International culture strategy: consultation analysis

Introduction

This report sets out the analysis of responses to the International Culture Strategy consultation. The aim of the consultation was to gather views on sectoral needs, aspirations and motivations in terms of international activity. Subsequently, these responses will shape the content of the international strategy and help to develop actions proposed under it.

Background

In 2020, A Culture Strategy for Scotland was published. This strategy set out that Scotland’s culture sector has a strong international reputation, and Scotland has a number of internationally important cultural assets.^[1] In addition, there is international recognition of Scotland’s strengths.^[2] However, major disruptive events since its publication, including Brexit, the cost of living crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the ability of cultural professionals to work internationally, and have imposed additional costs and administrative barriers.

The development and publication of an International Culture Strategy will seek to address barriers to development of the sector’s international activity and provide greater coherence on how Scottish Government supports international cultural activity. In developing this strategy, it was recognised that as the sector is experiencing significant challenges, it should aspire to address issues of sectoral resilience, recovery, and long term development.

A series of roundtables with Scottish Government officials and a cross-section of around 50 sectoral stakeholders were held in Spring 2022. Those roundtables helped to shape the focus of the consultation survey, and provide a number of provisional principles which have been explored through this consultation process.

Consultation

On 2 February 2023 the Scottish Government launched a 14-week public consultation, in the form of a survey, to seek views on an International Culture Strategy. The end product of this 14-week engagement process is this report which summarises the views from the respondents.

The consultation questions are provided in Appendix 1. In summary, the survey contained 24 questions. Eighteen were open questions and 6 were closed questions. The consultation sought views on:

• Current international activity in the Scottish culture sector, its importance, and motivations behind it
• Rationale, principles, and objectives of the strategy
• The current support available for international cultural activity and its appropriateness
• How this work might help to address current major challenges, such as cost of living, recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact of leaving the EU
• Geographical priorities and focus

The survey was aimed at cultural organisations, creative industries companies, and individual practitioners who work internationally and those with aspirations to do so. The Scottish Government also welcomed views from organisations from outside of Scotland who have worked with Scottish partners or wish to do so.

Overview of responses

There were 79 responses to the consultation. These responses were all provided through the Scottish Government online platform Citizen Space. This included responses from individuals and organisations/companies with an interest in the International Culture Strategy.

61 responses were from organisations and 18 responses received from individuals. Two were excluded as the responses included comments that were not within the scope of the consultation. This meant there were 16 responses from individuals included in the analysis. The majority were based in Scotland, 13 were from the rest of the UK and 2 were based outside of the UK. Of the organisations that identified their size (59 in total), the majority (25) were from organisations that have fewer than 10 employees/members. Sixteen respondents identified as having over 250 employees, 11 identified as having more than 10 but fewer than 50 and 7 identified as having more than 50 but fewer than 250.

In terms of the types or organisations who responded there was a mixture of 10 public bodies (including Local Authorities), 6 national cultural organisations, 13 sector representative organisations, 5 key sectoral organisations, and 27 other organisations including charities, arts organisations and universities.

Where permission was provided, details on the organisations and individuals that responded to the survey are provided in appendix 2.