The arm’s length funding body Creative Scotland has awarded £200m in funding for 251 Scottish arts organisations over the next three years, providing a lifeline for organisations such as Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA).
The arts complex in Dundee, which was previously under threat of closure, will receive £3.9m between 2025 and 2028. Last year management said the venue was facing an “extremely uncertain future” after running a £381,000 deficit (2023-24). Dundee City Council has also proposed cutting funding for DCA by between 6% and 7%.
“This week’s Creative Scotland funding announcement has provided a level of stability for us… that we haven’t experienced for several years,” said the DCA in an Instagram post, adding that it is awaiting the council’s decision following a public consultation.
Other recipients include the visual arts organisation Common Guild in Glasgow, which will receive £702,000 over the allocated three-year period. “It is good news for us—an increase of 30% on current funding which has been on standstill since 2015,” the director, Katrina Brown, tells The Art Newspaper. The Edinburgh Art Festival—a staple in the UK art calendar—gets £470,000 (2025-28).
More than 140 organisations received multi-year funding for the first time, including the Mount Stuart trust in Bute which will be awarded £175,234 (2025-28). “This vital funding will allow us to continue to work with a range of Scottish and international artists to bring exhibitions, performances, newly commissioned work and a wide reaching education programme not only to those in Argyll and Bute but to visitors from across Scotland and beyond,” says Sophie Crichton-Stuart, the chair of the Mount Stuart Trust, in a statement.
Thirteen other organisations will be supported by a £3.2m Development Fund with a view to them joining the multi-year funding portfolio in 2026-27. These organisations include Culture and Business Scotland, which is described as “the connector between the culture and business sectors”.
The funding boost comes after a period of uncertainty. Last September, Scotland’s first minister, John Swinney, ordered a review of the arm’s-length culture body after Creative Scotland announced its Open Fund for individuals would close to new applications. The Scottish Culture Secretary, Angus Robertson, later announced that £6.6m had been allocated, allowing the open fund to relaunch.
Crucially, Creative Scotland said that it would not be able to finalise the portfolio for its multi-year funding programme until after the announcement of the Scottish government’s draft budget in December. The budget was confirmed when the government awarded grant-in-aid of £89m for 2025 to 2026, up from £66.5m the previous year.
Robertson called this week’s funding package from Creative Scotland “a foundational moment for culture and the arts in Scotland”. But the BBC asks: “Is this truly transformational for recipients, or simply a step in the right direction? …. the fact this is the first increase in many years, and the current economic climate, means few of the applicants will any be any better off than they were in 2018.”