Campaign to rescue Scotland's crisis-hit visual arts after Charles Rennie Mackintosh-inspired 'casualty'

Scottish Contemporary Art Network says it has had to make redundancies, 11 months since the First Minister visited the venue as part of an Art in Action campaign run by SCAN, the organisation which supports renowned artists and critically acclaimed exhibitions.

House for an Art Love, which gets no core funding and supports arts activities from its hospitality trading said redundancies had come mostly in catering pointing out a major source of income came from hosting weddings and other events which were "currently forbidden".

It said they are in the process of exploring "possible relationships and partnerships with artists and organisations" with a view to re-opening the Studio Pavilion.

Managers say the main House itself is now open for visitors and managers said it is their intention to re-start activities in the Arts and Heritage Centre as soon as they were able.

SCAN has now launched a new campaign to save those working in the visual arts in Scotland which produced the 2018 Turner Prize winner Charlotte Prodger.

Supporting artists, freelancers and others working in the industry the #KeepArtInAction is a response to what it calls "the lack of dedicated emergency funding for the visual arts".

A selection of celebrated and award winning artists in Scotland including Jacqeline Donachie, Nathan Coley, Alberta Whittle and 2014 Turner Prize winner Duncan Campbell have joined calls from SCAN for a dedicated fund for the visual arts to stabilise the sector and prevent insolvencies.

A SCAN survey in May warned the visual art scene was "at risk" with seven in ten organisations saying it has meant or likely to mean the cancellation of programmes and projects.

Scotland's contemporary visual arts sector has already come under pressure from cuts in local authority funding and the constant, tightening squeeze on state arts funding.

SCAN, the visual art major representative body, last year launched a new campaign, Art in Action, to “sharpen the minds” of every MSP in the Scottish Parliament about the issues facing visual artists across the country, as well as celebrate their ongoing contribution to wider society.

The First Minister visited Studio Pavilion at House for an Art Lover during that campaign and posed for pictures holding a sign saying "I've Seen Art In Action".

Six years ago, the House for an Art Lover underwent its biggest overhaul since it opened in 1996, with the launch of a new artists' Studio Pavilion and the latest phase of the Art Park Glasgow project near the main house.

The new artists' Studio Pavilion was influenced by Mackintosh's love of Japanese design and by the painting studios at Glasgow School of Art, where he studied.

SCAN declared that it was "one of the most recent casualties" with activity at the venue paused and their arts officer role made redundant on July 31.

"Scotland was one of the best places for contemporary artists to live and work and now without urgent support, it’s world-famous art scene is teetering on the brink,” said Clare Harris, director of SCAN.

SCAN says the Scottish Government has provided welcome commitment to the culture sector, including relief funds for the nation’s performing arts venues, its grassroots music venues and some museums and permanent collections.

But funds have not yet been confirmed for the network of artists’ studios, production facilities and contemporary art galleries that artists rely on to make their work and earn a living.

Now leading artists are adding their voices to the call for urgent support for contemporary art to avoid a crisis that will impact thousands of workers, both staff and self-employed.

Clare Harris

SCAN recently issued a set of proposals for a visual art emergency stimulus to the office of Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture.

These proposals include moves that SCAN believes would protect visual art organisations from immediate and medium-term insolvency, as well as safeguard and increase opportunities for commissioning and employment of freelance artists and creative practitioners. It also urged the establishment of a fund which would help artists to sustain their livelihoods in the immediate term.

Turner Prize winner Duncan Campbell, part of Glasgow’s eminent artist-led community said: “Covid, for younger artists and artist initiatives in particular, has opened up a huge void… It seems to me that we are at a breaking point. Without a radical effort to support younger artists and artists run spaces – now – the basic ability Glasgow has to produce and reproduce artists is on the line.”

The pandemic has dealt a major blow to the visual arts sector which in the last 30 years has delivered success in the Turner Prize, the art world's equivalent of the literary award, the Booker Prize or popular music's Mercury Prize.

Eight winners of the Turner Prize since 1996 have been trained or from Scotland, and a further sixteen had been nominated.

Award-winning artist Jacqueline Donachie said: “The crisis for visual artists might be harder to see than in other sectors. It doesn’t become visible through mass redundancies, but it is unemployment. Artists are signing on, there is a huge loss of freelance work. So many artists fell through the net on the assessment of freelance income through the government’s schemes.”

Turner Prize 2020 bursary recipient Alberta Whittle added: “The Scottish arts scene is rooted in community, care and innovation. Through bypassing support for contemporary artists, galleries, studios and production facilities, the dynamism that cements Scotland at the vanguard of European contemporary creative thinking diminishes every day. We have moved past the time for complacency and without urgent support recovery becomes a dream.”

Artists such as Douglas Gordon, Karla Black, Nathan Coley, Martin Boyce, Martin Creed, Christine Borland, Jacqueline Donachie, Richard Wright, Susan Philipsz, and Duncan Campbell, among many others - often, but not always, connected to Glasgow School of Art - have been part of the generation of artists who have made Scotland, and Glasgow, a key site for the creation of cutting-edge art.

Nathan Coley who was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2007 said: “We need to acknowledge what artists give to the community and support them better or they will be lost for a generation.

"Without artists there will be no new visual art being made to reflect our changing world - no exhibitions displaying the wealth of discourse around identity and nationhood, and no new culture to help educate and invigorate our people. Creativity could be the way out of the crisis we are in, but if the artists aren’t kept alive, then their voices will be lost forever.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We do not underestimate the devastating impact this pandemic has had on Scotland’s creative industries and arts scene.

“We acted quickly to provide support to organisations those working in these sectors, but we know that many are still struggling.

"Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, met with SCAN on August 5 to discuss the challenges facing the visual arts sector, and we continue to assess what more support may be available to those who still need it so that they can continue to make a vibrant and rich contribution to Scotland.”