Karen Dick Creative Scotland
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e know that art and creativity improve our communities, support regeneration, provide vital hubs and bring people together. This has never been more important than over the last year, with the cultural sector, like others, being challenged and changed by the continuing impact of Covid-19, and the measures necessary to contain the virus. Working in partnership in local areas with key partners like ANGUSalive, has been vital in helping us understand and address the needs of the cultural sector in regions across Scotland.
September 2021. Local partnerships play a key part in making this happen. It has been great having ANGUSalive continue as a partner in Creative Scotland’s Visual Artist and Craft Makers Awards (VACMA) scheme. VACMA offers small grants to visual artists and craft makers for their creative development at all stages of their career. These small awards can make a big difference for artists and makers, and have wider benefits of talent retention and increased public engagement with arts and crafts.
The Angus Place Partnership, hosted by Hospitalfied in partnership with ANGUSalive, Angus Council, Creative Scotland and community partners like Arbroath 2020, began in 2017. Focussing on raising the visibility of the vibrant cultural offer in Angus, the March 2020 lockdown led to rescheduling of various plans, including many of the celebrations for Arbroath 2020. However, local and national partners were committed to the development and delivery of a cultural strategy for Angus, and to ensure that there was a plan in place to help support the culture and heritage sector to rebuild and renew. The Angus Cultural Strategy, developed throughout 2020/21, demonstrates our shared priorities and commitment to working together, locally and nationally, to support local cultural ambitions.
The impact of Covid-19 on venues and cultural spaces has been significant. Creative Scotland delivered funding to three of ANGUSalive’s venues through the Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund, part of the Scottish Government’s Covid-19 Emergency Funding package. Over £110,000 was provided to The Webster (Arbroath), Reid Hall (Forfar) and Montrose Town Hall, to remove the threat of insolvency and avoid redundancies, and provide employment and commissioning opportunities for artists and creative practitioners. This investment recognised the importance of local venues to communities, for tourism and economic development and as part of the cultural infrastructure of Scotland.
Creative Scotland wants more people, from across all parts of society, to have opportunities to participate in a range of artistic and creative activities, to understand and appreciate their value and to be able to work in the arts, screen and creative industries. This is one reason we launched Our Creative Voice in
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Looking to the future, we look forward to joining The Angus Culture and Heritage Consortium, led by ANGUSalive, to support the delivery of the Angus Cultural Strategy and help to drive a sustainable recovery for the cultural sector in Angus. Despite the challenging and difficult circumstances of the last year, our partnership with ANGUSalive has been strengthened and we are in a better position to support communities and the local cultural sector to raise their creative voice.
