The violinist, who is director of the Edinburgh International Festival, has appealed to the SNP Scottish government to fulfil its pledges to fund the arts, rather than reduce them by £6.6m.
Bendetti said: ‘It is a responsibility for government, unless you begin to think that arts, culture – and by that I mean all the activities that fall into the general psychological, mental, emotional wellbeing and health of the nation, of society and individuals, everything that falls into that category I would relate to a civic pillar you can call culture – if as a nation we start to believe that that’s not one of the civic pillars that we hold ourselves to, we are essentially changing our goalposts and our identity.
‘We’re shifting what post-Second World War we believed was a society that was increasing in equality and elevating civilisation.
‘If we don’t consider it to be that then that’s a major identity shift. If we do consider it to be so then a portion of what’s raised in taxes and spent by the government should be on the fabric of the life we live and what we call culture and art.
‘We would allow that to slip away from the responsibility of the government at our peril.’
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