Ö÷²¥´óÐã

Like most sectors, the Scottish cultural scene is bracing itself for a storm.

Alongside hospitals, schools and old folks' homes, art galleries and theatres seem, well just a little frivolous - and the first candidate for cuts.

Whether it's a national orchestra or a community arts centre, it's not a question of if but when.

The problem is few organisations have just one source of funding.

Even the national companies - funded directly from the Scottish government - rely on local authorities, businesses and private individuals, all areas likely to be squeezed.

Plug the gap

Creative Scotland - set up just weeks ago - will have some tough decisions to make, even before the fate of its own £60m pot is decided.

And with lottery funds due to dip because of the London Olympics, there's little scope for any kind of fallback funding.

Some believe private business will plug the gap - and while there's no denying the impact it has on Scottish cultural life, it's still a small and moveable feast.

And relationships with the handful of philanthropists with the wherewithal to help take years to establish.

Most arts bodies don't have that time on their side.

Worst hit will be the mid-range organisations - who employ a handful of staff and rely on mainly local authority funding.

No fat

Cuts of 20% won't mean fewer canapes with the champagne, but the closure of the company all together.

While suggestions that Glasgow Museums may sell off the silverware - and the works of art - are wide of the mark, visitors CAN expect reduced opening hours, fewer events and limited services.

Smaller companies - particularly community-based ones - are already surviving on a shoestring. There is no fat to trim, these companies will simply go under.

Larger organisations won't escape.

The Edinburgh International Festival - despite its profile - has to make cuts of £200,000 over the next two years.

That doesn't just mean fewer performances - it has a wider knock on for audiences, for companies, and for tourism.

Nobody dies

And that's a message the arts sector has to get across loud and clear over the next few months.

Nobody dies if they don't see Scottish Opera perform - but think of the lives transformed by paintings seen firsthand, by witnessing actors live on stage, by an orchestral concert in all its glory.

Arts organisations provide more than employment and entertainment.

And in tough times, their input is event more vital from the single painting wheeled out from safekeeping for art deprived audiences during the London blitz, to the video and cinema boom of the 80s.

The best hope for most is to backload the cuts, so that they don't coincide with the loss of lottery funding.

To look for other kinds of support - sponsorship in kind, friendship as much as funding.

And for many, the answer will lie in the support of local communities, which may rally round the cultural services they most value - and give them extra protection amid the cuts to come.