Left Bank idea moves arts to north side of the Clyde

AN arts enclave is in the making on the edge of Glasgow's Merchant

City -- with new artistic bases there proposed for the near future.

Women in Profile, which has been highlighting women's cultural and

artistic work for the past few years, is hoping to acquire large

premises from the district council for a women's arts centre,

overlooking the western end of Parnie Street.

On the opposite corner, the abandoned Europa Furnishing building is

the subject of serious discussions between the council's estates

department and Glasgow Folk and Traditional Arts Trust, who want space

for an archive, library, workshops, performance area, and shops.

At the heart of this area, which is developing organically without any

''official'' arts/culture policy from the city's councillors, is the

Tron Theatre, with its distinctive arched frontage on Trongate and its

modern cafe bar looking out to Chisholm Street and Terry the Tattoo

Artist.

The theatre's office and courtyard back on to Parnie Street where

Clyde Books live, AKA Comics sell modern artwork which has become a

special genre, and folklorist Adam McNaughton has just opened his

second-hand bookshop, after moving up from the city's South Side.

Round the corner, King Street is now home to the Glasgow Print Studio,

the Original Print Shop, Transmission Gallery, Cranhill Arts Gallery,

Wasps Gallery, a print-framing shop and The Big Top, a circus-oriented

shop, not forgetting handcrafted goods in the Erskine Hospital retail

outlet.

Women in Profile have run the Glasgow Women's Library in Garnethill

for almost two years and rent other premises a few yards away in

Dalhousie Lane for exhibitions, rehearsals, and performances.

WIP are currently hosting there the Tongue and Cheek Exhibition as

part of Fotofeis, the first Scottish international festival of

photography. This is a collection of collaborative work between

photographer Nancy McFarlane and women from the Castlemilk Womenhouse.

But their premises are a touch cramped. The Parnie Street site for

which they are currently aiming is a second floor space of 3800 sq.ft,

adjoining workshops of the Print Studio.

It was a clothing machinists' factory, empty for some years. A few

pieces of machinery still stand there forlornly, while the plumbing and

electrics are a little eccentric for an arts venue.

With other West of Scotland women's groups, they were hoping last year

to take over the magnificent Queen's Rooms at La Belle Place near

Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park, but the deal fell through.

WIP spokeswoman Kate Henderson said their women's centre steering

group was analysing the returns to a questionnaire about potential use

by women in the city and that their business plan, drawn up with the

assistance of Community Enterprise Strathclyde, would be presented to

the district council shortly.

''I've even been costing the profit on a drink in the bar if it's open

only three nights a week,'' she said. ''We have plans worked out for a

creche, the cafe/bar, access for disabled people, an area for the

women's library, performance and gallery space -- and it's lovely to

have so many windows.''

Because WIP is a charity, they would be offered a reduced rent per

square foot and reduced rates, all of which should work out at about

#367 a month, to start.

Much of the labour they would do themselves and they have been

attracting women supporters of all ages and interests, fired by the idea

of a long-term home for women's arts and cultural history.

Tom Laurie, of the Folk Arts Trust, says his organisation finds the

developments in this patch of the city exciting and looks forward to

having a base there too, with the possibility of other properties

opening up for arts-oriented use.

''It's a bit like Chinatown in London,'' says John Moynes, district

councillor for the area. ''You get a lot of similar things in one area

and others are attracted to it. It's not a deliberate policy, but we are

now encouraging it.''

The city's management surveyor for these streets, Kieron Hickland,

happily describes the growing arts enclave as a ''Left Bank idea on the

north side of the river''.

''We would like to see arts developments throughout the Merchant

City,'' he comments, ''but this area has grown naturally and we're happy

to see it, though there was no policy decision to push it.''

He feels the Parnie Street/ King Street potential may lead to

connections with the antiques arcade further down King Street, still

sadly under used.

''We might imagine in the future too the pedestrianism of Parnie

Street and Chisholm Street, with street performances and stalls and the

Tron having tables outside,'' he went on.

As a local authority officer, he is unusually enthusiastic about the

prospect of council property being taken over by organisations such as

the Folk Arts Trust and Women in Profile.

''I'm sure they will have most sympathetic hearings from our elected

members,'' he says. ''We are all feeling more life there already.''