Memorandum submitted by the Scottish Arts
Council
INTRODUCTION
The break up of the Arts Council of Great Britain
in 1994 led to the establishment of the Scottish Arts Council
along with the Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales and
the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
The Scottish Arts Council was established by
Royal Charter and operates at arm's length from the Scottish Executive.
In addition, the Scottish Arts Council has statutory functions
under the National Lottery Act 1993 as amended by the National
Lottery Act 1998.
The Scottish Arts Council is the lead body for
the funding, development and advocacy of the arts in Scotland.
In 2004-05 the Scottish Arts Council has a total budget of £67
million: £47 million (70%) of this money comes from the Scottish
Executive and £20 million (30%) from the National Lottery
fund.
SCOTTISH ARTS
COUNCIL SUPPORT
FOR VISUAL
ARTS
The Scottish Arts Council is concerned with
contemporary art and prioritises support to the work of living
artists.
The Council invests £3.9 million in the
visual arts each year (£3.881 million in 2004-05 and £3.975
million in 2005-06). This funding is used to support the visual
arts and encourage the production of new work in a number of ways
including:
— supporting a network of galleries
which deliver high quality exhibitions to Scottish audiences and
exhibit contemporary Scottish artists;
— additional investment in studios
and production facilities that support artists throughout the
country;
— supporting individual artists through
fellowships, awards and residences;
— assisting public collections to display
and promote contemporary work.
In addition, the Scottish Arts Council also
invests around £730,000 in supporting the Crafts Sector in
Scotland.
SCOTTISH ARTS
COUNCIL SUPPORT
FOR THE
ART MARKET
The Scottish Arts Council supports a number
of initiatives which specifically provide support for the art
market.
The Scottish Arts Council focuses its support
on the primary art market, encouraging more people to buy work,
as well as providing funds directly to Scottish artists to create
work. However, the Council also provides support to galleries
to market in the secondary art market of auction houses, dealers
and art fairs.
INTEREST FREE
CREDIT FACILITY
SCHEME—OWN
ART
Own Art is a new national scheme from Arts Council
England (ACE) and the Scottish Arts Council. Members of the public
are offered interest free loans of up to £2,000 over 10 months.
ACE research has shown the interest free facility encourages new
people to buy work, and existing clients to spend more money.
Own Art was set up to encourage increased purchasing
of contemporary art by individuals and thus generate more money
for living artists (and galleries). The development of the scheme
in Scotland will be closely monitored to track number of sales,
money generated, and payment going direct to artists.
Embedded within the gallery application process
are criteria to ensure best practice: eg contracts between galleries
and artists, standards of customer care.
ART FAIRS—UK
AND INTERNATIONAL
Selling work through national and international
art fairs supports artists in terms of profiling their work to
new audiences and generating revenue through sales.
Art Fairs are expensive. To enter the circuit,
new galleries often need major investment. Success is partly dependent
on a year-on-year presence and once established can yield large
returns for the artist, gallery and country of origin. Large sums
of money are exchanged at art fairs, reputations are made (with
direct impact on home art market—London) and important relationships
nurtured between different countries through the galleries with
private collectors, corporations, and museums.
The Scottish Arts Council has supported a number
of our "core funded" galleries to exhibit at art fairs,
including The Modern Institute and Transmission galleries in Glasgow.
DROIT DE
SUITE/ARTISTS
RESALE RIGHT
Scottish Arts Council research indicates that
artists incomes are low and we welcome any reasonable measure
which aims to improve them and to allow artists to benefit from
resale of their work in future years. The principle can be compared
favourably with royalty systems which are embedded in other art
forms such as music and publishing.
11 February 2005
| 
