Top composer calls Scottish arts ‘dysfunctional’
NewsStatement by Sir James MacMillan on the decision by Creative Scotland to defund the Lammermuir Festival:
‘Creative Scotland seems to be a dysfunctional organisation these days, with its different committees and decision makers arriving at diametrically opposed positions. This means Scottish culture is in a terrifying and perilous place just now. One would have thought that as the Scottish dispenser of State culture subsidy those involved would want to show themselves off as paragons of Scottish exceptionalism, and being able to deliver things differently and better than their equivalents down south. But they seem to have signed up to the same animosity towards classical music that the (English) Arts Council have been slammed for recently. Is this ignorance or ideology that is now working against the Scottish music scene? The disgraceful treatment of Lammermuir is an attack on all classical music in Scotland and we all must be prepared to take a stand in fighting against these wrecking ball tactics.’
Oh, but Scottish music has been *colonised* by pieces by people like Mozart and Bach and Beethoven and Elgar (hiss, hiss), and Scotland will take her rightful place among the nations again only when this is put right.
Drivel
What a stupid remark, unless it’s your sense of humour – with a U! Ha, ha!
Oh, and I did, when SD reported this before, make a somewhat tart remark about the supposed EDI criteria that seem to have been. Why can my oeuvre not be judged as a whole? (Sigh)
Some people are immune to irony. Did not the opening “Oh” give it away? Did not the extraordinarily banal “people like”? Did not the “hiss, hiss” give it away? Did not the use of the currently fashionable “colonised”?
Caught between a rock and hard place.
To the Right, it is something that should stand on its own two feet commercially, to the Left it is popular with the “wrong” sort of people. Too few people genuinely believe in its intrinsic value. Organisations like the BBC, which have traditionally supported the Arts, seem to losing faith. Then there’s education…….
Some practitioners and organisations seem determined to attract ridicule which undermines the case for subsidy in the minds of members of the public who are not totally committed. The number of snide references to “arty types” seems to be increasing. Dismiss this if you will, but it matters.
Local authorities have used support for the Arts to bolster local economies but this is exposed for its shallowness when money is tight. Not sure how Birmingham is going to fare.
The Government isn’t particularly interested, but don’t count on the next one being any better.
IMO, arts institutions won’t disappear completely, but access for people of limited means will shrink considerably.
If his public statements are anything to go by, Sunak has rather infantile cultural tastes and awareness. Starmer, on the other hand, is a proficient, trained musician and has appointed an erstwhile professional ‘cellist as the Shadow Culture Secretary. If Labour were to win the next election, I would indeed hope the next government will be better. Not counting any chickens though…
Creative Scotland is a basket case . The truth is Lammermmuir was put forward by the music officers for funding and rejected- god knows why- by the central committee.
It’s really a tale of incompetence not political conspiracy and Creative Scyat the top level has been guilty of this for years.
How can anyone comment on the treatment of Lammermuir without seeing the quality of the bid?
If they treated EDI as a tick box exercise, they deserve to be defunded, because they are asking for public money, which is raised by all, not just the supporters of classical music.
If organisations are determined to keep their events as cosy clubs for ‘our sort of people’ then they need to raise funding privately from ‘their sort of people’ and not leach of the public purse.
If you cannot articulate what measures you have taken / will take to ensure that your event is as inclusive as possible to those who might be interested in attending, there’s the problem that needs fixing.
The organisers of Lammermuir should publish what they submitted so we can make an informed judgement of just how ‘unfairly’ they have been treated.
You misunderstand the process the bid was recommended by the officers at all levels and rejected by the secretive management committee.
Differences of opinion about quality of submissions are not unusual. Lammermuir should publish their EDI statement for all to see. Otherwise criticism of Creative Scotland simply amounts to ‘Lammermuir should have got funding, simply because it is classical music’.
The only good thing about the Equality Act (2010) is that it prohibits positive discrimination and this include the use of quotas. ‘Quality’ should be the watchword for any artistic endeavour, not the weasel words Diversity, Inclusion and Equity. Classical music should be proud or its history and culture. It should be shouting from the roof tops that if you want a real, live experience then come and watch us, come and hear us. Be part of a thousand years of learning about sound, movement and emotions. If you want to be part of us all it takes is hours of practice, blood, sweat and tears. Or use the short route and join a choir. It’s worth it.
‘Lammermuir should have got funding, simply because it is classical music’. If it’s good enough then yes.
So your bid reads, we have a high quality product therefore we deserve funding. I hope Lammermuir’s bid was a lot better than yours!
The question is, you think you have a high-quality product so what are you doing / have you done to make it as accessible to all as possible?
Because it is clearly not ethical to take the public’s money and then directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously exclude (sections of) the public.
I would have thought that was obvious but obviously not.
Can you give examples of the aorts of excludings you allude to? What might consist in excluding sections of the public from the Lammermuir Festival?
Well that headline is utterly untrue and distorts what he said intentionally.
He is referring to the agency Creative Scotland which , for the avoidance of doubt, is awful.
Well said, James! He has spent his life supporting the arts and particularly music in Scotland for years, along with Nicola Benedetti more recently. These people with all their fame, success and high profiles, go into places quietly behind the scenes creating opportnity the where others don’t, and bring music to the deprived areas of Scotland. I was in Scottish Opera in the 80s. Opera Go Round did a great but difficult job going into areas of Glasgow one would rather not go. Even then funding was dodgy with SO heavily in debt then. That is where I met James. I hope the powers that be listen to him. It’s perpetually a very steep hill to climb.
Does any Arts funding organisation in the UK know what it’s doing these days? Certainly in the case of supporting Classical music enterprises, it would appear not; although I gather a lot of funding is going to projects under the Black Lives Matter movement. In Scotland, during the dark days of Lockdown, none of the Scottish orchestras, Opera or Ballet companies, said anything about the future path of Classical music in their hands. Certainly writing to local MSPs on this subject did not even seem important enough to warrant a decent reply. The only individuals who spoke out in the UK on this matter were Sir Simon Rattle and Nicola Benedetti. The Arts Council were also quiet. Too easily intimidated by politics, no doubt! I don’t know much about the Lammermuir Festival, but any such vital orgainsation being robbed of its funding is sad. Then again, this is the UK. So, nothing surprises me. Maybe an ethnic-friendly community event like a String Quartet Festival in a garden shed somewhere might catch the attention for future funding! Who knows? To alter an Air from a Purcell Ode, ‘Go, go, ye sons of Art; go, go, awa-a-a-a-y! ‘ That seems appropriate for our warped age!
Date: 23rd September 2023.
I concur fully with Sir James McMillan’s misgivings. This is not just about a rural community in the Southern Uplands but an all-too-familiar example of cultural “dumbing down” across the entire UK outwith London and a mere handful of English cities.
A question: Is “Creative (sic) Scotland” reliant totally on exchequer funding or does it have charitable status? An old adage springs to mind: “He who pays the Piper calls the tune.”
Richard Stanbrook.