This Annual Review covers the financial year 2019-20, ending in March 2020 as the effects of the pandemic started to be felt by Scotland’s creative sectors. What followed, in the interests of public health, were restrictions on presenting work, venues closing, and many artists and creative practitioners losing their ability to produce work and earn, overnight.
We are very grateful to those organisations who have provided retrospective data for this Review, despite the huge challenges of 2020. All of those organisations have been addressing more important priorities presented by the pandemic, including dramatically reduced staffing and capacity. Nevertheless, this Review will serve as a record of the year before the impact of Covid-19 and as a baseline measure of the strength of the sector as we, hopefully, move into recovery in 2021 and beyond.