GLASGOW FACT FILE
E"mimes
Population (2001)
609,000
Length of motorway within city
boundary
40km
Number of cinema screens
78
Number of music venues " ’ w k.
148 o o '
Number of theatres '
w in my s Number of chip shops . h 99 . . . 15 Number of parks Why culture. architecture and desngn have been the lifeblood of a new Glasgow.
74 Words: Jack Mottram S Number of licensed taxis he impact of art on a community is hard to significant . 1500 to gauge. A health education campaign, investment. Of course,
Number of parking attendants say, can have a quantifiable impact on venues feed on the
100 life expectancy, but the National energy of the city’s art
Price per sq ft for retail space in Statistics Office does not produce charts scene, fostered by artist-run
Merchant City of cultural wellbeing, nor an index of aesthetic spaces like Transmission, and a
£35 happiness. Perhaps it should: it may be hard to long, steady and strong stream of graduates from
% of population under 45 pin down in black and white, but art, in the the Glasgow School of Art that has produced (to
63.5 broadest sense, has been at the heart of pick a few names out of the hat) the likes of
Average weekly pay Glasgow’s regeneration. Douglas Gordon, David Shrigley and Toby
£421 .40 First, there are the awards imposed from on Paterson, all deservedly acclaimed, in different
Number of university students high. Glasgow was City of Culture in 1990 - the disciplines and contexts. Moving from macro to 48,000 UK’s first - and City of Architecture & Design nine micro, regeneration schemes like the Royston Council tax years later. Both awards are meant to serve as a Road Project see artists working closely with Band D: £1,163 focus for urban regeneration, as much as local people, celebrating regeneration as they
economic drivers. Both, too, shifted the city’s foster it.
reputation. It is - almost - hard to imagine But Glasgow is not quite the shining exemplar now, but Glasgow was once known for when it comes to its cultural assets. There are too post-industrial decay and knife-fighting, many architectural gems in dire need of
not being a hip European hub. restoration, and Mackintosh has been turned The city’s art spaces have twee by constant trading on his name. But in real their place here, too, terms, art has played a role in regeneration, and, . with Tramway and in more nebulous terms, the community at large CCA both high on the benefits from the city’s true status as a capital of
international scale thanks culture.
PACT ~— ATTlTUDé LIKE THé)’ NRlTé GAGS POI? LéTTélYMAN. ACTUALLY MAKé TéA POI? GARY BOBéPTSON.
PACT ~— NHOLé éXlSTéNCé lS A MASSll/é CONFIDéNCé TRICK MADé POSSIBLé BY aenenous STAFF DISCOUNT.
FACT - MIGHT LOOK TRENDY BUT CW Tile HANDS, LlVél? SPOTS A25 NOT '0? Tile ZélTGléSTf
FACT - KUVT COBAlN WAS A BIG FAN OF THéllZ BAND, lP
YOU FORGéT DON’T NORV)’ - THGY'LL PéMlND YOU.
18 THE LIST 5—19 Feb 2004