James Boyle (broadcasting) - The Scottish Arts Council

The Scottish Arts Council

After leaving the BBC, Boyle served as Chairman of the Scottish Arts Council (SAC), the agency that has control over the Scottish government’s arts budget. Arts Council Chief Executive Tessa Jackson left shortly afterwards . He was then appointed Chair of the Cultural Commission, a body set up to review Scottish arts and cultural funding and provide recommendations for the next quarter century. The centerpiece of the Cultural Commission’s report – issued after a year of investigation and deliberations – was a recommendation that the government increase arts spending by £100 million (approximately $190 million), enshrine “cultural rights,” and overhaul and simplify the arts bureaucracy (including, ironically, by getting rid of the SAC, which Boyle had just left).

Boyle had a public run-in with Scottish Culture Minister Patricia Ferguson when she announced her support for an Academy of Scotland just before the commission was set to unveil a similar policy. Boyle denounced Ferguson’s “lack of integrity.” Id. After the Cultural Commission report was published, Ferguson was publicly accused of trying to bury it. Eventually, the Scottish government adopted a version of the report’s main proposals, increasing arts spending by £20 million, restructuring the public arts agencies, and agreeing to implement cultural rights.