© 2015 Creative Scotland
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Cover: Northlands Glass, Neon Glass at dusk
Photo: Angus Mackay
Contents
Introduction
Who We Are and Our Role
Funding, Advocacy,Development and Influence
Our Priorities Over the Next 3 Years
Our Priorities Over the Next 12 Months
Being a Learning Organisation
Our Policies
Summary Budget 2015-16
Planning and Performance
Performing Against Our Ambitions 2015-16
Delivering National Outcomes
Introduction
Welcome to our Annual Plan for 2015-16 which sets out our priority areas of work, our funding and our budgets for the year ahead.
This plan sets out in detail the work that we will deliver throughout the year, building on everything that was achieved last year and further strengthening the organisation to deliver its role as a funder, developer, influencer and advocate for the wide range of sectors that we serve.
I would like to thank Creative Scotland’s leadership team, staff and Board for the dedicated work they have carried out to achieve this, as well as acknowledge the highly valuable support and input of partners including the Scottish Government, and, really importantly, everyone working in the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland.
We know however that there is still much work to be done. Last April we published a 10-year plan for the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland – Unlocking Potential, Embracing Ambition – which frames our work.
Nearly 1,000 people from across Scotland contributed to its formation through widespread public consultation which included open sessions, face-to-face and online dialogue, and the setting up of a specialist reference group which met regularly throughout its development. This level of dialogue and shared ownership for the future development of the arts, screen and creative industries is something we want to continue to foster this year and beyond.
Alongside the new plan we also launched a new, simplified funding approach with three, clear routes to funding, Regular Funding, Open Project Funding and Targeted Funding, all of which are explained in more detail in this Annual Plan.
Our aim is to make it as clear and straightforward as possible for people and organisations working in the arts, screen and creative industries to apply for funding to make great ideas happen, to give people across Scotland the chance to experience arts, culture and creativity. In addition to funding directly ourselves, we will continue to work with others to strengthen the funding landscape and promote the value that the arts, screen and creative industries deliver for everyone.
Over the past 12 months I am delighted that we have continued to appoint senior staff with significant industry track records. Natalie Usher, Director of Screen, and Clive Gillman, Director of Creative Industries, have joined Leonie Bell, Director of Arts & Engagement, and Philip Deverell, Director of Strategy, as part of our new leadership team. We have also appointed talented new staff across the rest of the organisation at all levels.
Last year, we launched our new website which has been redesigned to make it more user friendly and easier for everyone to find the information they need. There is an open invitation to any individual, organisation or project that we have funded to provide us with content for this platform enabling them to reach the growing audience for our digital channels.
Another development for Creative Scotland this year has been the appointment of our new Chair, Richard Findlay, who brings with him considerable experience in the arts and media and a great deal of knowledge and interest in the value the arts, screen and creative industries can deliver culturally, socially and economically.
Looking ahead to the coming year, we will continue to support activity through our three routes to funding. We will reflect and review how this is working with staff and applicants to ensure we continuously improve the application, assessment and feedback processes across everything we do. As competition for funds is always high, we also recognise the importance of explaining the rationale behind our decision making and providing clear feedback and advice on other available funding options where they exist. We will be working hard this year to improve our ability to offer this support.
2015-16 will see our strategies for the arts, screen and creative industries evolve, set within the context of our 10-year plan, each providing clarity on what informs our policy and decision making in these key areas of focus. We will also publish our international strategy.
Our vision is straightforward. We want a Scotland where everyone values and celebrates arts and creativity as the heartbeat for our lives and the world in which we live; which continually extends its imagination and ways of doing things; and where the arts, screen and creative industries are connected and thriving.
I am looking forward to continuing to work with artists, arts organisations, companies and all
of Creative Scotland’s staff, stakeholders and partners to deliver this vision. Together we can make a real difference and position Scotland as a leading creative nation connected to the world.
I want everyone to understand how precious our creative heartbeat is and how powerfully it enriches and fuels people’s lives. The arts, screen and creative industries have an important role to play in that, both here in Scotland, and beyond.
Janet Archer
Chief Executive
Who we are
Creative Scotland is the national body, which supports the development of Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries.
We want a Scotland where everyone actively values and celebrates arts and creativity as the heartbeat for our lives and the world in which we live; which continually extends its creative imagination and ways of doing things; and where the arts, screen and creative industries are confident, connected and thriving.
We enable people and organisations to work in and experience the arts and creative sectors by helping others to create culture through developing great ideas and bringing them to life.
We do this through four key functions:
• Funding
• Advocacy
• Development
• Influence.
In April 2014 we published our Strategic Plan, Unlocking Potential – Embracing Ambition, which presents a shared vision for the arts, screen and creative industries for the next 10 years.
At its heart is a set of ambitions and priorities that provides a focus for our work and reflects what we want to achieve, in collaboration with people and organisations. These priorities will inform our work, funding guidelines, and decisions, as well as our own development plan over the period 2014
– 2017.
Each aspect of art and culture is unique but there are many areas of overlap and connection.
We support each sector in ways that are most appropriate to them, for example the way that we support film production is different to the way we might support theatre or music. Alongside the Annual Plan we produce companion pieces giving an overview of current sector development needs and opportunities across the arts, screen and creative industries. These will be available on our website.
We also want to be able to take advantage of the opportunities for cross sector collaboration. Our role requires us to operate intelligently at the intersection between the arts, screen and creative industries, promoting and brokering connections and encouraging and championing excellent practice as widely as possible.
