Creative Scotland today announced its Regular Funded Organisations (RFOs) for the three-year period from 2018-21. Voluntary Arts Scotland continues to be supported by Creative Scotland and also receives a 30% increase in funding to better support creative cultural activity across Scotland in the coming years.

Regular funding from Creative Scotland is the core income of Voluntary Arts Scotland and allows the organisation to provide crucial support, advice, training and information to voluntary arts groups and community organisers across the country and promote key projects such as the annual Epic Awards and the Get Creative Festival. This funding also acts as a base which enables Voluntary Arts Scotland to collaborate with other organisations.

The increase in funding during this period will provide additional capacity within the Voluntary Arts Scotland team with a focus on building closer relationships and ongoing engagement with local creative groups across Scotland.

Creative Scotland feedback notes that the plans for 2018-21 described by Voluntary Arts Scotland "demonstrates an outstanding, informed and ambitious yet wholly practical approach" to contributing to the cultural sector.

Creative Scotland assessors further added: 

The voluntary arts sector is a significant component of the cultural life of Scotland, providing daily opportunities to be creative and providing a pathway to develop new skills and prospectively enter creative employment and/or further/higher education. Voluntary Arts Scotland's programme of activity will provide targeted support and relevant development opportunities.

Kathryn Welch, Director of Voluntary Arts Scotland, said:

We are really delighted that Voluntary Arts Scotland will continue to be part of Creative Scotland's portfolio of Regularly Funded Organisation, and are heartened to see Creative Scotland's investment in supporting the 10,000+ community-led creative groups across Scotland. This support is a recognition of the enormous impact that volunteer-led creative groups make in our society, and of their importance in our cultural ecosystem. We're looking forward to using this funding to continue and enhance our work with creative groups, partners, communities, artists and policy-makers across Scotland, creating a Scotland where all kinds of community-led creativity can thrive.

For full details of Creative Scotland's 2018-21 RFO funding, please visit the Creative Scotland website.