artist” as a recognised profession. Although everyone’s life is improved by the arts, never mind the overall economic impact of the arts, as a group of professionals we are all to easily dismissed, and an easy target for cut backs.

Isn’t time we took a leaf out of Canada’s book an gave artists recognised status? Or looked to Ireland and their amazing pilot project providing a universal basic income for a group of artists. I know an artist who has participated in this and the impact it has had on their practice has been astounding.

I guess we’ll all struggle on, and listen to more lip service from all the politicians. So as ever, if you have a chance to support an independent artists do it. Don’t by prints at Ikea for you wall. Go to an art fair, a gallery, Instagram/Etsy and spend probably the same (maybe a wee bit more) for an original, and help to support an artists and in turn the whole creative sector.

image taken from SCAN website