The Art School closure: the story so far

Glasgow loses another of its key venues with the Art School union announcing it's closed to the public until at least 2020

Article by Jamie Dunn | 11 Nov 2019
  • GSA The Vic Relaunch

It’s been a rough few years for the music and club scene in Glasgow. In 2015, the Arches – the world-famous nightclub and performance space under Central Station – went into administration after Glasgow City Council set a midnight curfew for the venue. Three years later, the roof of one of the best medium-sized gig venues and club spaces in town, the ABC on Sauchiehall Street, collapsed after a devastating fire that started at the adjacent Mackintosh Building. We’re pouring another one out for a third key Glasgow venue this month, as the Glasgow School of Art union – aka The Art School – has closed to the public until at least the new year.

The background

The news broke at the start of the month that the GSA student union's venues would be offering "very little to no public provision" for the foreseeable future. It's claimed that the union’s much-loved Vic Bar and club have been “operating at a loss for years”, and this lack of solvency has been compounded by the two fires at the Mackintosh building, which the union sits directly opposite, on the corner of Renfrew Street and Scott Street.

“There have been all kinds of interruptions and disruptions on that street,” a spokesperson for GSA Student Association told the BBC. This includes an extended closure of that section of Renfrew Street after the most recent fire after the Mackintosh building was deemed unstable. “They're not necessarily to blame,” the spokesperson said of the fires, “but other businesses have not had to deal with that."

The upshot is that the GSA union will be “reducing trading (provision of a limited food offering, teas and coffees) for a short period until the New Year in order to reflect, regroup and develop a more sustainable business model,” say the GSA Student Association in a statement on the front page of their website.

“This decision has not been taken lightly,” they say. “All alternative avenues were considered extensively before this decision was made.” In their statement, the GSASA acknowledge the importance of the venue to the city's wider creative scene, but say "action is now required to strike a balance between prioritising student access to the space and student led events, whilst maintaining GSASA’s cultural significance within Scotland."

Art School staff protest, artists sign open letter

As well as a blow to the city’s music and clubbing scene, this reduction in GSA’s public provision is another kick in the teeth to the union's staff, who have been put through the wringer in the last few months. Back in August, the employees at The Art School union bar were told that the organisation was “two weeks from liquidation”. A meeting with management in September looked to stabilise the situation, with The Evening Times reporting that staff were promised minimum hour contracts and previously set working conditions. “Following a sustained public campaign and positive negotiations with senior management in September we were given verbal and written assurances that they would be given guaranteed hours,” said Bryan Simpson of Unite.

These commitments appear to have been reneged on with this extended closure, with the staff – who are all on zero-hour contracts – receiving an ex-gratia payment of just one week's pay to tide them over. “This employer is now at serious risk of irrevocably damaging its reputation by allowing its staff (and students) to be treated so disgracefully and immorally,” Simpson notes. The staff were also shut out of a Q&A meeting last week for students to discuss the future of the venue and the Student Association's operations in general.

A wide-ranging group of Glasgow artists and musicians have given their backing to the venue and its staff in an open letter, published yesterday in the Herald on Sunday. The letter – signed by the likes of Mogwai guitarist Stuart Braithwaite, Free Love, Ribeka, Sofay and the people behind Freakender, Optimo and Rubadub – calls on both the GSA as an organisation and the GSA Students' Association (which operates the venue through its GSASA Ltd arms-length company) to do more to protect the venue and staff.

They write: "We feel it would be a considerable dereliction of duty to their own students, and to the city of Glasgow, to allow this important venue to close, but most importantly, to throw workers at the Art School under the bus in this way."

The Art School gigs: where and when

Some of the gigs that were in the pipeline for the venue have been rescheduled and moved to other venues:

– Blanck Mass' scheduled show at The Art School on 23 Nov has moved to SWG3, with a new date of 11 Dec
– Judah and the Lion's show on 29 Nov has moved to SWG3
– Shellac's show on 10 Dec has moved to SWG3

There's currently no news on plans for the Anna Meredith (8 Feb), The Murder Capital (15 Feb), Boy and Beat (21 Feb) and Lee Scratch Perry (27 Mar) shows lined up for early 2020; keep an eye on the artists' social media feeds for details of any changes if and when they occur.


The Vic Cafe’s current operating hours are between 10am – 5pm, Monday – Friday. Student-led activities in the Assembly Hall and the Project Spaces will also continue within and outside these hours Monday – Friday

Do you have any info on the situation at the Art School? Get in touch on news@theskinny.co.uk