Published on : Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Her resignation follows sequence of controversial funding decisions in January that witnessed a number of theatre companies for children, and others, lose their funding in the Year of Young People.
Even though, their funding was reinstated later, the cuts caused in the resignation of numerous board members, a query by the Scottish Parliament’s culture committee and a review of the public body’s funding procedures.
Following the committee inquiry, Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee convener Joan McAlpine called concerns showed by the arts sector about Creative Scotland’s funding decisions and communication “deeply worrying” and said they required “further scrutiny”.
Another committee member, Clare Baker, explained that there had been “a distinct lack of consistency and transparency” and that some in the sector who had “lost confidence in the process followed by Creative Scotland”.
To quote Creative Scotland chair Robert Wilson who thanked Archer for all she had achieved over the previous five years and for “the important contribution she has made to Creative Scotland, to the arts, screen and creative industries and to public life in Scotland more broadly”.
She said: “Over the past five years, we have supported artistic excellence, and equalities, diversity and inclusion.
“We accelerated our work for young people and supported creative projects in all of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas.
“We have also enhanced international support across artforms, especially for screen.”
She continued: “I’m pleased that in a difficult public financial context, Creative Scotland managed to work closely with the Scottish Government to secure an additional £19.8m funding for 2018-21 for regularly funded organisations to replace the unexpected steep downturn in National Lottery funding, as well as an additional £10m annual support for screen.”
Tags: chief executive, Janet Archer