ANYONE who has tried to pursue a career in the arts in Scotland will tell you that it is no mean feat without a combination of money, connections and luck.

Now, Creative Scotland’s cancellation of the Open Fund will make it even more difficult for Scottish artists to make their mark – and it is an affront on Scotland’s world-renowned culture, which is ironically being showcased in all its glory at this year’s Edinburgh Festival at the time of this announcement.

The festival is a prime example of the problem, and I have been told by several performers that if they do not sell out their shows, they will be at a loss. This even includes those who have been fortunate enough to receive funding from bodies like Creative Scotland, so you can imagine how bad things will be without this vital £6 million fund.

I have also seen through my own work as a journalist how exploitative the Fringe can be. This year alone, at least one London company attempted to recruit interns to work the entire run – reviewing shows and carrying out other administrative work – for a token payment of £200 and no accommodation.

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I discovered that this company had been repeatedly coming to Edinburgh summer after summer and getting young Scottish graduates to work for them virtually for free simply because they know the situation is so bleak in Scotland that the chance of gaining experience in the arts is worth it for some.

It is a cold reality for many that if you want to pursue the arts in Scotland, this means finding the money yourself.

My first novel, Be Guid Tae Yer Mammy, which won Scots Book of the Year 2022, was published by crowdfunded publisher Unbound in 2021. For it to become a reality, I had to raise thousands of pounds and convince strangers on the internet to believe in my story about an eccentric Glaswegian granny. It took almost a year.

Afterwards, I thought it was unlikely that I would ever get published again, as there was no way I could ask people to support me like that twice. It only happened when comedian Janey Godley was kind enough to recommend her publisher, Luath Press, to me, and they liked my work. Once again, bringing home not only the need for money for Scottish creatives, but connections.

Scottish art is of huge cultural value, even when it is not financially viable in the way our other exports like oil and gas are. Forgive me for the comparison, but it does feel like we are increasingly living in a capitalist society that values profitability above all else.

In my case, it is an unfortunate reality of the publishing industry that most authors make less than £1 for every book they sell. For niche Scottish creators like me, this means that we almost inevitably support ourselves with full-time jobs, sacrificing our free time and often money to share our stories. This year, one comedian revealed he did a medical trial, deliberately catching malaria, to fund his Edinburgh Fringe show, and to be honest, I have considered similar.

(Image: Jane Barlow/PA Wire)

For the past two summers, I have been lucky enough to attend Scotland’s Creative Writing Centre Moniack Mhor – a place where beneficiaries of grants such as the Creative Scotland fund often go to work – and my attendance has been entirely self-funded. While I appreciate that I was lucky enough to be able to make enough money elsewhere, the reality is that it should not be this difficult for Scottish people to create.

Art is work, and those who pursue it shouldn’t be left at a loss, or simply prevented from pursuing it altogether by a lack of funding.

The decision to cut Creative Scotland’s £6m of funding appears to be yet another symptom of late-stage capitalism, where everything becomes about money. With a total budget of £59.7 billion, the Scottish Government is cutting back a comparatively small amount of its total budget, but it will have a real impact on our vibrant cultural landscape, which has always been a source of pride.

Without Scotland’s storytellers, singers and other creatives, we start to lose one of the most important things we have – our culture – and surely that is worth a comparatively small investment from a multi-billion-pound budget? At a time when society is more divided than ever by wealth, the things that united us culturally are more important than ever.