Art Advocacy Brief #2
Welcome to SCAN’s monthly Art Advocacy Brief: sharing news in politics, policy work, funding and research to ensure that Scotland’s visual art community is informed about the wider context we work in and issues directly affecting us.
SCAN is here to stand up for the cultural, social and economic value of contemporary art – and for the people who create it. In our Art Advocacy Brief we’ll also share more about our team’s behind-the-scenes work with key decision-makers, as well as our contributions to national conversations.
Glasgow’s Cultural and Civic Infrastructure Continues to be at Risk
SCAN members based at Trongate 103, one of Glasgow’s most prominent art centres, were served notice to quit at the beginning of March. The notice issued was effective from 27 March. This made public the years-long struggle that arts organisations based there had been having with landlord City Property (Glasgow) LLP, an arm’s length company of Glasgow City Council that manages property across the city. Tenants of T103 were invited to sign a new lease to continue their tenancy which would sign them up to a 4x increase in rent and a 10x increase in service charge or face eviction.
This situation highlights a gross misunderstanding at city stewardship level of the importance of cultural activity in Glasgow, who it is for and who it supports. Trongate 103 was created as public cultural infrastructure, designed to support long-term artistic production and public engagement. However, following the 2009/10 transfer of Glasgow City Council’s property portfolio to a commercial organisation and a private landlord, City Property, the building became part of a financial structure designed to generate income.
In support of our members at T103 who were facing this situation, together with Culture Counts and Creative Glasgow, we wrote to First Minister John Swinney and Cabinet Secretary Angus Robertson – read our open letter. We also wrote to every councillor with responsibility for the Anderston/Central Ward, urging them to take the sustainability and value of Glasgow’s arts organisations seriously.
SCAN also liaised with Paul Sweeney MSP, member for Glasgow, we were pleased to support him to ask this question at the Final First Minister’s Questions, urging the Scottish Government to step in and support the Glasgow cultural scene after the closure of CCA, the Arches, the Lighthouse and of course T103.
We attended the protest outside the City Property offices on 27 March, which was massively well attended by the arts community, regular users of Trongate 103 and the public. The protest was a brilliant example of people power and the strength of feeling towards how our Trongate 103 friends were being treated. Banners and placards created at Glasgow Print Studio and Project Ability raised the profile and will be remembered for some time to come. This was arts advocacy in action, making a difference.
Collectively, we are thankful to Baillie Christy Mearns for the huge amount of support she has shown the cultural community, ultimately bringing a motion to a full council meeting on 2 April.
The motion called for urgent action, including funding options to mitigate the impact of rent increases. Fortunately, the motion was passed, with the creation of a £200,000 ‘culture and creative industry property support’ fund. Baillie Mearns welcomed the action for now, but warned that City Property must reconsider their approach to managing buildings across the city. SCAN will continue to support our members based at Trongate 103 over the coming months.
In response, SCAN are exploring focusing our vital advocacy work towards councillors and local authority leaders, to build understanding around why the arts sector is a crucial partner in delivering vital and vibrant services for communities across the country moving forward.
The Campaign Trail Begins – Scottish Holyrood Elections 2026
Scottish Parliamentary business is now on hold as election campaigning takes place for the Scottish Elections which take place on 7 May. SCAN’s election asks, which we launched in December under the banner ‘The Future is Art’ include an ongoing focus on committing to above 1% of the overall budget to national arts funding (currently sitting at around 0.8%), alongside valuing our sector as a key partner for cross portfolio working, placemaking and community wealth building.
Only two parties have launched their manifestos at the time of this article going live, Scottish Conservatives and Reform UK. Reform do not have any mention of culture as a priority but the Scottish Conservatives explicitly note in their manifesto:
“One of the culture industry’s key demands in the last few years has been the guarantee of multi-year cash settlements so that they have enough funding certainty to make long-term investment decisions. The Scottish Conservatives would guarantee multi-year funding for cultural organisations through a new Culture Act.”
We’ll share details of the other party manifestos as they are launched.
Now, we will never tell members how to vote, but we do encourage you to vote and make sure that you have time to check you are on the electoral register if you have not received your polling card already. You must do so by 20 April.
In case you missed it, we worked with our sector support partners, Federation of Scottish Theatre, EMCC, Festivals Edinburgh, Campaign for the Arts and Culture Counts to deliver the Cultural Hustings (image above) at the end of February. Speakers from all of the main parties attended and you can catch up with the hustings event on Youtube.
Interested in using SCAN or other organisations’ asks to make sure culture is prioritised in Scotland’s upcoming election? Please see Federation of Scottish Theatre’s great Election Guide.
Our contribution to the Culture Act conversation
SCAN’s Director Veronique AA Lapeyre was invited to be part of a new talks series by the University of Glasgow ‘s new Cultural Industries subject area in collaboration with Creative Glasgow.
Culture Matters kicked off with a packed audience on the 19 March to explore the question “Does Scotland need a culture act?”. Veronique was joined by Joseph Peach who has been leading the policy advocacy through his role at Culture Counts and Greens Councillor Holly Bruce. It was a lively discussion with key contributions from the audience who raised critical questions around the preservation of cultural infrastructure and its value for communities and places. Thanks also to host Mark Banks and chair Nikki Kane.
Art & Culture are Core to the Scottish Identity
New research supports the fact that arts, heritage and culture are core to the Scottish national identity. Eight in ten people in Scotland (80%) say that arts and culture, including museums and galleries, are an important part of national identity.
That’s according to a new public poll commissioned by Art Fund in advance of Scottish and Welsh elections on the 7 May. Research shows overwhelming public support for museums and galleries across Scotland and Wales, alongside strong support for increasing government funding for the sector.
Museum and gallery professionals are invited to share the report with board members, volunteers and community partners alongside sharing it with electoral candidates to demonstrate constituent support. Read the findings in full.
Images
Header: Aspire Studio at Project Ability, part of Trongate 103
Middle: Culture Hustings at Dovecot, Edinburgh, photography by Erika Stevenson