Scale of support from government does not match our city’s ambition

IN my column last week, I wrote about the need for a package of national support for Glasgow Life, which runs our museums, art galleries, theatres, libraries, gyms and community centres. I was happy to see, then, two announcements in the last week.

First, the Scottish Government announced £10 million for supporting live music venues. And then the next day, the UK Government announced a significant sum (£1.57 billion), with £97m of that coming directly to Holyrood.

These are welcome sums – the future for our cultural institutions seems slightly brighter than it did last week. But only slightly. The combined total of £107m of new money feels a little like a drop in the ocean. For context, as I noted last week, Glasgow Life relies on £38m in ticket sales, donations, venue hire and gym memberships every year to survive – funding streams that disappeared almost overnight. Glasgow is the powerhouse of the Scottish economy. When Glasgow does well, Scotland does well. And our city’s cultural offer is core to that. Glasgow would not be the city that it is today without the Burrell Collection, or Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, or the Citizens Theatre, or the Tron. Would we have made the same strides towards being a healthier city without the extensive network of gyms and leisure centres? Would we have the resilient communities we do if not for a network of community centres that enable local people to meet, organise and to serve their communities?

It is our mission that Glasgow should build back better from this crisis – by properly rewarding those who have been systematically undervalued in our economy, by ensuring that future growth and prosperity is shared among all our communities, and rebuilding an economy that is sustainable.

None of these things can happen in Glasgow without Glasgow Life. None of them can happen without enabling the creativity and innovation of all of Glasgow’s people. There is consistent evidence that the quality of life in Glasgow is key to attracting investment, and attracting people to make their homes here. That quality of life is built on our communities, our arts and our culture.

In short: the scale of the support put in place does not match the scale of our ambition. We can and must be bolder. Glasgow is home to cultural assets not only of national significance, but also international significance.

I look forward to greater detail on how the £97m will be disbursed by the Scottish Government – but as Glaswegians, we should be clear on what we expect that financial support to do. There are many projects, theatres, museums and art galleries across Scotland that are worthy, and crying out for, support in this trying time.

But, the case for Glasgow and Glasgow Life is simple: when Glasgow does well, Scotland does well. Our governments have utilised bold and radical language in framing their response to the crisis. For Glasgow, whether they scale up their ambition will be the key test.