Bad news, good news and more good news in the future !

After more than two years off and on of speaking to The City Art Centre it has been decided it would not be “appropriate” to host the History of Scottish Music Centre there even as a pop-up. It is sad they they would rather see the place empty, as it was when I popped in just yesterday, rather than utilise the space in-between exhibitions never mind the spaces that seem to be permanently unused.

After the CAC I went up to the National Museum of Scotland and even though you might expect it to be busy on a Saturday it really was heaving with a wide range of folk from tourist groups to local families. I then quickly visited the Tron market to see how the stall holders there were getting on and again it was full to bursting though it is still difficult these days to get folk to part with their money. Gradually making my way down to the Fruitmarket Gallery for the Mark Wallinger preview which was starting at 6.30pm and perfectly timed and placed for my train an hour later I arrived slightly early bur the place was already buzzing after the earlier talk and the contrast could not have been greater with my earlier visit to the CAC.

Walking into the City Art Centre I’d immediately been stopped in my path by two large information posters and if I had fought my way passed them I would have found the escalators cordoned off as there are no exhibitions currently except in the basement. The cafe was busy but that operates completely separately and the gift shop was deserted. Unfortunately this will be the CAC’s fate until the Science Festival in April.

Luckily others see great value in the History of Scottish Music Centre and so we get to the good news. I do hope to announce our first pop-up very soon indeed and I’m also looking at a more permanent location. I had originally planned to have something in place by March to at least show what could be done but people were so enthused with the City Art Centre idea I really had to give that my full attention until we had resolution one way or another. 

I did actually hear some other very good news after Christmas for Scottish music and the HoSMC but clearly there is just too much good news already so I’m afraid the powers that be say I’m not allowed to tell you ! So there we are. Some very disappointing news, some very good news and some excellent news to look forward to.