The Scottish Pop Music Exhibition Centre funding
All along the consensus of opinion has been that those of us that were around in the late seventies and early eighties now of course in our fifties and sixties would be very keen to see a centre documenting that time. Of course I then had a great response at the Fruitmatket pop-up from those who remember the sixties a time that had largely been forgotten bar the occasional Beatles story.
Certainly social media confirmed the love felt not just for the bands but also the clubs, venues and even shops and pubs of the time. Other areas of the arts have their wealthy patrons and supporters and it didn’t seem unreasonable to expect that from this pool of people with fond memories some would fill these roles.
Make no mistake the reason this has not been done before is because those who had similar ideas could not get funding and it is only because I have sunk a large amount of time and money into a project I believed was important that we are so close to achieving something.
In virtually every area the response to the idea has been fantastic and people have been so helpful. The one difficulty has been financial support. If things had moved more quickly I might just have managed myself but again by the standards set by others the three years this has taken is quick. One senior arts figure tried to console me by saying what I had done in three years would normally take seven. I didn’t feel better !
I reckon I have about three years worth of things to look into and of course what this means is that the exhibition centre will be ever changing. I certainly hope that anybody visiting once a year will see enough different things every time to be happy. What it also means is that there is no reason there can’t be exhibitions elsewhere possibly in other Edinburgh venues but also in other cities.
I understand not everybody was impressed with Midge Ure’s coat at the launch of the museum’s exhibition this year but there is much more to be revealed there I’m sure. In the big picture it is a temporary showcase but it should certainly help with getting a permanent centre with a wider remit off the ground.
Time is now against me and what that means is that I will have to go with what plans I have whether finalised or not very soon which is a risk. It is hard enough getting things done but I did think with the museum exhibition coming up and the need to have everything in place three months earlier it would produce results but it hasn’t.
This next week is a huge week and it is possible everything will just fall into place. As always I would like to thank everybody who has given their time and effort and hopefully the wealthy patrons will follow !
The funding link is here