Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts to close

Glasgow’s Centre for Contempory Arts (CCA), once one of the most important and vital multi-arts venues in Scotland, is set to close. The news was first made public by The Glasgow Bell, citing an all-hands meeting held earlier today in which staff were told that operations would cease "with immediate effect". The Skinny has been told the venue is no longer able to continue operating and is entering liquidation, and that all pre-announced events, exhibitions and shows have been cancelled. 

The news is a huge loss to Glasgow’s cultural community, but perhaps not a complete surprise. There have been many publicised financial and governance issues at the venue for a long time now, with every week seeming to bring a new drama.

Bar rows, leadership changes and funding woes

In 2023, the venue decided to cut ties with Saramago, who operated the CCA’s popular downstairs cafe and terrace bar, after three staff members were locked in a dispute with Saramago over working conditions. While the venue eventually reopened the upstairs bar, renaming it the Third Eye in honour of CCA’s history (before becoming the CCA in 1994, the venue was known as the Third Eye Centre), they never replaced the downstairs cafe, which was a popular meeting spot for Glasgow creatives and its closure likely contributed to the huge drop in footfall at the venue, down over 50% of pre-pandemic levels. 

Toward the end of 2023, the CCA’s long-running Director, Francis McKee, left his post after 18 years, and his role was never filled, leaving the organisation with no figurehead director overseeing operations. A year later, the venue revealed it was in a precarious financial position and would be temporarily closing over the winter months, from December 2024 to March 2025, to focus on restructuring and ensuring financial recovery. The venue did reopen in April after being awarded multi-year funding from Creative Scotland to the tune of £3.4 million across three years. 

“The past year has been incredibly tough. We have fought incredibly hard to keep CCA alive and to make sure we would be here for the long term," the CCA said in a statement following the multi-year funding announcement. "This funding is a recognition of that fight, and a testament to the resilience, creativity and determination of our team, the artists we work with, and the community that has stood by us.”

Protests, board changes and more closures

The lowest point in CCA’s recent history surely came last summer in its disastrous handling of a dispute with Art Workers for Palestine Scotland. In response to the CCA Board’s decision not to endorse a cultural boycott of Israel over its military actions in Palestine, the AWFPS group had planned a peaceful protest at the venue, which would take the form of a week-long fringe programme of workshops and screenings in CCA’s courtyard. 

But on the first day of the programme, the CCA’s board had arranged for police officers to remove AWFPS from the CCA building. The event escalated, and a standoff ensued outside CCA, during which a 63-year-old woman, who was taking part in AWFPS’s festival, was arrested by the police and was injured during the process.

The CCA Board were roundly condemned for its action by Glasgow’s arts community, and the venue was forced to apologise. “We sincerely regret the outcome of our decisions on 24 June and that an individual was injured," read the CCA's apology statement. "We recognise that a lack of clarity on our choices had real human consequences, and for this we are deeply sorry.”

The venue committed to changing its leadership, and closed once again. During this "time of reflection", seven of its nine board members resigned. The CCA reopened in late August, and a new chair of the Board, a business consultant named Muse Greenwood, was announced in December 2025. On taking up the role, Greenwood said: “I am honoured to have been asked to chair the board in this new time of future-proofing the CCA.” But almost immediately there were calls for her to resign, which she did after just 35 days in post. 

And now it’s been confirmed that the CCA will be closing for good. There’s no doubt that this news will cause deep sadness and concern across Scotland’s arts community, and our first thoughts of sympathy and solidarity go to the staff who have lost their jobs in the wake of the chaotic leadership over the last few years.

We'll update this story as more information becomes available.