Iain Munro, the organisation’s chief executive, said while shutting the open fund for individuals was “regrettable” and “unpalatable”, it had also been “necessary” as the fund was going to run out of cash in the autumn. While the Scottish Government later stepped in, with First Minister John Swinney announcing in his programme for government in September that Creative Scotland would get the cash to reopen the fund, Mr Munro insisted the Government had been told it would have to shut the fund down if it could not get £6.6 million restored to its budget.
Speaking about the decision to close the fund, Mr Munro told MSPs on Holyrood’s Culture Committee that they “knew the money was going to run out in the autumn”. His comments came as he told how Creative Scotland is working with bodies in the arts sector who are “at rock bottom” to help them survive. Mr Munro said: “We’re working very hard, privately, behind the scenes, with a number of organisations who are in crisis and on cliff-edges.
“The resilience within the sector, financial and human, is essentially at rock bottom and we are doing all we can within available resources to be flexible with partners, to support organisations to continue to survive.” While he would not name the organisations at risk, Mr Munro added that “people would be very concerned to know who they are”, describing some as being “nationally and internationally significant”. His comments told how Creative Scotland h.