SUBMISSION FROM FÈISAN NAN GÀIDHEAL – 16 APRIL 2008

Creative Bill

Background to Fèisean nan Gàidheal

1. Fèisean nan Gàidheal’s aim is to make Gaelic Arts, Language and Culture more accessible and more widely appreciated through the support and development of 45 community-based tuition Fèisean, primarily for young people, which take place throughout Scotland. It is an independent organisation offering tuition in Gaelic song, Gaelic drama, Gaelic language, traditional music and dance to around 5,200 young people annually through the work of individual Fèisean.

2. Fèisean nan Gàidheal is also involved in providing traditional music tuition in schools through the ’s Youth Music Initiative, and in 2007-08 over 6,200 pupils in primary schools within the Highland Council and East Lothian Council areas are benefiting from this. We operate Meanbh- Chuileag, the only Gaelic theatre-in-education service - part-time due to limited funds - that nevertheless manages to offer a drama experience to around 2,300 school pupils annually. Fèisean nan Gàidheal also runs the Blas Festival in partnership with the Highland Council and the Promoters’ Arts Network which, in 2007, attracted an audience of over 5,500 people to over 50 events across the Highlands and was a major and lasting part of the Highland 2007 celebrations. Cèilidh Trails, organised by 6 Fèisean, reach an audience of nearly 10,000 people during the summer months.

3. Our funding comes principally from the Scottish Arts Council, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, The Highland Council and Bòrd na Gàidhlig. Other funders contribute to our work in a more limited way, or on a project-by-project basis, including Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Argyll & Bute Council, Western Isles, Skye & Lochalsh LEADER, Whelk LEADER, North Highland LEADER, the , European Social Fund, The Heritage Lottery Fund and so forth.

4. An economic impact assessment of Fèisean nan Gàidheal, carried out on behalf of Highlands & Islands Enterprise in 2006, showed that our work supported over 60 FTE posts, and our turnover in 2006-07 was in the region of £1.677m.

5. Our objectives are to:

• Provide support, including finance, for the development of individual Fèisean, promoting excellent working practices, and developing their range of activities • Develop the use of the Gaelic language within the Fèis movement, developing the spoken word as a means of communication and medium for tuition, according to the needs of the community each Fèis serves. • Develop the work of the Fèisean within the formal education sector

• Deliver strategic projects and contract work, with partners, carried out by Fèisean nan Gàidheal and individual Fèisean • Develop training to enhance the skills of those involved in Fèisean and promote excellence within the Fèis movement • Continue to foster closer links between Fèisean, other organisations and other countries, and raise the profile of the Fèis movement through enhanced PR and showcase opportunities

6. While Fèisean nan Gàidheal exists first and foremost to offer a range of useful services to its member Fèisean, we are also involved in strategic projects that benefit the Fèisean while helping us fulfil our aims and objectives.

7. Fèisean nan Gàidheal is a key partner in the Gaelic Arts Strategic Development (GASD) group which is currently developing a National Gaelic Arts Strategy at the request of Bòrd na Gàidhlig, the Scottish Arts Council and Highlands & Islands Enterprise. Another key project currently being developed is a Fèis Academy, in partnership with the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, the University of the Highlands & Islands and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.

8. This year, Fèisean nan Gaidheal was commissioned by Highland 2007 to produce a new work for the finale to an event in Eden Court Theatre marking the end of the Highland Year of Culture. ‘Dealbh Dùthcha’ (Portrait of a Country) features 27 young people from Fèisean all over the Highlands & Islands playing new music and songs commissioned from Skye-based composer, Blair Douglas. It incorporates several elements of Highland culture - traditional music, Gaelic song, step dance and images of Highland landscapes people - and will be performed in Liverpool later this year as part of a much larger project called ‘Portrait of a Nation’, commissioned by the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of Liverpool 2008: European City of Culture celebrations. We are in discussions with the North Sea Project about a performance of the piece in Stavanger, also a European City of Culture in 2008.

