A MAJOR shake-up of the nation's arts funding body is be instigated before a new leader is recruited.
Janet Archer, the chief executive of Creative Scotland, has resigned from her post after a turbulent six months following uproar in the cultural world over its long term funding decisions.
However, the new chair of the body, Robert Wilson, has begun two reviews of the quango, which has a "seriously damaged" relationship with artists, an MSP said last night.
It is unlikely a new chief will be recruited soon - for the foreseeable future Iain Munro, Ms Archer's deputy, will be acting chief executive, sources said.
Ms Archer's departure, after five years, came after a series of controversies following the Regular Funding (RFO) decisions earlier this year.
- Read more: Janet Archer resigns from Creative Scotland
The funding decisions, removing core grants from theatre, disability and music groups, led to outrage, and some were quickly reversed in a series of U-turns after an emergency board meeting.
The RFO decisions led to two board resignations, and a tense Scottish Parliament Culture Committee hearing followed by its strongly worded report which said that Creative Scotland had fallen "well below the standard that is expected from a non-departmental public body."
Ms Archer departure marks the second time a chief executive of the organisation has resigned in its eight year history: it's first chief executive, Andrew Dixon, resigned in 2012.
Mr Wilson, a businessman who also co-founded the lauded Jupiter Artland sculpture park, has begun two major reviews: one of long term funding which will conclude by April 2019, and another, led by a sub-committee of the board, of how the organisation works.
This latter review will cover everything from "culture and values" to its internal structure and operations.
It is believed these reviews will take some months, and could, sources suggest, come up with an alternative leadership model which does not include a chief executive with a high salary.
Last night Mr Wilson thanked Ms Archer for her work in the last five years, as did Fiona Hyslop, the culture secretary.
- Read more: Drama behind the funding crisis
As well as external controversy, there has been considerable disquiet within Creative Scotland, too.
The departure of Natalie Usher, the director of screen, upset many staff inside the quango, as it was undergoing a revamp of its screen operations with the establishment of a new Screen Unit.
The funding crisis, and the subsequent U-turn, also angered and perplexed staff inside the organisation, which had spent months preparing for the Regular Funding decision making.
Ms Archer is to receive six months of her annual salary, which is between £115,000 and £120,000, in lieu of her notice period.
The roughly £60,000 figure last night drew negative comments in social media, some noting the difference between this sum and the low sums most artists earn.
Iain Munro, her deputy, will now become acting chief executive for the foreseeable future.
There is unlikely to be a rapid search for Ms Archer's replacement, it is understood.
Leonie Bell, the former head of arts, who some observers had linked to the top job in the organisation, has now left a secondment at the Scottish Government - writing the National Cultural Strategy - to a new role in local government.
Ms Archer said in a statement: “It has been an honour to work closely with, and to serve Scotland’s artists and creative communities over the past five years in my role as Chief Executive of Creative Scotland, and to help many thousands of people produce and share work.
"Over the past five years, we have supported artistic excellence, and equalities, diversity and inclusion.
"We accelerated our work for young people and supported creative projects in all of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas.
"We have also enhanced international support across artforms, especially for screen."
Ross Greer MSP, the Scottish Greens’ culture spokesperson, who challenged Janet Archer and Creative Scotland over factual inaccuracies and a "serious internal communications breakdown" in February, said: "Creative Scotland certainly needs to turn a corner and rebuild what is a seriously damaged relationship with the arts sector.
"A new chief executive is an opportunity to do just that but we cannot forget that we’ve been here before, welcoming new leadership. "More fundamental questions need to be asked of the organisation and it would be naïve to believe that all fault lay with Janet Archer and all will be solved by her departure; our committee investigation found that this was clearly not the case."
- Read more: Janet Archer resigns from Creative Scotland
Claire Baker, Scottish Labour's Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Culture, said: "Following the controversy around funding, and a disappointing appearance in front of the Culture committee, it was clear that changes had to be made at Creative Scotland.
"The Culture Secretary must now use the opportunity that Janet Archer’s resignation provides to carry out a root and branch review of the organisation to ensure that it can regain the confidence of the industry.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel