AGENDA
The Scottish Arts Council is campaigning to ensure that money raised in Scotland for the new National Lottery should be spent in Scotland. The lottery, unveiled in the Queen's Speech, hopes to raise about £1 billion a year for increased funding in the arts, sport and historic buildings when it comes into being in 1994.
‘The National Lottery represents the most significant increase in funding for the arts for many years.‘ says Christine Hamilton, Director of Planning and Development at the SAC. ‘It is important that we get a system for distributing the funds which is responsive to Scotland‘s needs?
While welcoming the general concept, the SAC sounded a note of caution, asking the government for reassurance that any funds raised be considered as additional. not an alternative, to public funding. The SAC has proposed a separate Lottery Board for Scotland, which would consider the different requirements for arts development
SAC backs Scottish lottery
north of the border, given Scotland’s 3 unique cultural traditions. ‘lt is important that the Scottish Lottery Board be given the discretion to address specific
1 Scottish needs,‘ continues Hamilton,
: ‘with proper evaluation and
assessment procedures. and be ’ flexible in their remit to allow . support to be given to special ; “one-off" projects.’
The lottery scheme is one of the
first projects to be undertaken by the i new Ministry for National Heritage. Secretary of State David Mellor is 3 currently considering various submissions on how the scheme should be organised. Although it is likely to be run by a consortium of companies. no decision has been made yet as to whether the draw should have a large number of small prizes or one jackpot. Meanwhile, in Eire, the organisers ofthat country‘s Lotto are having to rethink the rules after a 28-strong gambling syndicate snatched the lion‘s share of last weekend‘s Ir£1.7 million jackpot. (Alan Morrison)
_ _ Kids’ hospice
A new charitable company has been set up In orderto create Scotland’s tIrst children's hospice. The Children’s Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS) aims to encourage public awareness oi the need tor such a project, which would care tor children with lite-threatening conditions, and then to raise sutticient tunds tor the building at a hospice and its subsequent running costs.
At the moment, there are six such hospices In England, but none north at
the border. They otter iamin breaks tor the parents and siblings ot children requiring constant intensive care, allowing the relatives some welcome respite irom the physical and emotional strain placed on them by day-to-day caring. As well as being able to participate as a tamin unit In activities organised by volunteers, trained stall can provide as much of the care that the tamin wish. The hospice environment also encourages mutual support between iamilies and children with similar problems.
Anyone interested in getting Involved . in the campaign or willing to make a i donation should contact CHAS at 14 St ,5 Colme Street, Edinburgh, EH3 GM. 2 (AM)
. Presidency of the EEC irom July to
thousands at pounds, but we spread It a
Letthere be lux
‘Most at us who are strong Europeans are led up with Europe being seen entirely through tarm prices and . immigration controls and never as culture,’ says ex-Edinburgh Festival boss and ex-Radio 3 supremo, John Drummond, talking the standard nineteen-to-the-dozen about his pet project, The European Arts Festival. ‘It‘s the cultural connection which really makes the Community. That’s where the real cement is, not In arguments about whether there should be border controls.’
Put together in just iourteen weeks, the testivai is a nationwide celebration at ‘European excellence In a British context’ that runs parallel to Britain's
December. Initiated by John Major himselt, the testivai embraces 650 events covering theatre, music, art and tilm, as well as a large education package. ltthe government-funded budget oi £6 million sounds a lot, it is brought down to size by remembering that, on Its own, Edinburgh’s December EEC Summit will cost as much. And six months at events across the whole country-there are about the same number oi projects in Scotland as in London - has quickly eaten into the tund. ‘It sounds a lot at money,’ says Drummond, ‘and it is a lot when you’re able to give a small company
w
EUROPEAN ARTS
gFESTl VAL
' long way.’
Perhaps the biggest, and certainly the most visible, event In Scotland will be Lux Europae, an Edinburgh-wide exhibition at light-based sculpture which will illuminate the city irom Octoberto January. Drummond was able to ball out Brian McMaster, whose most ambitious European plans could have been thwarted by the Edinburgh Festival’s inherited detIcit, but instead were realised with the successlul booking at the Pina Bausch Company. Similarly Scottish Opera’s shelved plan tor another Opera-Go-Round tour was resuscitated at the last minute. All this plus an exhibition of Miro’s sculpture, a Glasgow testivai oi French tilms and the Tron Theatre’s Irish drama season.
‘I hope the long-term legacy oi this testivai is the realisation that we want It every year,’ enthuses Drummond. ‘I argued that with the Arts Minister and he said It you make a case tor it, it will be considered. The problem Is that people don’t make cases tor it, they’re so busy trying to balance their books, they don’t have time to look at what
they really want.’ (Mark Fisher)
_ Cruelty Free
The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) has published a new ‘Approved Product Guide‘ which lists over 200
companies who do not test their products or ingredients on animals. Latest government figures show a decrease from 12.090 cosmetic tests in the UK in 1989 to 4365 in 1990. The guide is available free from BUAV, 16a Crane Grove, London N7 8LB, or from a special 24-hour hotline on 071 700 0252.
_ New centre not all talk
As Canary Wharf becomes a new by-word for that old adage ‘Ha, ha. ha, serves you right‘, the builders are moving in near Lothian Road to do for Edinburgh what Thatcher‘s dream development failed to do for London. It has taken years of wrangling and lots of borrowing (£25 million from Edinburgh City Council and £75 million from Lothian Regional Council), but before the 2 millennium is over, a new 3 international conference centre will see the light ofday.
Lothian Road has never been very sure of itself. Neither Old Town ! charm or New Town affluence, it is a curious mish-mash, congested and confused. Grand gestures such as g--. _, __. ,. ___-. 4The List 5— 18June 1992
Festival Square have proved little more than architectural jokes. but the new centre. to be sited on the corner of Morrison Street and the Western Approach. goes boldly where no developer has gone before.
i
f architect Terry Farrell claims it will
It‘s big, brash and expensive. and
transform the area.
‘lts impact will be tremendous”, Farrell insists, emphasising flexibility as the centre‘s major
' selling point. ‘The main auditorium
will seat 1200, but it can be split into three smaller rooms. There is also
provision for three break-out rooms
which can operate as cinemas. and a 2
large exhibition area‘.
Dissenting voices on local councils i and elsewhere that expressed unease I
over the height ofthe project, in particular the accompanying office development, have been placated by major alterations to the original plans which Farrell now admits were over-inflated. ‘People still believed that any amount of space would sell, but we‘ve all learned a few things since the recession, and one of them is not to over-scale‘.
Whether the new centre will lure many major events to the city has yet to be seen but anyone requiring a large Edinburgh venue in 1995, complete with catering space, cinemas and 1200 seats, must be quick — bookings are already being taken. (Aaron Hicklin)