There have been no fewer than seven ministers overseeing culture since devolution, including two deputies. Add to this more funding reviews, commissions, committees, hearings, petitions, rows, U-turns and, sadly, redundancies than any small European nation should have to deal with, and you have the potential for a febrile and unstable cultural atmosphere.

Although every party in the election appears to agree that "culture" is important, it is perhaps the most difficult of areas to quantify in detail, to describe in particular, and to reduce to the easy soundbites of politics - although that hasn't stopped them from trying.

But ask any artist, in any sphere, what they want from their nation and their reply will be roughly the same: financial support without too many strings, a sense of freedom, and acknowledgment that what they do is respected and valued.

For a small nation that spends only a small percentage of its entire governmental budget on supporting the arts with hard cash, Scotland still manages to produce from its populace a remarkable flow of exceptional talent in music, film, painting, theatre, literature, dance, song, poetry and the wilder reaches of avant-rock and contemporary art.

Culture is not a matter of heavily subsidised artistic whimsy, "luvvies" moaning about funding or lonely writers typing bleak prose by a guttering candle. Culture in Scotland, which involves large amounts of money, is an industry - albeit a diffuse and complex one.

In 2003 this "creative industry" generated £5.4bn of turnover in Scotland and employed more than 55,000 people. This year the sum invested in culture from the government, via the Scottish Arts Council (SAC), is more than £62m for more than 100 organisations of all artistic genres.

In addition, despite the waning national interest in the National Lottery, the SAC still gets to spend £16.5m of lottery funds.

Local authorities spend more than £200m a year on their cultural services. These funds are often called grants but are in reality investments: in new shows, in artists' livelihoods, and in theatres, dance shows, cinemas, museums, galleries and exhibitions.

And why not? Investment in the arts guarantees results. You don't have to study Renaissance Italy or modern Ireland to see that. After all, the most famous Scots are cultural figures: today it is Ian Rankin, JK Rowling, Franz Ferdinand and Belle and Sebastian, James McAvoy, James MacMillan, Edwin Morgan, Alexander McCall Smith, Peter Howson and Alison Watt. In older days it was RL Stevenson, the Colourists, the Glasgow Boys, Sir Henry Raeburn, Sir Walter Scott and Hugh McDiarmid.

To many artists, and those who work in the arts, what is vital is that a nation's government sees culture and the arts not as an added extra to the necessary roll call of education, health and infrastructure, but as a vital element of its attitude towards its own country.

The past year has seen great change in the cultural institutions of Scotland and the future holds many more. Most importantly, following the lengthy deliberations of the Cultural Commission think tank, and its notably voluminous final report, this past year saw the beginning of the end of the SAC, the funder of most arts companies in Scotland. It is to be merged with Scottish Screen to form Creative Scotland.

Of course, what real change this will bring is open to question. Richard Holloway, the former Bishop of Edinburgh, is to be its first chairman: so it will have an intelligent, passionate and informed guiding hand on its tiller. But as for its policies, its own internal operations, its first chief executive: nothing is known.

Critics from the film sector - it might be exaggerating to say Scotland has a film industry - can see the end of their own dedicated agency and wonder what Creative Scotland will do for them. The answer, without tax benefits for indigenous Scottish productions or a larger funding pool, is likely to be: not a lot. So occasional small films with restricted budgets and passionate makers, such as Red Road, will achieve against the odds, and actors such as Peter Mullan and James McAvoy will largely work outside Scotland to pay the bills.

More worryingly for some, the new Culture Bill, due to be passed in the new parliament, leaves scope for ministers to interfere in the workings of Creative Scotland. Will this ever happen? It is unlikely. However, the "arms' length" principle formulated in the post-war years has already been ripped up: for the first time the government has direct control over the five national companies: Scottish Ballet, Scottish Opera, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the National Theatre of Scotland.

It remains to be seen how this will work: what if the National Theatre decides to stage a play about the lurid sex lives and corruption of (fictional, of course) MSPs? And can any of the companies go bankrupt again? If the Executive is directly responsible for them, who would be to blame for another Scottish Opera debacle?

What is known about the national companies is that the National Theatre of Scotland is one of the -jewels of post-devolution Scottish culture. Although accepted and funded by the current Executive, its form and functions were all conceived by the Scottish theatrical world. It is led by a talented team anchored by an artistic director, Vicky Featherstone, who conveys a sincerity about the theatre's youth and community work, as well as its more headline-grabbing productions, which is refreshing and honest.

There have been the hits (Black Watch has been a sensation, Tutti Frutti a success) and perhaps the odd miss (Aalst, its latest play, isn't so great) but its biggest issue has been both parochial and unnecessary: its lack of a proper home.

It was never intended to be based at a theatre, but its originally designated office space at the Bridge in Easterhouse has proved to be too small. It still does not have a permanent home: it remains to be seen whether it will have an appropriate one by this time next year.

