The Creative Community Hubs Network has welcomed a decision made by the City of Edinburgh Council which will see increased investment and the opening of the Innovate Fund to community-based cultural organisations following sustained collective advocacy.
Community-based cultural organisations have welcomed a significant shift in Edinburgh’s cultural investment after the City of Edinburgh Council backed increased support for regularly funded organisations and opened new Visitor Levy funding to groups rooted in communities across the city.
The decision made on Thursday 17 September 2026 will see a one-off 25 percent increase in funding, totalling approximately £1.12 million, was agreed for existing Third Party Cultural Grants partners, including the Edinburgh International Festival, Book Festival, and the Fringe Society as well as community organisations.Extra support for all eligible cultural and arts organisations, including those operating at a local community level, will be available via the new £2.62m Innovate fund, supported by the Visitor Levy. The decision was made at a meeting of the full council which saw representatives of WHALE Arts and North Edinburgh Arts address councillors before the vote, alongside Festivals Edinburgh director Lori Anderson, Fringe Society chief executive Tony Lankester, and Edinburgh International Festival director Nicola Benedetti.
The Creative Community Hubs Network had called for the Innovate allocation to be protected and developed into a substantial one-year fund open to professional community-based cultural organisations. It also supported a 25% uplift for organisations receiving regular Council cultural funding, provided this did not reduce Innovate.
The decision follows sustained advocacy by the Creative Community Hubs Network, Lyra, North Edinburgh Arts and WHALE Arts, and recognises that Edinburgh’s cultural infrastructure extends beyond organisations already receiving regular funding. Their case was clear: established cultural institutions and community-based culture both matter to a world-leading cultural city.
At present, just 6% of the Council’s regular cultural funding goes to community-based cultural organisations, with many professional organisations in Edinburgh’s communities locked out of the regularly funded portfolio for more than a decade.
The Network has challenged the idea that community-based culture represents “breadth” rather than “depth”, pointing to ambitious professional work already being made in Edinburgh’s neighbourhoods.
Kate Griffin, CEO of WHALE Arts, said:
We are delighted to see the Council recognise the importance of investing in Edinburgh’s cultural ecosystem and open up opportunities to creative organisations across the city. We see every day the difference creativity and culture make to people’s lives and communities. Culture is at the heart of what makes Edinburgh — bringing people together, strengthening communities and creating opportunities for people across the city to participate, contribute and belong.”
Lesley Hinds, Chair of North Edinburgh Arts, said:
I am pleased the City of Edinburgh Councillors have listened to both the Festivals and Community Arts and Community organisations to increase investment in the arts in Edinburgh. I look forward to working with the Council and Festivals, in the coming year, to ensure Community Arts and Culture organisations have a seat at the table when discussing Arts and Culture in Edinburgh.
Jo Timmins and James Preston, Co-CEOs of Lyra, said:
Today’s decision changes the conversation about how Edinburgh invests in culture. Councillors have recognised that organisations like Lyra—making professional art in communities—must have the opportunity to be funded in their own right. For the children and teenagers we work with, investment cannot keep being pushed into the future. Young people only get one childhood.
Morvern Cunningham and Eva McKenzie, co-leads of the Creative Community Hubs Network, said:
Today’s decision is the right outcome for culture in Edinburgh’s Festival City. A 25% uplift for existing Strategic Partners which includes festivals and community-based organisations, plus a significant resource made available to everyone to apply for, including grassroots organisations and initiatives. We would hope that going forward, Edinburgh’s cultural reputation extends from the grassroots up, reaching residents and visitors deep into the city’s infrastructure and supporting a thriving cultural ecosystem for many years to come.
The Council’s Visitor Levy programme aims to support local talent, spread cultural activity and make culture more accessible, affordable and embedded in communities.
Opening Innovate to professional community-based cultural organisations is an important step towards those ambitions.
The Creative Community Hubs Network believes the fund should:
- operate as a substantial one-year funding programme
- be open to professional community-based cultural organisations outside the existing regularly funded portfolio
- not be reduced to provide the 25% uplift for regularly funded organisations
- provide meaningful investment rather than small, short-term project awards
The Creative Community Hubs Networks beleives that Edinburgh is the world-famous cultural city. Its communities are part of that cultural city too.
