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Sir Sandy Crombie, chairman of the board of Creative Scotland, has acknowledged that his organisation is "not perfect" and offered to meet with as many as possible of the signatories to the open letter issued this week by 100 artists—including prominent authors such as A L Kennedy and Ian Rankin—who criticised the organisation.
In a letter of response, Crombie said of the two-year-old funding body: "I think it is fair to say, and unsurprising, that in some cases our working methods are still developing. Are we perfect? No. Can we do better in a number of areas? Yes. But equally there is no shortage of evidence that we can and do perform well across a broad range of our activities."
The open letter criticised the body for "ill-conceived decision-making, unclear language, lack of empathy and regard for Scottish culture", as well as "a confused and intrusive management style married to a corporate ethos that seems designed to set artist against artist and company against company in the search for resources". The letter asked Creative Scotland to affirm the value of stable two-to-three year funding for small arts organisations; end the use of "business speak and obfuscating jargon"; revisit policies "with an eye to social and cultural as well as commercial values"; and ensure that funding decisions "are taken by people with art-form expertise".
Crombie said Creative Scotland wanted to create relationships "based on trust and mutual respect" and promised to examine thoroughly every point the letter had raised.
He promised that a board sub-group would consider the issue of whether those making funding decisions were experts in the field they were judging. "As a first move, we are making more information available on how such decisions are taken. We believe that those taking decisions have both the knowledge and expertise to do so, but acknowledge that this can be questioned," Crombie said. The latest round of funding decisions, newly published, had mainly offered two-year funding programmes, he said.
On the charge that Creative Scotland used obfuscatory language, he said: "Every professional community even the arts world has its own jargon, but we have no desire to be anything other than clear and understood by all."
However Crombie added: "At current rates of expenditure one thousand million pounds will pass through Creative Scotland in the course of a twelve-year period to be used in support of arts and cultural activity. They who provide the money have a right to ask what will result from that investment. The return does not rest solely in economic or commercial benefits, important though those are. It can come through social, cultural and reputational gains and of course through artistic excellence."
He concluded by saying he hoped "a constructive dialogue" could be developed to address the issues raised.