Priorities

The Scottish Arts Council Business Plan identifies priorities for 2009/10 and we will work within
these priorities to achieve vibrant and sustainable arts provision in Scotland.

1. Increase the scope and quality of our support for artists

We will:

•  support arts organisations to improve their overall effectiveness in the three key areas
  identified in our Quality Framework: artistic leadership, public engagement and governance, finance and management
• fund Arts & Business to deliver Board development training
• monitor and provide ongoing officer time to the
  DEFT programme run by Mission, Models, Money
• invest in the Creative and Cultural Skills
  Leadership programme bursary scheme for arts
  organisations.

2. Secure the foundation of Scotland’s artistic development

We will work with our Foundation Organisations to implement improvements in audience and organisational development, using the Quality Framework.
In particular, we will promote:

• evidence-based planning, which involves marketing and education staff in high level decision-making
• excellence in marketing planning and implementation
• adoption of audience development philosophy and practice which could range from targeting
  groups under-represented within the core audience, to deepening an individual audience
  member’s confidence with the artistic programme
• effective practice in areas such as data collection, sharing and collaborative working.

3. Create flexibility to support the new and innovative

We are the lead department for two Flexibly Funded organisations: The Audience Business (Edinburgh) and Glasgow Grows Audiences. These agencies provide specialist arts marketing and audience development services for arts organisations in their geographic areas.

4. Create opportunities for participation in the arts

Our role is to provide support for those organisations that actively create opportunities for public engagement in the arts. Our work contributes to increasing attendance and participation by helping individual arts organisations to maximise attendance and participation, and to grow the proportion of the overall population which engages with the arts.

We will:

• promote and nurture a public-focused culture in the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish arts organisations through delivering clear communications in the form of funding guidelines, website, e-newsletter, events, presentations and a confident and knowledgeable team
• increase understanding among Scottish arts organisations and the Scottish Arts Council of
  the size, composition and attitudes of the Scottish public to the arts by disseminating
  research findings and other good practice, including exploring how to best commission a
  public consultation exercise to augment quantitative survey findings
• support a Scotland-wide network of regional and/or sectoral audience development agencies, workers and initiatives in partnership with local authorities and others
• provide a range of support for Scottish arts organisations to more effectively engage with
  the public including the introduction of a digital development fund to enable arts organisations
  to build capacity in the use of integrated IT and digital technology; online networking, and
  training opportunities.

5. Build a culture of co-operation with partners and the arts community

We are strongly dependent on partnership working with the arts sector in its widest sense.
One of our most important partnerships is with the network of audience development agencies in
Scotland and the UK. We also work with industry bodies such as the Arts Marketing Association,
the Theatrical Management Association, and the Federation of Scottish Theatre as well as support
bodies responsible for areas of audience and organisational development including the Cultural
Enterprise Office and Creative and Cultural Skills.

We will invest regularly in Arts & Business to advocate for business sponsorship of the arts,
and we will monitor their distribution of the Scottish Government New Arts Sponsorship
Awards.

6. Make the transition to Creative Scotland

The formal process of merging our roles and responsibilities with those of Scottish Screen began in January 2007, with the formation of a new board, whose members were drawn from the two existing bodies. In January 2009, a new company, Creative Scotland 2009 Ltd, was established and, subject to legislation in 2009(the Public Service Reform Bill), Creative Scotland will become the new lead body for arts and screen industries in Scotland in 2010, replacing the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen.