A rose by any other name
Last week, culture minister Patricia Ferguson made a long-awaited policy announcement on the future of Scottish culture. Among her plans: 220 million per year more spending, and the merger of Scottish Screen with the Arts Council. Eddie Thornton asked key figures from the cultural scene to give their response.
Ian Rankin
AUTHOR
'Wresting control away t'i'om the Sx\(' will take initiatives and decisions away li'om agreed esperts and specialists and into the hands ol hard-pressed politicians and their minions. How this is supposed to help those in the so-called creative community (iod alone knows. In the end very little will he done to improve the lot ol' the actual artists.’
Richard Jobson
FILMMAKER
‘It's a really good thing that more money is heing put into the arts. But I'm nervous ol‘ Scottish Screen heing pulled into this new (‘reative Scotland agency. Scottish Screen was party to creating an industry here in Scotland. I'm very worried that without it. lilrn will lall down the list ol' importance. helow dance and theatre. II' it hecomes the poor cousin again. we‘re all in trouhle.‘
Richard Holloway
CHAIRMAN OF THE SCOTTISH ARTS COUNCIL
‘A rose hy any other name will smell as sweet. and the same goes for non-departmental puhlic hodies. The S.\(‘ is not dying. it is heing tt‘;tltsligltt‘c‘d oi' transformed into another hody. without having to negotiate the large tankers ol’ the national companies through narrow l'unding canals. So. yes. I welcome the changes. particularly the new money £20 million that will he injected in Scottish culture.~
Vicky Featherstone
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, NATIONAL THEATRE SCOTLAND 'While it‘s important that the NTS remains well l‘unded. the rest ol‘ Scottish theatre has to he equally well landed in order that as an art form we can he successl'ul. There has to he a healthy infrastructure that we at the NTS are part ol‘ and supporting. htit that people aren‘t relying on its entirely for recourses. I think it‘s vital that extra l'unds exist for the confidence ol~ Scottish theatref
John Fardell
ILLUSTRATOR
"There is a slight lack ol’ understanding with politicians that the best art isn't always to do with some agenda. otherwise you'd always end up with something like the Millennium Dome. People involved with branding and spin can never switch that off and they perhaps don't understand the processes which go into the creation of art.'
Don Paterson
POET AND PLAYWRIGHT
‘It sounds like the usual thing ol‘ commissioning a great big expensive report from l‘olk they said they trusted. and then cherry-picking the hits they wanted to hear while skipping the rest..
10 THE LIST 27716 Feb 2006
Ginnie Atkinson
MANAGING DIRECTOR.
EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
'I am not certain how the relationship hetwcen art. ci'cati\ ity and enterprise will he made to work. as it is a totiin enough dynamic in the creatiye industries already. My understanding of the Ads ('ouncil is that
there is less emphasis on the commercial outcome ol’
the artistic endeayour than there is at Scottish Screen. I think this is a fundamental factor in creativity is it for arts sake or is it tor enterpr'ise‘.’~
Tommy Sheppard FOUNDER, THE STAND COMEDY CLUB ‘It's ama/ing how people can make a dehate on the arts
seem so dull and turgid. Nowhere is there a l‘ecling ol
what culture actually is. You feel the people leading arts policy prohath think Arctic Monkeys are loud and not very good assuming they've heard of them.‘
Louise Welsh
AUTHOR
"I’here seems a reluctance to giye money directly to the practitioners. It you ask anyhody on the ground they‘d tell you to give money directly to people who are
practicing arts and not making money out til it. Part ot
the reluctance is political hecause artists will not necessarily come tip with what politicians will want them to come tip with.’
Lorenzo Mele
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, 7:84 THEATRE COMPANY
‘I’atricia I'cl'gltson's statement represents a welcome acknowledgemcnt that the arts in Scotland need governmental support to match their international standing. However. the creation ol' ('reative Scotland will only he meaningful il‘ its processes are more transparent than those of the current Sx\('.'
The plans are outlined in detail at www.scotland.gov.uleopics/Arts-Culture
David Tennant in ‘Look Back in Anger’
PlUCKIIIG FRUITS FROM THE CUITURAI BUSH
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With which to point straight at It". skull With the name of his; next comedy proiect the BBC his lost announced that he will he making a sitcom With it and its title? I earl Balloon As in going down like a (lead balloonl Dee Wlll play a world weary stand up called Rick Spleen and in the filmed pilot. Omid Djalili takes on the role of a grumpy dry cleaner while Raquel Cassidy plays Spleen's Wife and agent
Jonathan Rhys Meyers has iorned the cast of kids' lantaSy film August Rush which starts filming in March Robin Williams and Freddie “Charlie Bucket’ Highmore are already involved in the fairytale movre set in New York's Central Park Bonkers old Pink has a new album out in April informativer titled I'm Not Dead while cra/y bean 50 Cent appears in the vid for her new Single. “Stupid Girls', which takes an Eminemesoue poke at her ShOWbl/ peers Daniel Day- Lewis is about to find himself in front of Paul Thomas Anderson's camera for a meme about an Oil prospector who strikes gold (well. Oll) in California. There Will Be Blood is loosely based on a 1927 novel by Upton Sinclair . . . Dundee- based artist Nathan Coley. who last year reached the heady heights of number five in The List's Hot 100, has Signed up to Create a major summer-long installation at M0unt Stuart on the Isle of Bute. opening on the first weekend in May . . . Not exactly a surprise this. but Elton John wrll show up on the Scissor Sisters‘ next album. due out in the spring. “I Don't Feel Like Dancrng‘ is the name of the collaborative ditty.