Gavin Jon Wright makes a speech at the end of V.L. show at Summerhall
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CreativityTranscript
00:00This is amazing. On behalf of the whole BL team, thank you to all of you for being here. You've been amazing this month.
00:08Thank you. Can we just keep for just one more minute. I'm just going to read out a piece of an announcement that we've got to make.
00:14Thank you everyone for coming to see our show, for supporting your work.
00:19And out of the 3,000 shows on offer, we're choosing this particular piece of new Scottish work.
00:25We just want to keep you, as a Scottish, for another minute to just make a very important announcement.
00:32My name is Gavin Johnring and I am speaking as a freelance artist involved in this production.
00:37I don't speak on behalf of Summerhall or Dames Cloud.
00:40Amidst the joy and celebration of live performances this month in Edinburgh, the Scottish theatre community has been given some devastating news.
00:48So we wanted to use this platform to show the world and to make you aware of this and of the crushing impact that it's going to have.
00:56So feel free, if you'd like, to put your phones on, take photos, film it, share it, whatever you want to do.
01:01New work in Scotland doesn't appear out of thin air.
01:04We have a vibrant culture in Scotland, making work in every art form, and we've had it for decades.
01:09It's been hailed across the world.
01:12We're only able to do this because Scotland understands the value of culture and the importance of sharing stories.
01:18One of the ways that we have been able to do this is through a fund called the Open Fund for Individuals.
01:24It's where an artist, an individual artist, can ask for money when the idea is just a seat.
01:29Practically everybody who's been involved on the stages across the fringe this year, every year, and whose work you're enjoying and have enjoyed at the festivals,
01:39people have benefited from that.
01:41They've built their career and their craft, and it just gets an idea off the ground, and it's led to other companies then believing in that idea, and it progresses it further.
01:50So the Open Fund is an incubator for all of the Scottish work that's at the fringe in all Scottish art festivals,
01:56and without it, there might still be festivals, but there might not be anything to see.
02:00This week, Creative Scotland, who are the funding body in Scotland,
02:05they've been forced to close this fund, and will close it at 2pm on Friday 30 August.
02:11It will be closed indefinitely due to the Scottish Government being unable to confirm a release of £6.6 million that was promised.
02:19Wiping out this fund removes a lifeline for the freelance artists of Scotland,
02:24and many, many artists are already saying that they have to leave, they can't sustain themselves in this culture.
02:31We've only been told that this is the beginning, and it's going to get worse.
02:35So, we don't want to just stand by and accept that.
02:38We are hoping, demanding that the Open Fund is reinstated, and we have until Friday to do that.
02:44So, if you enjoy seeing Scottish work here in Scotland, please, please continue what you're doing, support the artists living here, or we might not be here next year.
02:54And you can do this by sharing this statement, by posting messages of support online, and using this hashtag,
03:03which Scotland is very delicately working on,
03:05No Arts Without Artists.
03:07You can write to your MSP, write to your MP, make hell of a noise about it, please, wherever you can, it's critical.
03:12Time is of the essence.
03:14There is no art without the artists.
03:16Stop the cuts.
03:17Thank you very much for listening.
03:19Thank you for coming to see us.