Finding the ScotPop Centre a home – a brief history

While Avalanche was still in the Grassmarket Edinburgh Council decided to support music in the city centre “like New York and Sydney”. Plans to use empty council buildings were quickly dismissed by their property department but it was suggested space in council buildings might be found and it was soon established that council owned museums and galleries were by far the best possible locations.

Consequently a little later when looking for a home for the exhibition centre artists who were also musicians said that ignoring any arguments about the validity of the art there were large rooms that would be all we needed dedicated to maybe a couple of paintings or a sparse installation. Soon after that several people associated with the City Art Centre got in touch to say the ground floor of the CAC would be perfect and just what was needed to attract more folk in. 

It is well documented elsewhere that despite a very successful pop-up at the Fruitmarket Gallery two drawn out attempts to get space in the CAC have failed. It is still the case that huge rooms exist within the council’s galleries including the CAC but despite assurances it is not the case a pop music exhibition doing its best to break even is not seen in the same light as an art installation or exhibition that needs several grants just to exist and 99% of people have no interest in. 

You see there is a clue in the grant system. If a gallery needs half a million, or a million or two million pounds every three years on top of any other funding received just to cover its costs then it’s because the vast majority of people really don’t care and in fact it will only get worse. In a recent YouGov survey the younger folk were, the more likely they were to consider the arts, be that classical music or art galleries, as “posh” and of no interest to them. 

That the powers that be consider a Mexican artist with his field recordings of whales and dolphins to be art worthy of waiving any fees but an exhibition about Scottish musicians to be unworthy of support says it all. 

I really did think that the National Museum of Scotland’s Rip It Up exhibition this year would have established that a permanent Scottish music exhibition should be taken seriously but that is very clearly not the case. Sadly I don’t see things changing.