Dundee’s culture organisations again face funding uncertainty with proposed budget cuts from Dundee City Council. Act now and show your support to help secure the city’s cultural future.

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We recently shared that the city’s cultural and community organisations are once again facing significant budget threats. Dundee City Council’s Budget Consultation for 2026/27 is now live and is open for responses from residents until Friday 19 December 2025.

For a second year in a row, many organisations and services in the city – including community groups, youth projects, third-sector support, regeneration teams and local amenities – are at risk of losing vital funding support from Dundee City Council. Cultural organisations facing budget cuts are Creative Dundee, DCA, Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre, Dundee Heritage Trust (RRS Discovery and Verdant Works) and UNESCO City of Design Dundee. 

The proposed budget cut for Creative Dundee is the removal of annual partnership support of £17,100, which represents 6% of our total income. This percentage might seem small, yet it delivers city-wide impact far beyond this investment. For every pound Dundee City Council invests in our work, Creative Dundee generates more than £16 of wider activity, local investment and public benefit.

With 48% of our total income coming from our other key partnership with Creative Scotland through Multi-Year Funding, we actively generate the remaining 46% through external partnerships including: project funding we secure from national and local partners; support from Amps network subscriptions; and earned income from events and commissions.

Our local partnership with Dundee City Council is critical to Creative Dundee’s long term sustainability. It signals that Dundee backs its many diverse communities – individuals, groups, organisations and businesses – to practically demonstrate that culture and creativity are essential for place-making and inclusive growth. It has enabled us to expand our work over the years and set our sights as an organisation even higher.

Creative Dundee is built by, with and for the local creative community, centring equity and access in all that we do. We’re incredibly resourceful and embedded in the city, grounded in a deep understanding of the strengths, needs and challenges facing creative freelancers, collectives, businesses, workers, students and residents. We exist for the cultural life of the city rather than our own primary agenda.

Since forming as a social enterprise in 2013, we’ve focused on the city’s key priorities through: 

• Working with over 1,500 partners locally, nationally and internationally – commissioning over 500 local artists, designers and makers, and investing over £2 million directly into Dundee’s local economy.
• Showcasing Dundee’s creativity to thousands of residents, through events like our sell-out PechaKucha Nights, amplification of stories online and the crowdsourced 99 Things to See and Do guide – boosting civic pride and global visibility.
• Connecting freelancers, students and creative workers to skills, networks and opportunities that root talent in Dundee and benefit the city through creative place-making and regeneration.
• Championing Fair Work, Community Wealth Building, local commissioning and equalities work.
• Harnessing creativity to drive inclusive, resilient and environmentally responsible innovation and growth across the city.
• Activating vacant spaces and co-designing community places that make Dundee more vibrant, accessible and imaginative.
• Supporting creative communities with annual seed funding through our Amps Community Ideas Fund, enabled peer learning and tools to help ideas grow.
• Sharing insights, research and sector intelligence that help Dundee lead in creative policy, innovation and placemaking.
• Hosting international delegations and representing Dundee globally.

We do all of this as a small committed team of five part-time staff (the equivalent of four full-time roles), delivering activity that reaches thousands of people across Dundee and far beyond. Creative Dundee’s ability to convene, connect and champion would be diminished by the removal of this modest partnership support.

The value of this support is replicated across all of the cultural and community organisations listed within the consultation – with the Council’s modest contributions fuelling major city-wide impacts. They are part of the city’s lifeblood – our community life, our economy and our international reputation. 

We know Dundee is facing huge financial pressures. But cuts to culture and community are a false economy, risking much larger losses in talent retention, creative business resilience, innovation capacity and civic pride. These budget cut proposals are about how we live our everyday lives in Dundee –  the places we gather; the groups that support children, families and marginalised communities; the spaces where we feel safe; and the opportunities for connection, learning and wellbeing.

Your voice matters. Please take a moment to complete the consultation and share why Creative Dundee – and the wider cultural and community landscape – matters to you, your work, and your city.

Dundee City Council’s budget consultation is now live. Closes: Friday 19 December 2025. Access the consultation survey online, or via a paper form at your local library.

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Have Your Say, Together: Dundee Budget Consultation Gathering

Wed 10 December 2025 
DCA Meeting Room, DCA, 152 Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4EA
Drop-in: 10am–4pm | Main Gathering: 4–7.30pm

As it’s the time of year when we should be coming together to celebrate, UNESCO City of Design Dundee and Creative Dundee are hosting an open and upbeat Budget Consultation Gathering creating space to show support, complete the consultation, and celebrate Dundee!