This is the second Annual Plan in our current planning cycle. It sets out how we will work to achieve our ambitions and priorities for the year 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016, as well as providing a summary of our income and spending for the year.
Some work from 2014-15 will continue in 2015-16 as we have adjusted our work programme over the course of the past year to take into account changing internal and external circumstances.
Our role
Creative Scotland’s remit across the arts, screen and creative industries creates the opportunities for us to:
• Act as a conduit for cross-sector connection and learning
• Understand the wider cultural system and economy, identifying where to act in order to strengthen it
• Position the work that we fund at the heart of creative, artistic, cultural, social and economic development, stimulating future growth in public investment in arts and culture
• Help develop and diversify income streams for arts, screen and creative industries, maximising opportunities from intellectual property and stimulating collaboration between commercial creative companies, artists and creative practitioners.
Arts:
We support individuals and organisations working in the arts across all areas of practice including dance, literature, music, theatre, visual arts and cross-disciplinary practice. We work in partnership with Government, local authorities and the wider public, private and voluntary sectors to deliver this support. In 2015-16 we will publish the Literature and Publishing Sector Review, the Visual Arts Sector Review and a review of our Creative Learning work, to add to those already published reviews for Theatre, Dance and Music. We are developing an Arts Strategy bringing together this learning and setting out how we will work with the sector and public partners to deliver our shared ambitions.
Screen:
We support film and TV production and cross-platform media and we also promote international filmmaking in Scotland. We work in partnership with organisations such as the BBC and the BFI. In 2014 we published our film strategy for 2014-17 Creative Scotland On Screen, following the delivery of a comprehensive Film Sector Review and further consultation with the film sector and Government. It focuses on the
five key areas of film education, talent and skills development, film development and production, inward investment and co-productions and distribution, and exhibition and audiences. In this year we will focus our efforts on the priorities for film set out in this strategy.
Creative Industries:
Our support for the creative industries is being developed with Scotland’s Creative Industries Partnership (SCIP), which brings together Scottish Government, Creative Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Funding Council, Skills Development Scotland, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), Business Gateway, Scottish Local Authorities Economic Development Group (SLAED) and Voice of Chief Officers for Cultural, Community and Leisure Services in Scotland (VOCAL). The creative industries are driven by people with individual creative skills generating and exploiting intellectual assets, contributing to wealth creation and jobs. They encompass a wide range of commercial creative activities spanning advertising, architecture, computer games, crafts, design, fashion and textiles, film, visual art, music, dance and theatre, writing and publishing, photography, radio and television, software and electronic publishing.
We have five shared ambitions for the arts, screen and creative industries for the period up to 2024:
Excellence and experimentation across the arts, screen and creative industries is recognised and valued
Everyone can access and enjoy artistic and creative experiences
Places and quality of life are transformed through imagination, ambition and an understanding of the potential of creativity
Ideas are brought to life by a diverse, skilled and connected leadership and workforce
Scotland is a distinctive creative nation connected to the world.
As well as our ambitions there are four connecting themes that run through all aspects of our work, these are:
Creative Learning
We want to encourage organisations including ourselves, to be responsive, adaptive and continually learn
Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Equalities are integral to everything we do and are essential in delivering quality in the arts, screen and creative industries
Digital
Digital technology offers exciting opportunities for creativity, society and the economy of Scotland
Environment
Climate change is one of the most significant challenges that face us today. We want to ensure that we work in as sustainable manner as possible and that the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland do the same.
We value:
Collaboration
We will listen to the needs of others and work in partnership across all aspects of public life
Commitment
We care deeply about the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland and are committed to their continued wellbeing and development
Trust
We will build relationships based on fairness, openness and mutual respect, sharing our knowledge and enthusiasm
Knowledge
We will place knowledge and expertise, across a range of art forms and specialisms, at the heart of our organisation and seek to be an organisation that continually learns, adapts and improves how we work.
Funding, Advocacy, Development and Influence
We support the arts, screen and creative industries as a funder, an advocate, a development agency and as an organisation that seeks to influence others to increase opportunity and maximise the impact our resources can offer.
Funding
We distribute funding from two primary sources, the Scottish Government (Grant in Aid) and the National Lottery. Our funding is the means by which we sustain a portfolio of organisations across Scotland; support the development of individuals; fund ideas and projects and develop partnerships to address strategic need. We will do this through three funding routes:
• Regular funding for organisations for three years
• Open Project Funding is our main route for individuals and organisations to deliver time limited projects
• Targeted funds focused on delivering strategic programmes of work often in partnership with others.
In October 2014 we announced our portfolio of Regularly Funded Organisations for the funding period April 2015 to March 2018. Regular funding provides stable funding to organisations in the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland, enabling them to develop and implement a programme of agreed activities over a three-year period.
This is the largest portfolio of organisations to be awarded three-year funding from Creative Scotland. We funded 119 Organisations (RFOs) in total, of which 20 are new to regular funding of any kind. The overall budget for this programme is £100m over the 3-year period, representing over a third of Creative Scotland’s anticipated total budget for 2015-18. The portfolio is rich in its creative excellence, potential and ambition, and demonstrates significant reach across Scotland and across many areas of practice. It consists of some of Scotland’s most important, innovative and exciting cultural and creative organisations, producing and presenting great work across craft, dance, film, literature, music, theatre and visual art.