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Semi detached, Installation at Tate Britain, 2004
Michael Landy

Tate Britain
Until December 2004
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Galleries in Scotland – rich in innovation and educational provision, poor in core funds and subject to fragmented policy [added 30/6/04]

Amongst the paper’s findings:
  • Local authority funding for the gallery and museum sector has increased over the past ten years, but that there are wide discrepancies between individual authorities.
  • Funding from the Visual Arts Department of the Scottish Arts Council has not kept pace with the increase in funding available to the arts as a whole from the Scottish Arts Council.
  • The majority of the expenditure by visual arts organisation goes on staffing and overheads; few organisations have dedicated exhibition budgets.
  • Independent sector galleries have been the most successful at generating earned income.
The briefing, compiled by the Centre for Cultural Policy Research, University of Glasgow, concludes that galleries are recognised as important to the cultural infrastructure and particularly recognised for the quality of their education and access programmes. However there is a paucity of robust and consistent data on which to base policy and long term sustainability. This is indicative and symptomatic of the fragmentation of the sector and lack of coherent strategic policy between the different funders, agencies and stakeholders.

VAGA Scotland will now be working in consultation with other visual arts and cultural bodies in Scotland, to spearhead a response to the Scottish Executive’s Cultural Consultation. This is crucial given the lack of visual arts expertise or practising artists within the newly announced Cultural Commission.

The briefing paper can be found at: www.culturalpolicy.arts.gla.ac.uk/site_resources - see Dissemnation, Hamilton, Christine and Susan Galloway, Briefing for the Visual Arts and Galleries Association (Scotland), February 2004, and follow link for pdf download.

VAGA Scotland Steering Group: Fiona Bradley, Fruitmarket Gallery; Katrina Brown, DCA; Mungo Campbell, Hunterian Gallery; Suzanne Dunn, ECA; Victoria Hollows, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; Philip Long, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; Jennifer Melville, Aberdeen Art Gallery; Ian O’Riordan, City Arts Centre Edinburgh; Rebecca Marr, Engage Scotland.