SCOTLAND’S arts funding body is facing fresh questions over how it plans to recover money spent on an explicit sex film.
Iain Munro, chief executive of Creative Scotland, has been asked to publish the original funding application submitted for Rein – a controversial film project which received public money.
Clare Adamson, chair of Holyrood’s culture committee, has written to Munro asking how much money the project has received to date and how Creative Scotland plans to recoup this after it suggested it was withdrawing support from the project.
She also asked for details of the criteria and process for considering funding applications, after the organisation claimed it had been misled in the initial application by Rein.
READ MORE: Creative Scotland withdraws funding for sex film project after row
Creative Scotland previously said the artist behind the project, Leonie Rae Gasson, had not made clear the work would feature unsimulated sex acts and that the organisation would not support the project.
In her letter, Adamson said that while she acknowledged funding decisions were a matter for Creative Scotland, there was “nevertheless a legitimate public interest in how public money is spent”.
She added: “The committee also believes that, in the interests of accountability and transparency, consideration should be given to publishing the original funding application.”
Rein sparked outrage when it was revealed to be due to receive £85,000 in public cash despite its explicit sexual content.
In a since deleted section of Gasson’s website, the project was said to feature “Daddies lurking in the woods; a muddy wrestling-cum-f*****g bog; princesses playfully trying to drown each other on a loch; bare arsed lovers frolicking in long grass”.
Creative Scotland was approached for comment.
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