This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Cultural diversity strategy launched
24/07/2002
Improved access to and participation in the arts among Scotland's ethnic minority communities were assured today following the launch of the Scottish Arts Council's Cultural Diversity Strategy.
The five year Strategy uveiled by the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Mike Watson, is the first of its kind in Scotland.
It aims to ensure that everyone will be able to realise their creative potential, free from prejudice or other obstacles.
Mike Watson said:
"Scotland's culture is a rich and vibrant mix shaped by its long and varied history. It is a product of peoples and languages that have contributed to that history and who continue to contribute to its richness today.
"Scotland's National Cultural Strategy, Creating Our Future, Minding our Past, clearly recognises the importance of diversity and language to Scotland's cultural life. It has, as a key priority, the promotion of the languages spoken in Scotland as cultural expressions and as a means of accessing Scotland's culture. This means we seek to celebrate all of the languages spoken whether it be English, Gaelic, Urdu, Bengali, or indeed any other.
"We have a special opportunity, at the start of the 21 st century and in this, the designated year of Cultural Diversity, to highlight the threads in the tartan which contribute contribute to making our culture unique. I know that Scottish culture is sufficiently confident and mature to be able to use this strategy to champion our diversity."
The Scottish Executive's National Cultural Strategy was published in 2000 and set out a series of objective for the arts.
The objectives, which the Scottish Arts Council is taking forward, are:
- promoting creativity, the arts, the arts and other cultural activity
- celebrating Scotland's cultural heritage and its full diversity
- realising culture's potential to contribute to education, promoting inclusion and enhancing equality of life
- assuring an effective national support framework for culture
The Scottish Arts Council's Diversity Strategy outlines a five year plan for making cultural diversity an integral element of the arts funding system in Scotland. It will promote and address the right to creativity for people of diverse cultural backgrounds in Scotland.
The 1991 Census showed one point two five per cent of Scotland's total population was made up of people from minority ethnic backgrounds. The largest groupings are from the Indian subcontinent, other parts of Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Some 46 per cent of the ethnic minority population were born in the UK.
The Scottish Arts Council, through core funding from the Scottish Executive of £35 million per year in grant and aid, is supporting a number of Cultural Diversity Projects. These include a 12 month training based internship for a young person from a minority background at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow.
Further details of projects and copies of the Diversity Strategy are available from the Scottish Arts Council on 0131 226 6051.