SO MANY fears were voiced in advance of the Culture Commission’s report on the arts in Scotland that the main response to its publication is one of relief — no Soviet-style Ministry of Culture, no direct control by local authorities, no amalgamation of the galleries and museums.

Instead, there is a statement of intent that culture should be the next great enterprise for Scotland and a recommendation that an extra £100 million a year should be spent on it. It is a bold and unequivocal commitment that should be welcomed by anyone who has the interest of the arts at heart.

Inevitably there will be questions as to how that commitment will be delivered, and by whom. The first will concern the two new bodies to be set up to administer the arts if the report is accepted by ministers. Culture Scotland would be the development body — effectively a successor to the Scottish Arts Council. There would be many who would regret the demise of an organisation that has worked tirelessly for the arts in Scotland and has been responsible for some of its greatest achievements — the galleries, festivals, concerts and orchestras that have enriched Scottish life down the years.

But provided Culture Scotland can maintain the independence of the arts council and its commitment to excellence, then it too should be welcomed. The key question is whether the high standards of the national arts companies — dance, music and opera — are compatible with the report’s principal aim, which is the delivery of art for all.

Cultural entitlement is a fine if imprecise phrase. It means that every citizen should have access to some form of culture. If that is delivered through arts in education, as the report recommends, or better funding is provided for libraries so that more Scottish books are available to the public, then it should be applauded. If, however, it came to mean simply the ticking of boxes so that bureaucratic targets could be met, or the “rounding down” of the arts into more popular forms at the expense of excellence, then that would be a backward step.

To be fair, the report does not suggest this and as Culture Scotland will be responsible for maintaining the nation’s international reputation, then one must assume that it will increase its support for such organisations as Scottish Opera and the Edinburgh Festival which have, from time to time, been accused of elitism. Let us hope that the commission’s report sees an end to the dreary assumption that elitism is a dirty word.

The body around which most debate will swirl is the proposed Culture Fund, which would hold the purse-strings and would determine which cultural strands would be supported and which would not. It is crucial that this organisation maintains an arm’s length distance from Government. It is a matter of concern that the minister responsible for culture will sit on the fund’s board, albeit only as an observer.

The temptation to interfere will be well-nigh irresistible, particularly if Culture Scotland comes up with a recommendation that money should be spent on artistic endeavours that may fly in the face of the Executive’s own policies. The arts are nothing if they are not independent. The Culture Fund will have to be prepared to incur the disapproval of its masters if it is to do its job properly.

Two other recommendations deserve support. The first is to put pressure on the UK Government to introduce tax breaks for artists. That would be a great step forward, although one suspects that it will be only be done over Gordon Brown’s dead body. The second is to introduce a Scottish Academy of Culture to reward and celebrate individual Scottish artists. That would mean recognising that great art is the work of individuals not organisations, and is, therefore, to be welcomed.

These are early days in the fevered discussions that will doubtless take place before the promised Culture Bill is introduced in the next two years. The omens, however, are good. This report recognises, at last, the huge contribution that culture makes to Scottish life. If its recommendations are acted on properly and with enthusiasm, then it will be seen as one of the Executive’s most important political acts.

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