History of Scottish Music Centre latest news and fundraising
A few things have become clearer and I’ll cover them briefly here. I knew I would have the wherewithal to have the centre up and running in some way by March but I’m thinking it would be best to hold out and get the best location possible. The centre will undoubtedly be a destination but I really want to have people who pass by to be enticed in too and for that there needs to be people passing by ! I have a preferred location and will persevere with that for now. I am still working to a March deadline and that with support is possible.
My intention had been to use Avalanche’s reputation and contacts to help establish the centre but then let the centre stand on its own two feet. However all the people I have spoken to have said that the Avalanche name should not be lost as that is an asset to the project and I have no problem with that at all so long as it is clear it will be a different type of Avalanche.
The intention will remain to be even-handed among all the genres we intend to cover but as has already been well documented contemporary rock and pop as I have to call it is an area that has little to no representation among lobbying groups so it may be necessary to fight that corner sometimes just to make the playing field level. You only have to look at this year’s BBC Sound of 2017 to see what happens both in terms of geography and genre when lobbyists get their way.
I met with the Scottish Music Centre (“a member development organisation with classical members and two youth music projects” according to their press officer) in Glasgow who were concerned that folk might think the centre was dedicated to them and suggested a name change. Considering “The Only Fun In Town”.
The response has been fantastic and the centre has been offered many items and in particular photos that haven’t been seen for decades but I now need to get the finances in order as it simply isn’t possible to dedicate this much time to a project of this size without some assistance. Moving forward when dealing with bodies like Creative Scotland and Edinburgh Council they look for evidence of support from the public.
To be fair everybody thinks it is a great idea but these days there are such limited funds out there that being able to show public involvement and engagement helps a lot. To this end I will set up a simple donation button and will see what the response is. Even a small donation will help with the “engagement” numbers and that old cliche about donating the price of a cup of coffee will hold true. I’ll prepare a mission statement much as I did when we moved to the Grassmarket and take it from there.