General comments on the Bill

9. Fèisean nan Gàidheal supports the general principles of the Creative Scotland Bill and welcomes the Scottish Government’s commitment to inspire and support a culturally ambitious Scotland. We acknowledge the reasons put forward by the Scottish Government for amalgamating the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen in a new body - Creative Scotland - and hope that its establishment will offer an opportunity to create new support mechanisms for the development of creativity in Scotland.

10. Fèisean nan Gàidheal wishes to acknowledge the exemplary support provided by the Scottish Arts Council to Gaelic arts and culture over many years, and believes that Creative Scotland should seek to maintain and build on the level of support currently provided by the Scottish Arts Council. We would want the Gaelic arts to be a key part of Creative Scotland’s remit and

while we would suggest that the best way to achieve this would be to embed support for the Gaelic arts in Creative Scotland’s functions on the face of the Bill we would, at least, seek to ensure that support of the Gaelic arts is specified as a function of Creative Scotland, once established. This could make a significant contribution towards delivering the objective of Ministers to secure the status of the Gaelic language in Scotland.

11. The activities of Creative Scotland have the potential to increase the use and understanding of Gaelic in Scotland, strengthening our work in the process. Fèisean nan Gàidheal believes that one mechanism to ensure that support for the Gaelic arts, and indeed the use of Gaelic, is maintained and developed by Creative Scotland would be through the preparation of a Gaelic Language Plan which may be required of the new body by Bòrd na Gàidhlig.

12. In the absence of a formal Gaelic plan at the time of its establishment, Fèisean nan Gàidheal would strongly advocate that the ability to speak Gaelic is included as a desirable criteria in the person specification used for appointments to the Board of Creative Scotland. In keeping with the spirit of the Gaelic Language Act in affording Gaelic equal respect with English, we hope that the opportunity would not be missed to develop a bilingual corporate identity for Creative Scotland, or to use Gaelic in signage within its offices.

13. Fèisean nan Gàidheal considers the powers and functions proposed for Creative Scotland to be appropriate to the task the Scottish Government envisages for the new body and welcomes the fact that this is largely an enabling bill to establish Creative Scotland, and not one which seeks to define too closely the remit of the new organisation. We believe, however, that a definition of ‘culture’, would be useful, particularly is seeking to ensure that in relation to Creative Scotland’s remit, Gaelic arts will continue to be developed and supported.

Questions posed in the call for evidence

14. The Scottish Parliament’s call for evidence asked interested parties to comment on the following specific questions highlighted in bold.

How helpful do you find the policy memorandum and financial memorandum accompanying the Bill?

15. Fèisean nan Gàidheal believes that the policy memorandum and the financial memorandum provide sufficient information to understand the provisions of the Bill, and the financial consequences of the establishment of the new body.

Do you have any comments on the consultation the Scottish Government carried out prior to the introduction of the Bill?

16. While it might have been expected that the new government would consult further on a draft of the Creative Scotland Bill, Fèisean nan Gàidheal

believes that the level of consultation already carried out in relation to the draft Culture (Scotland) Bill was sufficient, and is still valid. Further consultation may have resulted in similar responses, or perhaps fewer responses, with some interested parties taking the view that they had made relevant points during the previous consultation.

17. It is indeed refreshing that, on this occasion, previous consultation has been taken into account and it has been judged that there is no need for further consultation at this time, which would only serve to delay the passage of the Bill. What is especially welcome is that some elements of the Bill, particularly in relation to the powers of direction that Ministers will have over Creative Scotland, seem to have been amended as a direct response to the views expressed in earlier consultation.

18. The new body should provide leadership, advice, authority and inspiration. Creative Scotland should fulfil an advisory role to Scottish ministers, and should take the lead strategic role in the development and delivery of the vision for culture in Scotland. Like other public bodies, Creative Scotland should rightly help deliver the strategic policy priorities of Ministers, but it is essential that full discretion in artistic decision-making is afforded to the new body, and it is a welcome and refreshing aspiration that artistic matters are to be, more or less, exempt from direction of any kind from the Scottish Government.

Arthur Cormack Chief Executive Fèisean nan Gàidheal