Arts & Business Scotland (A&BS) has revealed the key cultural challenges facing arts organisations in Fife following an extensive consultation process last year. The consultation analysed the views of over 300 participants in consultation roadshow events in spring 2014 as well as 143 responses to a national survey targeting organisations and individuals across the arts, heritage and cultural sectors.
A&BS Chief Executive David Watt said: “Arts & Business Scotland is committed to supporting the arts and providing a framework for a thriving and sustainable cultural sector. Our consultation process was very much about ensuring we are equipped with the knowledge to do this effectively, enabling us to address the challenges being faced by the sector both nationally and regionally.”
It has emerged that the key challenges facing cultural organisations in Fife are financial barriers; a culture of dependency among the arts; an education and employment gap; a lack of aspiration; and skills development. The analysis of responses highlighted a difficulty in finding and generating income to fund basic operations as well as a reliance on traditional sources of funding in the arts and as a lack of entrepreneurialism. There is a perception in Fife that there are very few job opportunities in the cultural sector for people leaving university and college with qualifications who are then forced into voluntary, unpaid roles. It also appears that there is a lack of aspiration and recognition of the value of arts and culture.
Some of the challenges being felt by the cultural sector in Fife are specific to the region while others are similar to challenges being felt across the country. The top five national challenges were identified as:
1. Lack of regional cultural cohesion and vision
2. Identifying and realising sustainable funding streams
3. Sourcing and developing skills in the arts, heritage and cultural sector
4. Creating successful collaboration and partnership working
5. Promoting and increasing awareness of the value of arts and culture
The full Consultation Report with the Fife regional annexe is here.
David Watt added: “Being able to identify the challenges being felt by the cultural sector in Fife is enormously helpful in ensuring these can be overcome and support is made available to address these issues. We are now underway with the next phase of our consultation which sees us rolling out regional development forums providing seminars and workshops specifically tailored to each region.
