Home » Media Office » News Archive » January - June 2007 » Contemporary Art, Performing Arts and Design
Contemporary Art, Performing Arts and Design – Glasgow Style
The volume and variety of Glasgow’s creative endeavours continue to flourish apace. The following projects are just some of the exciting initiatives currently underway in the city, which reinforce its cultural and creative credentials:
- Glasgow City Halls and Old Fruitmarket
The Glasgow City Halls & Old Fruitmarket reopened their doors to the public at the beginning of 2006 after an extensive £13 million refurbishment, which has transformed the A-listed properties into two of the most versatile, state of the art venues in Scotland.
Glasgow City Halls is a significant addition to the city’s portfolio of conference facilities and represents a major milestone in the development of the Merchant City as a cultural quarter.
The Old Fruitmarket is one of the city’s best loved performance spaces. The original, unique features of the venue, including listed ironmongery and signage have been retained, and a new stage area has been constructed. www.glasgowcityhalls.com
- Film City
Glasgow’s Film City is situated in the refurbished former Govan Town Hall on the south side of the River Clyde. It incorporates a film studio, state-of-the-art post production facilities, short term production office space, an art workshop, café and permanent office space for companies (Summer 2007). The £3.5 million initiative, which will also house Scotland’s first Dolby Theatre, is a partnership between Sigma Films, Glasgow City Council and Scottish Enterprise Glasgow. www.filmcityglasgow.com
- Glasgow’s Studio Warehouse (SWG3)
Glasgow’s Studio Warehouse in the city’s Yorkhill district is a multi-discipline arts and education centre dedicated to the development and promotion of the arts in Glasgow. It offers a series of open plan studios for rent to local artists on a temporary or permanent basis and among the visual artists currently using space within the three-storey warehouse are those specializing in painting, photography, sculpture, film/video and graphic design.
SWG3 has also been selected by Comme des Garçons as the location for its first ever UK guerrilla store, which opened in May 06 and will remain open on site for twelve months. Any profit from the guerrilla store will be used towards funding future facilities within SWG3 including two recording studios and additional art studio space. www.swg3.tv
- Glasgow: Scotland with style Design Collective
Some of Glasgow’s emerging young fashion and visual designers were showcased at London Fashion Week (LFW) in September 06 under the banner of the Glasgow: Scotland with style Design Collective.
The initiative forms part of the strategic repositioning of Glasgow, which has been underway since the launch of Glasgow: Scotland with style in March 2004 and uses a wide range of ‘products’ whether these be art, architecture, design, events, food, fashion, film, music, sport or the performing arts to profile the city.
The young designers and visual artists in the Glasgow: Scotland with style Design Collective are all either from the Metropolitan Glasgow area, have trained here, or have chosen to be based in the city.
Plans are now underway to identify future opportunities for the Glasgow: Scotland with style Design Collective. Further information at: www.seeglasgow.com/design
- Scotland’s Broadway
The Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), operators of Glasgow’s King’s Theatre and Theatre Royal have launched Scotland’s Broadway, a major new initiative to increase visitor numbers to the city. Scotland’s Broadway was officially launched at a glittering Guys and Dolls opening night party in September 06. The £3m show was the first of many world class productions set to premiere at Glasgow’s two major theatres prior to UK, New York and international tour, making the city the crucible for the very best in musical theatre entertainment in Scotland.
The initiative has been designed to closely complement and support that of the already highly successful Glasgow: Scotland with style branding campaign and will be backed by a substantial marketing drive carrying the message to both domestic and international markets.
These two major Glasgow theatres already attract around 600,000 attendances per year, with just under half of these coming from visitors to the city. Further information on future Scotland’s Broadway performances from www.seeglasgow.com
- Scottish Ballet Set to Move to Tramway
Scottish Ballet is Scotland’s national dance company and a major cultural asset for the UK. Since its artistic re-launch in 2003, the Company has been on a trajectory that has brought world-wide acclaim. Confident, artistically-strong programming now integrates classical and modern dance with innovative design and new music, reflecting and promoting modern Scotland. The Company produces a wide range of dynamic work, including full-length narrative ballets, seminal works by the best choreographers of the 20th century, and new commissions.
