Aberdeen City Council has underlined its commitment to culture and highlighted the benefits to the city’s economy and the transformation in how the city is perceived both locally and by visitors.
Councillor Marie Boulton, the Council’s culture spokeswoman, highlighted the £2,474, 040 funding secured for the city’s cultural offering which includes hugely popular events such as Granite Noir and Spectra,
Councillor Boulton said: “Despite the difficult decisions we have had to take in balancing the books under difficult circumstances, we have been able to commit to our ongoing investment to organisations and programmes such as Aberdeen Performing Arts, our 365 Events Calendar and Creative Funding opportunities for budding artists.
“We have done so based on the demonstrable evidence of last year’s cultural impact report which highlighted emphatically the importance of culture to the city, both in terms of the economy and the wellbeing of our citizens”.
The report for 2018/19 showed that cultural events in Aberdeen generated £30.4million in gross added value to the city’s economy including £12.4m in visitor expenditure.
The picture was equally positive in terms of the health and wellbeing benefits with an estimated £3.8m audience impact reducing the need for health and care interventions.
Duncan Cockburn, chair of Culture Aberdeen, said: “Culture Aberdeen wish to acknowledge the City Council’s continued commitment to culture and Aberdeen’s arts organisations. Investment in culture has proven benefits for residents’ wellbeing and quality of life and a vibrant culture sector will enable Aberdeen to open its doors to the world, attracting more tourism, new businesses and improve its reputation nationally and internationally.
“The Council’s creative funding programme and the partnerships they have in place with local arts organisations will allow Aberdeen to continue to produce, showcase and support world-leading creative work”.
Councillor Boulton added: “The sense of anticipation and the level of participation in these events are indicators of just how enormous the impact has been on how the city is viewed.
“Working in partnership as part of the wider Culture Aberdeen network we constantly look outwards with events such as Spectra, Nuart and Granite Noir; all of which have put Aberdeen on the international stage. These events allow us to embrace visitors from far afield and provide Aberdonians with a new-found sense of enjoyment of their home city.
“With a revamped Art Gallery, Music Hall and the TECA development offering world-class facilities, it makes absolute sense to continue to capitalise on these and maintain our investment in our cultural offering which benefits everyone”.