MSP backs funding appeal to help arts facilities survive
Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant is backing a funding appeal to help secure the survival of a Caithness-based arts organisation.
Mrs Grant has written to Scotland’s culture secretary Fiona Hyslop seeking urgent support for North Lands Creative, the contemporary glass art gallery and studio in Lybster, as well as Highland Print Studio in Inverness.
It follows a plea from parent organisation Scotland’s Workshops for a £2 million slice of a £97 million rescue deal the UK government gave to the Scottish Government to help protect the nation’s culture, heritage and arts.
Scotland’s Workshops represents 11 creative facilities, including North Lands Creative and Highland Print Studio.
Mrs Grant said: “I have urged Fiona Hyslop to use some of this money to support these organisations which are suffering substantial financial losses and will continue to do so as lockdown eases.
“It will be some time before they are able to resume a regular service for their artists and communities and this impacts on their ability to earn income through sales, class income, private hires and commissions as well as to fundraise for future programmes and ventures.
“At the same time, they need to invest in staffing and infrastructure to adapt to a new way of working and ensure the livelihood of artists in Scotland.
"These studios are vital because they attract studio users from across the Highlands and Islands and further afield.
"Artists and freelancers are heavily reliant upon them for a living. This is where they find the space, tools, skills and galleries they need to generate and show new work. It is vital that they are given the financial support before it is too late.”
North Lands Creative director Karen Phillips said: “North Lands Creative is essential to the roadmap to recovery and to ensure that the arts and culture sector in Caithness will be part of the long-term strategy for living with Covid-19.
"We have a phenomenally important role to play in keeping us together as a local community and a vital part of contemporary Highland life. At a time of curtailed social interaction and time with friends and family, art represents a powerful tool for providing a sense of stability.
"To secure our organisation we require resilience funding to continue engagement and find new, safe ways to deliver our valuable work for the social, educational and physical development of people living in our community.”
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