Glasgow's creative heart threatened by Council rent hikes.....
....but, asks Clare Henry, after a pull back, could a happy ending be in sight?
THE UK HAS a reputation for self inflicted pain and destruction. Brexit is the prime example - but recently Glasgow Council has joined in with an irresponsible, unbelievable, short sighted and happily failed attempt at killing off key arts organisations and hence much of the city's hard earned reputation for the arts.
For the last quarter of a century Glasgow has made a name with its cultural success. Famous for its art school, for its numerous Tate Turner prize winners, for its big art comm aunity in both music and the visual arts. From the 1980s o anwards it restored its reputation by championing the arts. In 1990 GLASGOW was nominated as 1990 European Capital of Culture, represented centre stage at the 1990 Venice Biennale and in 1999 was UK city of architecture and design. The city attracted artists from all over the world. Many went on to make their homes there among a flourishing art community. Tourists came. The city thrived, its international identity resting on the arts.
But Glasgow City Council, low on funds, decided to kill off this goose and its golden egg, by taking the inexplicable and destructive step of increasing rents by exorbitant amounts. Fourfold, even tenfold. Rates impossible for artists and arts organisations to pay. Glasgow Print Studio's new monthly rent has gone fr aom £ 2000 to £ 9000. Quite how is an artist-run print workshop supposed to find an extra 7,000 quid a month? In total the seven organisation at Glasgow's key arts hub, 103 Trongate, would need to generate an additional £300,000 in annual income – representing a £ 550,000 rise in the first 12 months for its commercial city landlord.
Evictions loomed. John Grady MP for the area commented “This affair defies logic. It's cultural vandalism. It's a huge part of Glasgow and Scotland's cultural heritage and more importantly, its cultural future.”
However - just when it seemed all was lost and key organisations were to be evicted from their long-term forever homes, the community came together in an extraordinary and moving arts demonstration of several thousand people filling the city streets in protest. Carrying banners, some dressed up for the occasion, it was like the old days when people marched in protest to idiotic, illogical, dangerous events.
Outwardly peaceful, if very angry, behind the scenes - instead of making, showing art, organising exhibitions - folk lived a nightmare, fighting tooth and claw for survival.
Several good things came of this, not just that an arts community proved it could pull together, work together, organise a major petition signed by thousands, make its feelings loud and clear in silent and well focused lobbying to MPs, newspapers, radio TV, funders,.. a panoply of people – and especially local councillors.
The result was that in April the rent hikes got a stay of execution. Aided by MPs and councillors, led by Councillor Christy Mearns, of the Greens, who brought a motion regarding the crisis to a full city council meeting. It passed with cross party support.
However this is merely the beginning. Everyone has to be alert and keep up the pressure. There is still a long way to go before organisations are secure.
103 Trongate houses seven different organisations – famous Transmissions (original home to numerous Turner Prize winners), the internationally renowned Glasgow Print Studio, the well-known photography gallery Street Level, Project Ability Disability & Mental Health Art Studios, Sharmanka Theatre, Glasgow Independent Studio and GMAC Film.
I was GPS chairman in the 1970s. It moved into 103 Trongate in 1988, when no one wanted the property, and it was affordable. In 2009, 103 Trongate was established as an arts hub with grants from the National Lottery, Scottish Enterprise, and the Merchant City Heritage Trust to provide reduced-rent support to cultural charities. This was never supposed to be a revenue-generating property asset. Claire Forsyth, GPS director says, “We all came to Trongate 103 with the promise that it was a specially developed arts hub with a 25-year lease that would stand.
Spaces like Trongate 103 are not just buildings but ecosystems of creativity and collaboration that have, for over 17 years, helped shape the Trongate area into a vibrant and inclusive cultural quarter. Culture is central to the city's success, and those who sustain it must be given the stability and support they need to continue the vital work they do.
Meanwhile Paisley Art Institute is celebrating its 150th birthday and a total of 137 annual shows. (Co-vid and the War years account for gaps.) This year's annual exhibition at their new home, the 150 year old Glasgow Art Club in Bath Street, included 600 works and provided artists with a total of over 30 prizes, £10,000 in prize money for the current splendid annual show! On till May 23.
