Developing a Culture Strategy for Scotland

In June 2017, the Scottish Government began writing a Culture Strategy for Scotland, which is due to be completed in 2018, and will ‘position culture as having intrinsic value and contributing both directly and indirectly to the health, wealth and success of our nation’.

At the launch in Glasgow, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop emphasised that the process will be “part of an ongoing debate around the role that culture has in all our futures. We are keen to take the conversation to as many people as possible”.

A chance to be heard

Making Music believes that this is a good opportunity for members to influence the future of cultural policy in Scotland, so we have been getting actively involved in the conversation. Making Music Manager in Scotland, Alison Reeves, has represented members at three Government events and online forums where very broad, starting questions were asked. Alison has also been speaking to Making Music members about how and what we should be feeding into the strategy.

We also surveyed members in Scotland, to draw out some more detailed responses that we can put to the Government’s big questions. We’ll be collating these responses and submitting them to the Government at the end of November.

Why is culture important to you? What is good about culture in Scotland and what needs to change? And what do you want the future for culture in Scotland to be like? 

Have your say

The survey has had a good response so far, reinforcing our ideas about what is important to people who make music in their leisure time, as well as guiding us to the key points that we need to make on your behalf. Take part in the survey (before 28 November). So which issues have been coming up?

Members have talked enthusiastically about the wellbeing benefits of taking part in their groups and the positive impact their groups have on their communities. Music education and the erosion of music provision in schools is a key area of concern as are the rising costs of rehearsal and venue spaces. We’ll also be advocating for greater visibility of leisure-time music making and acknowledgement of the excellence and value of your work to the cultural landscape. The submission will be posted here on our website so that you can read it.

Next steps

The Government team writing the strategy will use all the responses from open discussion events, online forums and submissions such as ours to inform the draft document, which should be available by the middle of next year. They will then consult on the document and Making Music will also take part in this process and give you the opportunity to feed back as well.