I’ve been lucky enough to have the space to do some thinking these past few weeks, and like many who have had this privilege, have been reflecting on the year past and what the next holds. Specifically this has been about the area I work and so passionately (albeit with regular frustration) believe in, arts + culture.
Against a backdrop of continued struggle and cuts for local services, increasing challenges of job security and general costs of living, and wider global conflict, the importance of inter-connectedness and deepening our shared and collective sense of accountability is ever in my mind.
It is against this that I have been thinking about the ‘service’ of arts + culture, by that I mean the fundamental right we all have to expression and celebration of our individual and shared identities and those of the places we live; the projects, spaces and programmes that allow us to not only take part in such activities but be part of making them happen. The idea of ‘service’ has been influenced in part by the reading of ‘Serviceberry’, Robin Wall Kimmerer, where she talks of the need for greater connection and respect for our interdependency across all things.
Creative expression and participation is vital, and I would challenge those who might say ‘art’ is not for them, or they are not ‘creative’, to share detail of their lives where I cannot find ways by which they take part in, rely on even, arts + culture. The problem lies in what we consider arts + culture to be, and by association, the systems we have to support the creation and the participation in.
I would see arts + culture as a sector that is truly in service of the people, a service that EVERYONE sees themselves reflected in and benefits from without barrier of perception or financial status. One that negotiates the individual needs and unique characteristics of our communities and regularly asks itself: Who is this for, who benefits from this work, and who is not benefitting from this?
Support for the professional development of the business of art making is of course vital, as all sectors require, but by rebalancing sector development and strategy to the service of arts + culture there is an opportunity to move away from the elitism of our sector to one that is for us all.
There is much to unpick in this concept, as many others have done before, and this is a first stab for me in putting thoughts down. The key areas my musings have gone to include:
An expanded definition of arts + culture - One that includes the ways we gather, celebrate, and protest, the spaces we value, need and use. The grassroots culture-making found in the community choirs, galas, fundays, and the documentation and sharing of the stories and histories of the people, places and communities we live in.
Participation – A rebalance towards valuing and investing in homegrown, grassroots culture alongside stronger frameworks of accountability for public money that goes towards audience development of cultural events and programmes that a lesser percentage of society see themselves reflected in (opera, ballet, orchestras). These are of course also important, but I would like to see us ask ourselves more deeply, who the beneficiaries of public funding are, and can we improve our value / benefit for public funds to ensure the widest possible access? This could include…
A grant for cultural participation - Should every event that has public funding also have an access policy that allows for cheap tickets for young people and low-income households? Could every child have an allowance for culture to make finance less of a barrier for participation?
Access – Can we move away from conversations solely focused on ‘audience development’ towards more honest and courageous ones such as: Are ‘harder to reach’ communities interested in our events in the first place, what do they have of their own, who is already doing work within these places and how are we supporting that?
An ‘Art Service’ - I would like to see a separation between developing the profession, the business of art making, from the right I strongly believe every individual has to cultural celebration, creative expression + participation. We can better support the small businesses, the sole traders, workers, venues and organisations that trade in arts + culture if we have a separate understanding and framework of support for the ‘service’ of arts + culture, the projects and programmes without barriers and paywalls that are focused on the process of participation.
A different framework of success - The ‘art service’ we need, and indeed many already deliver on, requires a different set of accountabilities and measurements for success: The contribution of these arts + culture programmes to society, not through consumption (participation numbers) but by what they initiate through processes of engagement and co-creation; the skills they develop and create pathways for; the individual agency they inspire.
Fair Work – The precarity of arts + culture work and workers is real. I would like to see a more nuanced conversation on working needs and rates, across disciplines, between those in the sector, unions (Scottish Artists Union, Musicians Union, Equity, Screen Scotland) and groups and organisations that considers the different types of work that is done within our projects and programmes, and the increasing barriers for certain communities to access funds.
Shared wealth and resource - I’d like to be part of honest conversations with local government that includes proactive solutions alongside advocacy for more impactful investment for arts + culture. Funding and support for arts as a service cannot be looked at separately from other budgets otherwise it will keep trying to fill ever increasing deficits in service delivery. It must be looked at together as part of a holistic strategy for healthy and sustainable living and economic development. There are levers we could be looking at such as community benefit commitments of wind farms, housing associations and how communities’ access support from these for their cultural work. In practice this is falling way short of its potential.
Localised service delivery – To recognise the ‘service’ of arts + culture in local delivery. This requires deeper partnership and collaboration work and an opening up of national agencies and public bodies (e.g. SDS, HES, NTS, Development Agencies, TSI’s etc.). The creation of new local structures and support systems (such as cooperatives) that allow the many sole traders and small businesses in our sector to collectivise around work opportunities and service delivery. In her year-end update[1], Naomi Mason, CLES Senior Researcher and Scotland lead, talks of the appetite for economic system change that is more than one step ‘away from the centre’ to more community-based delivery models.
Devolved governance – Moving away from centralised and hierarchal governance to community scale systems of decision-making. Within arts + culture this would mean work is developed and delivered more directly by those they seek to be for. This requires not only a dispersement of power but a relinquishing by those who currently hold it through citizen assemblies, community ownership, local procurement frameworks. A recent provocation paper by Indy Johar ‘Governing Tomorrow’[2] suggests a healthy future society requires with an entirely rethought governance architecture that is responsive and flexible to fast paced innovations (such as AI). New systems will need to be founded on collaboration, stewardship, and collective wisdom, through a vastly expanded notion of distributed agency in negotiation spaces, sensing (understanding the impact of our actions), and collective learning.
This past year I have had the privilege to step into spaces and be part of digging into many of these ideas and concepts, hearing and learning about ways they have and have not worked for others. I am hopeful in the great work of so many doing great things collaboratively, openly, and with the courage of experimentation and collective learning.
I hope we can continue this work together into 2025. Please do get in touch with your thoughts and ideas.
“Intentional communities of mutual self-reliance and reciprocity are the wave of the future, and their currency is sharing.” Kimmer, R W (2024)
[1] Mason, Naomi (2024) Community wealth building: Scottish policy and practice update, Centre for Local Economic Strategies, available from https://cles.org.uk/blog/scottish-policy-and-practice-update-dec-24/, (accessed Dec 2024)
[2] Johar, Indy (2025) Governing Tomorrow: Outlining the Long Arc of Governance, Dark Matter Labs, available from https://media.licdn.com/dms/document/media/v2/D4E1FAQFRu6lmVVqBvw/feedshare-document-pdf-analyzed/B4EZQsP1m3HAAc-/0/1735909140676?e=1736985600&v=beta&t=NKRr3I006dqSORmgiNuXxq1r8y4u7PceDpM6pIkXluQ (accessed Jan 2025)
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