Creative Scotland pulls public funding from hardcore sex project

Funding has been pulled from an explicit sex film that had been awarded money by Scotland’s public arts body.

Creative Scotland awarded £84,555 to the Rein project in January, which recruited actors to participate in “non-simulated” and “hardcore” sex scenes.

A statement by Creative Scotland at the weekend stated the initial application did not indicate how explicit the 45-minute production would be.

In Holyrood on Tuesday, culture secretary Angus Robertson said Creative Scotland’s decision to review the National Lottery Open Fund award was appropriate.

Penny Mordaunt compared the art film as a “hardcore porn movie”.

Politics

Mordaunt compares publicly funded art installation to ‘hardcore porn movie’

It emerged earlier this week that Creative Scotland awarded over £84,000 to the Rein project, which recruited actors to participate in ‘non-simulated’ sex scenes.

On Thursday, the funding body announced it had pulled funding from the project and accused it of breaching conditions of the award.

“Following a review of the application, assessment, and contractual agreement regarding the project Rein, Creative Scotland has made the decision to withdraw support for this project and will be seeking recovery of funding paid in respect of this award to date,” a spokesperson said.

“What has emerged in the latest phase of the project represents a breach of the conditions of funding award, as the nature of the project has changed. The central role that ‘non-simulated’ (i.e real) sex acts now play in the project, marks a significant change to the nature of the work presented in the original application which was assessed for funding. This significant change to the nature of the work has been evidenced in the most recent announcement on the project’s website, without the agreement of Creative Scotland.”

The arts body said it funds around 2,000 projects every year supporting artists and initiatives across various artforms some of which are “challenging in content, and push creative and social boundaries”.

“However, Creative Scotland has important responsibilities to the public for the appropriate use of public funding, and, as recipients of that public funding, award recipients also have legal responsibilities as reflected in their funding contract,” a spokesperson said.

Rein’s director Leonie Rae Gasson had described the project as “pro-sex and pro-sex worker”.

“If you are selected to be in the cast, our intimacy co-ordinators will support you to more clearly identify your detailed needs and boundaries with the sexual aspects of the work,” the project’s description read.