Galleries and Art
The links between economic regeneration and cultural expansion can be witnessed in the Merchant City, which has seen a growth in the number of galleries in recent years. The origins of this lie in the late 80s/early 90s, when the area attracted artist-led organisations who could afford the cheap rents and work in the vacant manufacturing and retail spaces. Its ‘Artzone’ potential was quickly acknowledged by the independent galleries and Glasgow City Council recognised the benefits of the strategic campaign to rebrand the area as a ‘cultural quarter’. One major outcome of the partnership between the local authority and the arts organisations, can be seen in the development of Trongate 103, a creative hub housing 8 visual arts organisations which will act as a dynamic focus on contemporary visual art.Dotted around the various streets which traverse its boundaries, there is a lively and diverse cluster of galleries offering something to satisfy all tastes and address all curiosities. From abstract expressionism to traditional landscape, new figuration and new formalism, contemporary printmaking and photo-based art, moving images as well as moving sculpture, not to mention glassworks, ceramics, and a multitude of applied arts and crafts. There is an important mix, however, of the retail and the commercial gallery, the independent and not-for-profit art space, and sometimes a combination of all of these. Behind closed doors and sometimes high up overlooking a changing city skyline, there are hundreds of studios where the stuff that populates the spaces below is produced – artists, therefore, are at the heart of the ‘cultural quarter’.
Malcolm Dickson, Director, Street Level Photoworks
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