Lights go out
The Lighthouse Trust - the charity which ran the Lighthouse in Glasgow - is to be officially wound down.
No surprises there.
Since August when the Trust announced the company had gone into administration, following a string of funding problems, it's been only a matter of time.
This week, with the withdrawal of Glasgow City Council's funding, it was clear the trust's role in the building was over.
What now? Glasgow City Council is keen to keep the concept alive, perhaps as a business centre for the creative industries.
And unless it wants to go down the route of unravelling its funding - and returning some of the millions the Lottery gave the project when it first opened in 1999 - the council has to think beyond the realms of a business centre to something which appeals to as wide a range of people as possible.
Not an easy task as those who've run the centre for the past 10 years will admit.
It's position down a dark lane, and its esoteric subject matter don't help.
And with so many other cultural centres vying for public attention and money - not least the newly opened Trongate 103 and the newly refurbished Tramway - it's going to be a tough one for the council to justify.
Not London’s South Bank, but the south bank of the River Clyde in Glasgow - every bit as lively in cultural terms as its namesake. I’m Pauline McLean, 91Èȱ¬ Scotland’s arts correspondent, and I’ll be blogging here about arts events and issues happening across the country.
Comment number 1.
At 31st Oct 2009, cekbrooks wrote:Having seen what Glasgow City Council allows to be built within its own boundaries it is clear that they have no understanding of what "World Class" architecture really is - so you can't really see why they were ever funding something like The Lighthouse.
On a wider note, the sad thing is that every single arts-related project relies on the Council for some degree of its funding. Its high time that the Glasgow Arts Establshment weans itself off of this fickle funding font.
The Lighthouse is such an incredible space and location but it always seemed underused. It never really attracted eye-catching exhibitions, and certainly nothing close to "World Class", so even most Glasgwegians would hardly know of its existence.
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Comment number 2.
At 2nd Nov 2009, Steven Bain wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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