The Sum of Parts

The arts organisations at Trongate103 in Glasgow’s city centre are facing closure due to their leases being terminated by City Property, following a massive rent increase. Trongate103 is one of the last visual arts venues remaining in the city, especially after the recent closure of the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA). Losing it would be a devastating blow to Glasgow’s vibrant cultural scene. Artist Janie Nicoll explores the background to the current crisis.

Trongate 103 is so much more than a building, to me and to thousands of other people that use it.

Unlike other people, I look at what’s going on in T103 on a daily basis. A bit like James Stewart in Hitchcock’s film ‘Rear Window’, I have a studio across the road, and I look out of my window and see the goings-on across the street. I hear the sounds of the screenprint screens being jet-washed, the music of Sharmanka’s kinetic theatre, the sounds of disabled artists and their carers getting out of taxis in the street below. I can see artists in their studios, people working, having meetings, making things, printing things, photographing things, exhibitions being installed, films being screened, artists giving talks, people attending openings, performances, music events, or involved in engagement workshops, with community groups, schools, people with special needs, anyone really. This is an important point to make, that anyone can use this building, and they do. 

Just like James Stewart in Rear Window, I can tell when something doesn’t seem quite right. During Covid, when the lights went out, it was a difficult time for the arts, and over the last five years, there have many challenges, but the organisations in this building are resilient and have survived to operate again as strongly as ever. These are organisations that have weathered many storms, have world-class reputations, and are loved and appreciated by the people who use them. Sadly, it would seem this does not apply to those in charge, higher up the civic food chain. 

I’ve been thinking about how Trongate 103 has been central to my career and how I’ve worked and/ or exhibited on every floor since I moved to Glasgow in 1991. Initially, I sublet a Wasps studio on the fourth floor, then had a studio on the 3rd floor. I worked for several years at Glasgow Print Studio on the 1st and 2nd floors; for two years at Street Level on the ground floor, and was a member of Transmission Gallery, so also used the basement. I’ve done collaborative residencies with artists from Project Ability, one of my children did their work experience there and did courses at GMAC. I have exhibited at Transmission, GPS, Street Level, Glasgow Project Room, even in the foyer. I attended the opening night of T103 in 2009 with Edwyn Collins playing with Teenage Fanclub, when it was launched as a triumphant new arts hub. Since then, I’ve lost count of how many meetings, openings, talks, events, I’ve been to in this building. I’m currently a member at GPS, with an exhibition scheduled there for October and was also on the board of GIS (Glasgow Independent Studio). To say that I feel heavily invested in this building, is an understatement. 

“Glasgow has long been celebrated for its rich cultural and artistic heritage. The city is home to dozens of creatives, artists, and communities. Trongate103 has been at the heart of this, offering a space for art, creativity, and expression that has enlivened the city centre and contributed enormously to the local economy. With its closure, we risk obliterating Glasgow’s creative cultural legacy.”
– Lauren Coleman, petition statement

Several of these organisations have been in this building since the Eighties or earlier, and they are all highly productive, influential and respected at what they do. Collectively, they have made a huge cultural, as well as economic, contribution to the city of Glasgow, as well as locally, nationally and internationally. They are in no way, shape or form failed businesses, or requesting a bailout as may have been implied by FM John Swinnie at FMQ’s last week. They are simply requesting that they are not financially strangled by the arms-length organisation (City Property Glasgow (Investments) LLP) of one of the partners who set them up in the first place (Glasgow City Council).  

These are highly successful businesses with staff who are also at the top of their game, passing on knowledge and technical expertise to other artists, creating and nurturing communities, and opportunities, that create ripples far and wide. Recent graduates and people who just want to try things, can rub shoulders with Turner prize-winning artists, like Jeremy Deller or Ciara Philips, who still use GPS, or last year’s Turner Prize winner, Nnena Kal, who had her first exhibition at Project Ability. Trongate103’s facilities make it uniquely accessible to less able artists, and those with special needs, the importance of this cannot be overemphasised, and the fact that we could lose these is, for me, the most heart-breaking aspect of this thoroughly demoralising situation.      

There has already been a lot written about the current situation, how this building was renovated with large amounts of public funding from the Scottish Government, Creative Scotland and GCC, amongst others, to establish an ‘affordable’ Cultural Hub. Anyone using the building has probably been aware that ‘something wasn’t right’, with the snagging lists that were never completed; the on-going leaks in the roof that brought ceilings down and continue to create unsightly brown marks and damp on many ceilings and walls; the central heating system that seemed to be permanently on; the bins strategically positioned to catch the water that pours in when it rains. 

It was only recently that I became aware of the current situation, that despite the charitable status of the organisations involved and the 25 year lease that seems to have never materialised, CP had decided to include this building in a Commercial Portfolio, thereby justifying the move to quadrupling the rent, and to strong arming the seven organisations into signing new leases, 17 years into what should have been a 25 year lease, that now includes uncapped service charges and insurance costs, and the more ominous ‘dilapidations’ charges. These extra costs will potentially run into hundreds of thousands of pounds and are what are forcing organisations to think about exit strategies. These exit strategies are already coming into effect with the relocation of GMAC to a new location. 

Until a few weeks ago, I thought that GCC and City Property playing hardball with the finances was just a negotiating tactic, but it has gradually sunk in that they are no longer negotiating, and we are facing the loss of this very beloved building. It seems unbelievable that Glasgow City Council is sitting back and letting this happen, claiming no responsibility, meanwhile, as ever, proclaiming the importance of culture in its Cultural Strategy, and on the brightly coloured hoardings around George Square and GOMA.   

Like many people I know, the thriving cultural scene here was the reason I moved to Glasgow in the first place. Sadly, it now feels like the Arts and Culture sector in Glasgow has been taken for granted, like much of the Victorian architecture that makes Glasgow the special place that it is, has been hollowed out, neglected, sold off to developers, managed by arm’s length organisations that can be as mercenary as they wish.

As ever, the art sector in Scotland, is expected to somehow muddle through, an elastic band continually stretched. For Glasgow at least, it seems like this could be the final straw. It feels like T103 is hanging on by a thread.

Glasgow City Council needs to take a long hard look at the way they support the arts in this city before there is nothing left. When it’s gone, its gone…

Sign this petition to protect Glasgow’s cultural legacy, safeguard the arts community, and ensure that creativity continues to flourish in our city.

Please sign the petition opposing the increase costs (https://c.org/5tcJ8tV8F2) and emailing councillors.

List of councillors to email:

Glasgow Life Councillors – Annette Christie, Eva Bolander, Holly Bruce, Keiran Turner, Linda Pike

City Property Council Members – Paul Leinster (chairman), Richard Bell, Declan Blench, Rashid Hussain.