Threads of Investigation: Peoples Assemblies

http://www.variant.org.uk/events/transoct/TransOct.html

Dear Glasgow Open School,

We are feeling an increasing imperative to try to really understand the dramatic shifts that appear to be taking place in public funding in this country through Creative Scotland. Simply through picking up on the sound bite language that is being circulated and the modeling of a business strategy approach to arts funding, there would seem to be not only a lack of awareness of the principles on which public support for cultural diversity is based but also a thoroughly ideological agenda being written into the future of funding for the arts.

At the different levels at which they are funded, galleries and arts organisations seem to be meeting and sharing information about what is happening. It seems, to us really important that individuals affiliated with artist-run and autonomous groups also have an awareness of what might be taking place (we mean ourselves but are hoping others might feel the same). Obviously not all artist-run groups receive direct funding or may even want to receive funding, but we are increasingly thinking of the necessity of a collective understanding of the way the landscape may be being re-written. This may affect artists directly or indirectly… Read more