Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee 02 April 2025
Our next petition is PE2030, which calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to review cultural funding arrangements to enable Scotland to contribute to the Venice biennale in 2024, which is somewhat past now.
We last considered this petition on 15 May 2024, when we agreed to write to Creative Scotland. The committee received a response from Creative Scotland, dated 14 June 2024, confirming that the Scotland + Venice project was paused for 2024 and 2025 to allow for a period of reflection and review. The review considered a range of options, including returning to presenting at the Venice biennale from 2026, the cessation of the project, occasional rather than regular participation and a range of venue models.
As members will note from our papers, the review of the Scotland + Venice project concluded in July 2024, with Creative Scotland providing a further update on 26 March 2025 to let us know that the Scotland + Venice partners will publish the 2024 review in the coming weeks and set out plans for the project in 2026. The response goes on to say that, despite the pause in the project, the partner organisations have continued work to identify opportunities for artists, curators and producers to engage with the biennale in 2024 and secured Scottish participation in the professional development programme offered by the British Council fellowship in Venice.
In the light of all that, do colleagues have any suggestions or actions?