BOSSES at a beloved arts venue in Dundee are warning it could face closure due to a considerable funding gap.
Director of Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA), Beth Bate, told MSPs that the venue, which boasts a two-screen cinema, art gallery, print studio and restaurant, may be forced to use the last of its financial reserves to remain in operation.
She said that a “lack of clarity” surrounding funding decisions meant that they may have to use a considerable portion of their £450,000 of reserves just to keep the doors open.
Bate also referenced reduced attendance post-Covid and rising public costs as being behind her concerns.
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The use of the organisation’s reserves would also result in the stoppage of its exhibitions programme and children’s film festival in a bid to save money, Bate added.
She said: “This would then take us so far from our charitable aims, and the function for which we are funded, we could not operate.
“We’re so prudent. We’ve made efficiencies everywhere, including restructuring teams, losing hours and posts, restricting hours, delivering work with external partners, investing in fundraising, and setting high and hard income-generating targets.
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“But we’re now at the point where we’re stripped back enough. Any more cuts will fundamentally change the organisation and the impact we have in Dundee, Scotland and internationally.
“We simply don’t have enough money.”
It comes after Creative Scotland warned that one in three arts bodies are at risk of insolvency.
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