Nurturing our culture

Rob Gibson, MSP, shines a welcome light on the fall-out of the Scottish Arts Council's funding announcements for the next two years (Opinion, 27 May).

The Scots Music Group – Edinburgh's pioneering programme for spreading Scots music, dance and song throughout the community – is one of the losers in this funding round: a third of next year's operating budget has been slashed. We wish none of the successful bidders ill, but the SAC's focus on performance excellence leaves us dumfoonert.

Next year is the Homecoming, when Scotland will welcome the diaspora back to our shores to mark the Burns 250 anniversary. Cultural bodies such as ourselves, the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland and the Scottish Traditions of Dance Trust have all been losers in the funding game. Does the SAC really want our transatlantic cousins and other visitors to come only to find that "home" is a cultural desert – no classes in our own music, no pub sessions?

We need some means for this nation to nurture its own cultures – Gaelic, lowland, Doric and others. For if Scotland will not commit to this, who in the world will?

ALASTAIR CAMERON
Chairman, Scots Music Group
Shandwick Place, Edinburgh