‘EYE-WATERING’
Councillor blasts £500,000 art school travel expenses
A COUNCILLOR has blasted the ‘eye-watering’ travel expenses incurred by staff at the fire-ravaged Glasgow School of Art.
It has emerged that the institution has spent £500,000 sending hundreds of staff and students around the globe over the last two years – often staying in plush five-star hotels.
Glasgow School of Art is facing a £100million plus bill to recover the Mackintosh building, which was devastated by its second blaze in recent years in June.
A CITY councillor has claimed Glasgow School of Art’s “eye-watering” travel expenses prove Glasgow City Council should not be asked to contribute to the rebuilding of the world-famous Mackintosh building.
Labour’s Councillor Paul Carey said a Freedom of Information request which revealed the school spent more than £500,000 sending hundreds of staff and students around the globe over the last two years – often staying in plush five-star hotels – cemented his view the school does not need city cash to restore the fire-ravaged building.
Since 2016, the school spent a total of £560,952 sending 553 staff and students to the likes of Australia, China and Luxembourg – staying in a top-rated hotel at least 18 times – according to the FOI request.
Glasgow School of Art was devastated by a major blaze in June last year, four years after parts of the building were destroyed by a smaller blaze.
Repairing the Mackintosh building is expected to cost at least £100million, according to experts.
Cllr Carey said: “Given the fact that the GSA have spent over half a million on expenses from 2016 to 2018 and they have one of the lowest student attendances from working backgrounds within the UK this seems to be an elite place for elite people.
“I like anyone else was devastated when the Glasgow School of Art was burnt down however, we cannot justify in this day and age that any public funding should go to this elite school when we still have foodbanks in this city.”
Instead, the Drumchapel/ Anniesland councillor insisted the money would be better spent across the city.
He added: “Surely helping the public museums would be a better use of public money as it is for the greater good of the general public instead of it going to a an almost elite institution.”
However, bosses at the city centre-based school insisted the rebuild was not expected to require funding from the council.
A spokeswoman said: “As the Chair of our Board of Governors has said, we are entirely trusting that the rebuild of The Mackintosh Building is not going to cost any public money.”
She added: “The Glasgow School of Art is an international institution, rooted in Glasgow. We have a campus in Singapore and links to many other international institutions.
“Additionally, our expert staff take part in international conferences and events across the world raising the profile of Glasgow as a global leader in creativity and innovation.
“We also have one of the most vibrant international student exchange programmes in the Higher Education sector, encouraging our students to undertake exchange as part of their studies.”