Scottish Government Should Give Funding to Support Dundee UNESCO City of Design

I'm calling for the Scottish Government to allocate extra funding to Dundee to support the work of the city as an UNESCO City of Design.  Scotland's two other UNESCO cities Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature and Glasgow UNESCO  City of Music receive extra funding to support these initiatives.

 

I was delighted when Dundee was named as an UNESCO City of Design.  This is an amazing accolade for our city.  It is important for Dundee and indeed for the whole nation that Dundee's role as a UNESCO  City of Design is supported adequately. It is also important that a programme of events are brought forward which are meaningful to the citizens of Dundee and which also attract visitors to our great city.

 

Edinburgh and Glasgow both have UNESCO Designations, for Literature and Music respectively, and receive funding via the Scottish Government's arts body Creative Scotland to support that work.  As things stand Dundee is going to look to fund the UNESCO City of Design programme from existing budgets.  It seems to me only fair that Dundee should be treated in the same way as Edinburgh or Glasgow and should receive external funding for this programme.

 

I am calling upon the Scottish Government to step up to the mark and support this important work in our city.  I am writing to Fiona Hyslop, the Cabinet Secretary for Culture asking her to look at ways of giving extra funding to Dundee for this important work.

For information please see some information below about support from the Scottish Government for UNESCO Cities of Literature and Music in Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively

Both Scottish UNESCO cities receive funding through Creative Scotland, which distributes money from the National Lottery and the Scottish Government.

The Edinburgh World City of Literature Trust is one of the regular funded organisations for 2015-18 that make up Creative Scotland’s Portfolio. Their current funding is as follows:

Regular Funding Awarded - 3 years (£)	Regular Funding Awarded 1 year average(£)	Regular Funding received 14/15 (£)	Difference between 2014/15&1 year average(%)
285,000	95,000	95,000	0.0

Further information regarding the 2015-18 portfolio organisations can be found on the Creative Scotland website here: http://www.creativescotland.com/funding/latest-information/funded-organisations/regularly-funded-organisations-2015-18/the-portfolio

Glasgow City of Music is an annually funded organisation through Creative Scotland. For 2014-15 it has received £50,000. Further information regarding annually funded organisations is available here: http://www.creativescotland.com/funding/latest-information/funded-organisations/annual-clients