The Company is also preparing to move from their (rather cramped) West Princes Street premises to their new home at Tramway at the end of 2008. Tramway is one of the leading contemporary visual and performing arts venues in Europe and the relocation will enable Scottish Ballet to forge stronger connections to the international arts scene and help to put Scottish dance firmly on the world map.
This plan will transform unused spaces at Tramway into studio, workshop, education and office spaces for Scottish Ballet and create the largest centre for dance in Scotland including much needed rehearsal spaces for independent professional dance artists and companies. www.scottishballet.co.uk
- Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Art
Also in 2008 (spring) will be the 3rd Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Art. The first two exhibitions in 2005 and 2006 were a great success, but the move to biennial has been designed to give the festival’s inspirational curator, Francis McKee, more time to showcase indigenous Scottish talent alongside great international names like Patti Smith (the rock star) and William Kentridge.
McKee said of the 2006 festival, “Glasgow has an exceptionally strong art scene and a thriving infrastructure of galleries and artists-led organizations that provide a high level of year-round activity. Glasgow International is both able to ground itself in this successful network and make this activity visible to the international art scene.”
The city’s contemporary art scene is recognised globally as one of the most exciting today, with Glasgow artists such as Simon Starling (2005 Turner prize-winner), Douglas Gordon (1996 Turner prize-winner), Jim Lambie (2005 Turner Prize runner-up) and David Shrigley achieving international acclaim. www.glasgowinternational.org
- Trongate 103
The establishment of Trongate 103 by summer 2008 in the heart of Glasgow’s Merchant City recognises the importance of the city’s independent visual art sector and aims to provide a secure base for the development of the visual arts in Glasgow, its artists and its audiences.
Trongate 103 will provide a creative hub, acting as a dynamic focus on contemporary visual art. The £6.8 million initiative will be capable of supporting world-class artists and enabling them to sustain and develop their careers. At the same time, the building will offer opportunities to the wider community to participate in the visual arts in an environment that values the creativity of all people.
Glasgow City Council is leading this project in partnership with nine well established arts organisations who have always called the Merchant City home but who perhaps lacked a very public face. At Trongate 103 you would find Glasgow Print Studio, Transmission Gallery, Sharmanka Gallery and Street Level Photoworks in a newly refurbished building with artists’ studios and dark rooms and two floors of gallery space. Public participation in workshops and lectures will actively be encouraged as part of the Council’s strategy to develop the Merchant City as a cultural quarter.
- The Briggait
Plans to renovate Glasgow’s former historic fish market, The Briggait, have also had a major boost with the recent news of the Scottish Arts Council Capital Lottery Award of £1.7 million bringing the project a major step closer to realising the £6.5 million project which will bring this iconic building back to life.
Once fully redeveloped by 2009, the Briggait will support an estimated 250 visual artists, create 156 jobs and become the link between the Clyde Waterfront and the Merchant City. The project is being led by The Wasps Trust in partnership with Wasps Artists’ Studios, Glasgow Sculpture Studios and Glasgow City Council.
For the first time in years, the building’s historic 1873 Courtyard will be open to the public on a daily basis with a café, gallery and large education suite leading off the space. The Courtyard area itself has strong potential to become a vibrant new arts venue in the city centre, accommodating large-scale exhibitions by internationally renowned artists.
Along with Trongate 103, The Briggait redevelopment is a key part of Glasgow City Council’s ‘Housing the Visual Arts Strategy’, which will house 11 visual arts organisations and create a thriving arts quarter in the Merchant City. www.waspsstudios.org.uk
ENDS
Issued by and for further information, contact:
Moira Dyer - Senior Manager Public Relations
Glasgow City Marketing Bureau
Tel: +44 (0)141 566 0831
Email: moira.dyer@seeglasgow.com