Scotland’s artists fear ‘cultural black hole’ after festival and film project cancelled

Scotland’s book festivals are under threat. Photograph: Alamy

Artists, writers and film-makers have expressed their fears for the future of Scottish culture following the closure of a film project, a book festival and an art magazine within days of each other.

On 28 March the Glasgow book festival Aye Write announced it would not go ahead this year after failing to secure funding from Creative Scotland, a decision that was criticised by authors including Andrew O’Hagan and Val McDermid, who called it “profoundly depressing”.