Stronger international cultural networks

3.22 Strategic agencies also accrued experience that needs to be exploited in the design and delivery of the Cultural Programme for Glasgow 2014. Involvement in the Programme provided invaluable experience for Creative Scotland staff, including the Creative Programmer for Scotland, as well as other strategic partners in Scotland, producing a skills legacy that can be exploited for the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme. The Cultural Strategy Oversight Group (CSOG), established by the Scottish Government, was identified as a valuable outcome of the arrangements put in place for the London 2012 Games. This group encouraged partnership working, dissemination and sharing across the main strategic bodies with a stake in culture in Scotland and will continue to play an important role in the lead up to, and beyond, Glasgow 2014.

Stronger international cultural networks

3.23

3.24 Festivals Edinburgh provides a useful illustration of a partnership that enabled greater impact internationally through the catalyst provided by increased funding. Although this structure preceded the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, the additional funding, which came from Scottish Government Expo Fund and from Creative Scotland, enabled individual festivals to reach out to wider international cultural networks. A good example of this is the World Fringe Congress which brought together Festival Fringe organisers from across the world. Similarly, the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival were able to use its additional resources to create new international musical collaborations during 2012. Furthermore, the Edinburgh Writer’s Conference brought together Scotland’s leading writers with international authors for a series of discussions simultaneously broadcast online around the world.

NVA’s Speed of Light also generated significant international profile (see case study), attracting the attention of festival and event networks and leading to a number of new commissions including in Japan and in Germany. Claire Cunningham, a recipient of an Unlimited commission for her Ménage à Trois show, was invited back to the Southbank as artist-in-residence and to perform it again as part of Women of the World in March 2013. She will then be performing Ménage à Trois in Doha, Qatar and the British Council has invited her to be part of Transform UK Brazil.

Conclusion

3.25 By their nature, partnerships are varied by scale, scope, duration and depth. Some of the most important long-term connections or relationships formed may have been an unintended consequence of funding through the Programme. That said, there is evidence that fruitful partnerships have been forged as an outcome of the Programme both at the strategic level and within the projects. However, the formation of new partnerships across sectors is limited and further attention needs to be paid to fostering greater international connections if that is an important objective for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Cultural Programme. Encouragingly, there is evidence to suggest that projects were interested in continuing to work with their partners in the future, albeit the form of that partnership is dependent on new commissions and resource considerations. Strategically, though operating in a challenging, complex cultural programming environment, working relationships have been strengthened, which provides optimism looking forward to Glasgow 2014.