It has been announced that Glasgow Sculpture Studios (GSS) will be closing its exhibition space at its Whiskey Bond Venue. The current show by Polish artist Zofia Kulik, which closes at the start of December, will be the final exhibition to be held at the venue for at least three years.
According to the Herald Scotland, the decision was made by the board at GSS, after its board decided to make financial cuts.
Mhairi Sawyer, business director at GSS, has said that for the next three to five years the company has to “live within its means,” but that the long term ambition for the organization is still to hold exhibitions. She commented that overhead costs from being based at Whiskey Bond, including rent, have been a “challenge.”
“The gallery programme has been of significant value to the arts community in Glasgow and beyond, and it is a difficult decision that the Studios has taken. However, in focussing resources on core activity, the organisation will be in a stronger position to support its members into the future,” a spokesperson for Creative Scotland, the national agency that regularly funds GSS, told artnet News.
According to the Herald Scotland, redundancies have been made and future exhibitions cancelled, and the focus at GSS will now be to provide artists and sculptors with studio space and manufacturing facilities.
The imminent closure of GSS comes hot on the heels of the announcement that Inverleith House, a very significant arts venue in Scotland, is to close its doors after 30 years in operation, also due to financial pressures.
In response, 200 of the world’s leading artists and directors, including Ewan McGregor and Tracey Emin, have penned an open letter urging the decision to close the gallery to be reversed.
“In light of wide spread public dismay, we ask that the decision to bring to an end 30 years of contemporary art programming at Inverleith House be reopened for debate at the next meeting of the Board of Trustees in December of 2016 and that the wider community be given an opportunity to participate,” the letter stated.