Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has made a number of grant schemes available specifically for the arts, culture and tourism sectors as a result of COVID-19, and in addition arts, culture and tourism businesses are able to apply to a range of other COVID-19 business support schemes. These funds are supported via a mixture of additional budget allocations to the sector and through repurposing of existing funding streams.

Specific arts, culture and tourism support:

• Creative Scotland is providing the following support in response to the COVID-19 situation.
• The Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund for freelance creative professionals (£4.0m). As of Monday 18 May, 1596 arts and creative bursaries have been paid, with 380 deemed ineligible.
• The repurposed Open Project fund to help practitioners adapt and respond to the current changing circumstances (£7.5m). As at 18 May, there have been 116 individual applications and 60 applications from organisations to the Open Fund. These will be assessed at the end of May.
• One-off bursaries through Screen Scotland to film and TV sector workers (£1.5m). 462 have been paid as at 18 May and 133 were deemed ineligible.
• Screen Scotland has also announced that Scotland’s independent film and TV production companies are able to apply for newly ring-fenced development support fund of £1m for awards over the next 3-6 months to enable planning towards production when Government guidance allows.
• Museums Galleries Scotland have formed the Urgent Response Fund (£700k) and the Digital Resilience Fund (£115k). As of 18 May 2020 22 applications have been received for the Urgent Response Fund, with 16 assessed. Seven museums have been awarded funding, seven decisions have been deferred, one is pending decision with one decline. The Digital Resilience fund has received 40 applications, with 37 assessments and 35 awards having been made.
• We are supporting the Edinburgh Fringe with a £500,000 initial package of support comprising a £400,000 interest-free loan from the Scottish Government and a £100,000 grant from the Council.
• VisitScotland has made available up to £400k from its 2020-21 budget to provide grants to destination management and sectoral membership organisations whose income from member businesses has dropped substantially in the current crisis. The fund remains open and around 40 applications have been received to date. VisitScotland has also waived fees for the c.4000 members of its Quality Assurance scheme, saving businesses around £1m in fees at this difficult time.

Wider funds which arts, culture and tourism organisations may be eligible to apply for include the Creative, Tourism & Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund, the Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund, the Third Sector Resilience Fund and the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund. There is not yet specific information for applications from arts, culture and tourism companies for the other funds.