We need your support

• DCA’s core funding from Dundee City Council has been put forward for review as part of the council’s 2025-26 budget consultation
• Removal or reduction of this vital core funding would have catastrophic consequences for us
• Please complete the consultation to share your support for DCA, and Dundee’s arts and culture

Today Dundee City Council opened a month-long public consultation on its 2025-26 budget. In it, you can submit your budget proposals for a range of council-funded services, including arts and culture. The full amount the council gives DCA, which amounts to 10% of our annual turnover, is included in this consultation. 

While 10% may seem like a relatively low amount, a significant reduction to or removal of this funding could lead to our closure and any cut will have an impact on jobs and creative programmes.  Our finances are precarious and our reserves depleted following a perfect storm of inflation and rising costs, year-on-year standstill or reduced funding from our core funders, and reduced attendance post-covid. We simply cannot afford a significant cut to our core funding. Our other core funder, Creative Scotland, has been unable to share a funding decision with us for 2025-28 because they don’t know how much funding they will have from the Scottish Government. This leaves us in a position of complete uncertainty as we try to plan our work from April 2025 onwards. 

The consultation suggests that 'Organisations may be able to offset funding reductions through other income sources'. In reality, there are no funding or income generation routes available to us that would come close to filling the gap left by the loss of this funding.

To read the consultation and have your say, please see here. 

PREVIOUS CUTS AND COST-SAVINGS

We have already experienced year-on-year cuts from Dundee City Council equivalent to 10% of our grant in the past ten years, with a further reduction of in-kind services to a value of £60,000. We understand the real and serious challenges the council has faced during this time and have done our best to absorb funding cuts with limited impact on our audiences, and while doing everything we can to protect jobs at DCA. We have worked hard to increase our earned income, with success in a range of areas; but we are not yet in a position where this income outweighs our need for core funding. 

It's incredibly hard to be asked to make judgements about vital public services, including arts and culture, with limited information about their consequences. Despite that, we are asking all of our Dundee-based audiences to complete the consultation and say why you think continued support for DCA, and the other cultural organisations highlighted in the consultation, is important. 

DELIVERING FOR DUNDEE’S CITIZENS

Showing your support for DCA isn’t just about preserving the ability to see films or exhibitions here. As a registered charity, we welcome thousands of Dundonians through our doors each year to see, experience and create, and we engage with thousands more across the city's wards, from our collaborative Playful Gardens project to work with families in Stobswell and Maryfield; parent-toddler groups in Douglas, Stobswell and Mill o Mains, and our clinical Art Therapy service, serving families across the city through direct referrals from NHS Tayside. We work with a range of local groups - some of whom are also at risk from budget cuts - to provide connections to arts and culture in partnership with our communities. We work with the NHS to improve people’s health and wellbeing through connecting with art and creativity. We have seen participants enter DCA as children at creative workshops, who now return to us as artists, tutors, teachers and audiences. Others have gone on to creative careers as artists, designers, filmmakers and more. 

ECONOMIC IMPACT

We are also a significant employer in the city - beyond our 78 staff, we support a network of freelance artists, designers and tutors, and engage a multitude of local businesses in services from signage to printing and distribution. Our existence in turn allows the 42-strong Jute Cafe Bar team to operate one of the city's most popular cafe bars. We provide one of the few year-round late night entertainment offers in the city centre, with cinema screenings and classes alongside the option to enjoy a meal or drink in the cafe-bar. Our team, and the people we support, are citizens of Dundee and would be directly affected by any change to our core funding. 

All of our work is at risk if our funding is removed. If you value what we do, and would like to see it continue, we would be deeply grateful if you could make your voice heard by completing the consultation. 

Please see here to read the consultation and have your say.