Budget Consultation

7 Apr 2010

Welcome to Inverness 2011

GEORGINA COBURN insists that short term expediency should not be allowed to wreak long term damage on Highland culture

THE HIGHLAND Council’s current Budget Consultation must take into account the long term effects of proposed cuts over and above short term gain.

Proposed closures of schools, libraries and community centres, withdrawal of support for voluntary organisations, cultural, sporting events and festivals, the proposed closure of the Floral Hall Bught Park and the Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, the axing of Eden Court Theatre’s Out of Eden Drama provision, including the Highland wide Higher Drama course, and the prospect of greatly reduced access to music tuition should be a rallying point for all those involved in cultural provision in a professional or voluntary capacity.

The chance to participate in cultural activity is a right not a privilege, a right that must be advocated especially forcefully in times of economic depression. Our community centres, voluntary organisations, festivals and local arts institutions contribute positively to the quality of life of people living in the Highlands and Islands, providing much needed opportunities for public engagement with the arts, lifelong learning and professional training.

Karen Gillan (image courtesy of the BBC)

The arrival of Dr Who’s new assistant actress Karen Gillan in Inverness announced triumphantly in the press earlier this month was not without irony given current proposals in the Highland Council’s budget consultation. Having attended Eden Court’s Youth Dance Company, Senior Youth Theatre and undertaken her SQA Higher Drama and LAMDA exams at the local theatre, Ms Gillan has been touted as a shining example to the region’s youth of what can be achieved through access to performing arts training.

Currently Eden Court operates the most extensive Arts Education and Outreach programme of any theatre in Britain, an achievement which the entire region can be justifiably proud of. Ms Gillan’s success is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the positive effects of involvement in the performing arts for participants. Though development of self esteem, social skills and the potential of creative expression are not likely to make headlines they are no less important to our society as a whole.

Currently the programme offers the only theatre-based school exams in the country, and has an annual attendance of 100,000 people across the Highlands. For a proposed saving of £195,000 the Council is prepared to axe this provision, removing the opportunity for most Highland pupils to take formal dance and drama exams and to participate in the Outreach programme. This proposed saving in relation to the long term impact of the programme is unjustifiable and painfully short sighted.

Similarly, the proposal to axe the Inverness Museum and Art Gallery is wholly unacceptable and should be universally opposed. Having undergone a consultation process for a new museum and gallery site, the result of identifying a need for cultural development and infrastructure in the city, the suggestion of closing the facility is ludicrous – especially following an investment of £1 million in temporary refurbishment.

For a short term gain of £400,000 the Highland Council are prepared to leave the city with no museum and gallery facility, consistently failing to make the connection between tourism, culture and the local economy.

We must be the only city in the world where on approach a signpost marked Falcon Gallery actually refers to a multi-storey car park, which may well be the only attraction we have left by 2011. The expansion of the Museum and Gallery function with view to greater access through education and the loan of works by national collections merits development not obliteration.

The proposed review of music tuition: option one doubling fees or option two reducing the amount of staff from 35 to 20, providing a service to 1500 pupils rather than 3070, represents an empty saving and greatly reduced provision in the long term. In a wealthy, apparently civilised country there is no such thing as lack of funds, only lack of priorities. If we can afford to wage wars on foreign soil then we can afford to invest in education through music.

The Highland Council should be prepared to make hard choices of its own, examining and reviewing all of its approved suppliers to determine competitiveness and suitability, reviewing provisions such as its catering budget, assessing staffing and salaries at senior managerial level and doing everything in its power to safeguard what little provision there currently is in relation to the cultural health and wealth of the Highlands, for the two are inseparable.

One of the greatest ongoing threats to the Highland economy is the continued exodus of young people from the area due to lack of educational opportunities, access to diversity of employment and cultural activity. In challenging economic times the arts are often perceived as soft or non-essential targets; however, a society that fails to place arts and culture as a core value in its budgets suffers greater impoverishment in the long term.

I would urge everyone involved in the arts, cultural provision and the wider public to make your voices heard through the consultation online and via local ward forums so that the long term cost of these proposed cuts can be truly measured against short term gain. The public need to be better informed about the significant contribution and potential for development through the Arts and Creative Industries in the Highlands and Islands, facts they are unlikely to be informed about through local press or government.

With an election looming, it is time to place cultural provision and development as a central priority, as voters and practitioners we have a responsibility to ensure that what little cultural infrastructure we have still exists to be built upon in 2011 and beyond.