Meeting of the Parliament 27 September 2017
I thank the minister for that clarification and for confirming that there is no massaging of the figures going on. Whatever the figures are, it is well established that creativity creates jobs.
In 2012, Creative Scotland and Scottish Enterprise commissioned a report on the economic contribution of the arts and the creative industries to Scotland as a whole. It found that the direct and indirect impacts of the arts and the creative industries amounted to 130,000 jobs, £6.3 billion in gross value added and £12.4 billion in turnover.
The argument that Myerscough made all those years ago that culture creates jobs is now uncontroversial and taken as read, but we also know that creativity can do so much more than simply boost GVA. Increasingly, we are understanding that participation in cultural activity can improve health and wellbeing. It is very important for older people in tackling social isolation and it can improve confidence in young people. It can also improve educational attainment, not just in subjects that are linked to the arts but right across the curriculum. For example, it is well known that there is a close link between attainment in music and attainment in mathematics.
Cultural practitioners are no longer confined to marginalised roles. In places such as Dundee and Edinburgh, and even in the tiny village of Moniaive in Dumfriesshire, which I represent, we see artists working alongside planners and economists to repopulate empty streets and regenerate town and village centres.
I realise that I am short of time, so I will conclude by wishing Paisley and Dundee all the very best. Along with all their other merits, the bids remind us of culture’s importance in building bridges to the rest of the world and making us more outward looking, more generous and more tolerant. For that reason, I am happy to support the motion.
16:23