Other developments have been encouraging: the Youth Music Initiative, although a little fuzzy in its criteria, is giving thousands of children early access to music, while Glasgow remains the centre for contemporary artists outside London. The festivals in Edinburgh, Scotland's annual cultural gift to the world, are working more in unison to battle their rivals: the new director of the International Festival, Jonathan Mills, has brought a welcome freshness, and Hannah McGill, new director of the Film Festival, will bring spark and daring.

One of Scotland's most noted veteran artists, the writer and painter Alasdair Gray, has watched the emergence of a healthy cultural sphere. The author, who once memorably urged us to "work as if you live in the early days of a better nation", is cautiously optimistic about the future. The writer of Lanark, Scotland's greatest novel of the past 30 years, says: "I would not go as far as saying we are entering a new renaissance, but we do seem to have a large amount of artists and writers, and not only of the avant-garde sort.

"There will always be artists and writers, no matter what form or shape the government of the country in which they work. We saw that in eastern Europe. What I do think is that if the government is too heavily involved in the arts, you will find that they become bullies, and the artists they support become second-rate conformists.

"However, I am hopeful for the future. You have to be hopeful. Living without hope, for an artist, is a waste of time."


Optimism despite the drama and crisis
It has become a cliche of the Scottish arts scene that there is as much drama - usually connected to the fraught issue of funding - off the stage as on it.

7:84, one of the nation's most famous theatre companies, has had a more turbulent time than most.This time last year, the Glasgow-based company was facing extinction, its grant cut by the Scottish Arts Council.

Now Lorenzo Mele, artistic director of the company formed by John McGrath in 1973, has a production, Re:Union, that is touring to Edinburgh, Paisley, Glasgow, Ullapool, Kingussie, Musselburgh, Stirling and Birnam.

The SAC relented on its decision and the company now has funds until March 2008, and is looking for new partners away from the Arts Council for fiscal sustenance. The company that helped foster the careers of actors including David Hayman, Bill Paterson, Alex Norton and John Hannah last year had to make its entire staff redundant: now it has three paid staff, and a home in Govan.

"The past year has been turbulent, that is fair to say, and the entire company contracted until it just had one employee: me," Mele said this week.

"But I kept going because I passionately believed that there was a need for the type of theatre we do in Scotland, political theatre, and that is why we fought for our appeal last year, which we won.

"We have a play touring at the moment and we are doing good work with our outreach programme, working with young people who are excluded and in danger of re-offending. There are green shoots of recovery."

Mele said the dominant change in his own artistic sphere, theatre, was the emergence of the National Theatre of Scotland: not only staging acclaimed work, but touring in venues in every nook and cranny of the country, much like the model 7:84 pioneered.

"Because that kind of touring is now institutionalised, if you like, we are now looking at other ways to do our work," he said.

"Overall I am optimistic for the future of culture in Scotland. We are still holding our breath over what Creative Scotland will be, and there is still that competitiveness between companies that a small country has, but right now I am very positive."

What the parties say

SNP
Support a tax exemption for Scottish artists up to a ceiling of £15,000. Support new funding initiatives, including venture capital stakes in artistic works, flexible loans and grants. Want tax incentives for film-making, and to establish an Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund. Also want to create a winter festival stretching from a new St Andrew's Day holiday through Hogmanay to Burns Night.

CONSERVATIVE
Will ensure the bodies that run arts and culture are operationally independent from interference by politicians. More use should be made of public buildings to promote Scottish artists through displaying their work. The public sector will be encouraged to look first to home-grown talent when commissioning art, photography, film, music or dance for promotional purposes.

LIB DEM
Will launch a Scottish Music Futures Fund. Creative Scotland will be asked to develop a network of creative hubs in the community. The national companies will retain direct Scottish Executive funding and the commitment to one year's free music tuition for those under six. Will create a Scottish Youth Music and Dance Festival and a young creative "apprenticeship" scheme.

GREEN
The principle of arms-length funding in the arts will be preserved. Use the planning system to provide more studio and rehearsal space. Will require Scottish Enterprise to include a social and cultural remit in its work, and will begin an audit of libraries to assess the provision of "fit for purpose" buildings.

SSP
Free access to galleries and museums. Revitalise Gaelic. Establish a national film studio in Scotland to develop acting, writing and film- making. Replace the Scottish Arts Council with a democratic body and double Scotland's overall arts budget. Set up a project to change the "drab appearance" of towns and housing schemes with murals, gardens, fountains, monuments and mazes.

SOLIDARITY
Ending student loans and reintroducing grants will allow more students to train in the arts. The party opposes Glasgow City Council's transfer of control of museums and libraries to a new trust. Is in favour of funding more mass-participation arts activities; believes the Edinburgh Festival, for example, is elitist and bypasses much of the city's working-class population.

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12:22am Friday 20th April 2007

By PHIL MILLER, Arts Correspondent

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