H A P P Y B I R T H D AY ARCHES 21ST
David Pollock looks back at 21 years of the Glasgow venue, while overleaf we select its most memorable moments
T here’s a reason the Arches is special and it’s not, as you might expect, to do with the boundary-breaking theatre festivals and performances, the big-name club events or the ever-growing roster of international live bands the place has hosted. To i nd all of this under one labyrinth of vaulted stone ceilings with the rumble of Central Station above makes it unique among Scottish arts venues, of course, but it’s special simply because it’s the Arches: that unique, cavernous ambience adding to the sensation that you’ve entered the underground when you step inside.
Andy Arnold recognised this way back in 1991 when the Arches’ founder and i rst artistic director approached Glasgow City Council and British Rail with a proposal to use the space in the wake of the European City of Culture year in 1990, when it had been used for a temporary exhibition. Convincing them to leave a bank of seating behind, he installed a bar and set about creating a small performance space for local and experimental companies. Short-term funding concerns were addressed when Slam’s Café Loco club night and the immersive Alien War show, based on the Alien series of i lms, took off. Signii cant milestones since then have included the Cream club night in the late 1990s, the i rst time the entire building was opened up to its full 2000-strong capacity, and a Lottery-funded redevelopment that opened the Arches as a daytime café bar venue in 2001.
At the same time, challenging theatre has remained at the heart of the Arches’ mission, from the large-scale promenade performances Metropolis and Inferno to 2006’s one-on-one series of toilet cubicle plays Spend a Penny and the well-respected annual festival of new work Arches Live! Jackie Wylie, Arnold’s successor as artistic director when he left for the Tron in 2008, has since founded the monthly Scratch performance night and the Brick Award for new work at the Edinburgh Festival, building on the Arches’ 21-year legacy as a home for new Scottish theatre
even as it remains one of the best live venues in the country.