News
Takeover talk for top music venues
- Christopher Glasgow
- Scottish Music Centre
- 29 Jun 2009
The first steps were taken at the end of the month in a process that could see some of Scotland's highest-profile music venues taken over by cultural body Culture and Sport Glasgow.
The executive committee of Glasgow City Council gave the go-ahead for the establishment of a Transition Group that will discuss the takeover of Glasgow Cultural Enterprises (GCE), which runs Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, the City Halls and the Old Fruitmarket, by CSG, the arms-length body which runs the city's museums and galleries.
The committee considered a paper which says that GCE needs £5.8m in capital investment, £3.7m of which is of a "high priority". It says: "GCE operates under a financial model that is unable to generate sufficient income to invest in the infrastructure of the buildings."
Staff at the music venues, who are currently without a director since the departure of Louise Mitchell to head up the Glasgow City of Music project, have expressed concern that the takeover move is a "fait accompli", and that the artistic integrity of the venue programmes could be at risk. There has also been talk of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra moving its headquarters to the GRCH in the future.
Bailie Jean McFadden, introducing the paper, said: "The venues need £5.8m in the next three years for work on the Royal Concert Hall and we at the council simply do not have that kind of capital money to hand over. I am not sure about the name of the Transition Group, however, because it gives the impression that the decision to go ahead with this has already been made, and of course it has not."
