Munro’s exit puts spotlight on arts body – Daily Business Magazine

The departure of Creative Scotland’s CEO has left questions about how it can deliver its strategy, writes ANDY MOSELEY

An independent report into Creative Scotland, commissioned by the Scottish Government and published last November, described it as an organisation requiring a level of reporting that amounts to “crippling bureaucracy”, while lacking sufficient focus on “the long term sustainability of the organisation and sector”.” If nothing else, it was a wake-up call to those who set its targets and finance it.

Iain Munro, who has announced his departure as chief executive of Creative Scotland after eight years, did not step down when the report came out, possibly because it acknowledged that he and others were effectively working with at least one hand tied behind their backs.

There were government spending cuts, partially reversed and rebadged as additional investment whilst still falling a long way short of was required to hit targets set out in the 2020 Culture Strategy for Scotland. This called for a strong, resilient culture sector, where everyone benefits and gets to take part.  

Iain Munro should have been well-placed to deliver Creative Scotland’s role in the strategy. He has a long pedigree in the cultural sector. He was involved in Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programmes in Scotland, and the development of Time to Shine, Scotland’s first National Youth Arts Strategy. 

He chaired Generation, the national celebration of 25 years of contemporary visual arts in Scotland, and led the formation and establishment of Screen Scotland to drive forward the growth of the Screen sector in Scotland.

Other projects included helping establish and grow the National Lottery for the Arts. He held a number of roles at the Scottish Arts Council before joining Creative Scotland as director of creative development.

However, decisions made by Creative Scotland in recent years have amplified emerging problems, leaving individual organisations struggling to secure the multi-year funding they need to build a self-sufficient future where they are less dependent on the whims of government or decision makers. 

He leaves at a time when the sector as a whole is on life support with smaller organisations closing and limited opportunities for a new generation of talent to emerge.

He may have been dealt a bad hand, but many feel he could have played it a lot better. Among individual artists there was widespread dissatisfaction with the “trickle-down” funding model. This saw resources allocated to organisations with the expectation that they will support individual artists, but it often forced them to tailor their work to fit organisational priorities and led to limitations on creative freedom.

At an organisational level, while some were positive about the large number of organisations that were being supported, others thought that the “jam was being spread too thinly” with insufficient focus on quality, and organisations routinely awarded less than they had applied for.

There has also been a view that the absence of medium-term funding for individuals, similar to the multi-year funding available to organisations, was leaving many artists without the stability needed to plan and develop their practice effectively.

Angus Robertson, who was Culture Secretary in the last parliament, announced a review in March 2025 into how the nation’s culture sector is supported. He noted that the sector-wide examination would “not take the form of a traditional review” but would instead adopt an “action-orientated approach” to develop and engage a range of new practices “at pace”.

In the continued absence of any findings or further details about that review, it remains unclear how the government will deliver its ambitions for the culture sector and the role that Creative Scotland will play in it.

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