Creative Scotland announced it has “taken the difficult decision” to close its Open Fund for Individuals to new applications “due to the Scottish Government being unable to confirm release of £6.6m in Grant-in-Aid budget in the current financial year, 2024-25.”
The Fund will close to new applications from 2pm on Friday August 30, 2024.
The Open Fund For Individuals is one of Creative Scotland’s key funding programmes, supporting a wide range of activity initiated by artists, writers, producers and other creative practitioners in Scotland.
“Creative Scotland planned to apply £3m of the £6.6m budget to support the Open Fund for Individuals in 2024-25, alongside £3m of National Lottery income,” said Creative Scotland.
“Without confirmation of release of this budget, Creative Scotland does not have enough funds available to support all the funding routes that we currently provide, as set out in our Annual Plan for 2024-25.
“All currently submitted Open Fund for Individuals applications will be processed as per the published Guidance. The National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations remains open.”
Creative Scotland CEO Iain Munro said: “The level of uncertainty regarding the provision of Grant-in-Aid budgets from the Scottish Government is creating critical problems for the ongoing support we can provide to Scotland’s culture sector.
“This decision to close the Open Fund for Individuals is not one we would have wanted to take but is unavoidable without the funding from the Scottish Government being available.
“Like everyone working in Scotland’s culture and creative sector, we understand the extreme pressures on public finances but want to see longer term budget certainty from the Scottish Government, including the additional £100m announced in October 2023, details of which have yet to emerge.”