Recession or rejuvenation?

In the past year, whilst industries went bust, the art world has been experiencing a boom, the reverberations of which can be felt rippling through the most oblique and surprising locations around Scotland and through the establishment of new collectives and non-profit organisations.
 
‘Pop-up’ galleries are emblematic of the crisis-led entrepreneurialism that comes to the fore within the art world upon each major recession. The formula is simple and effective; as retail and industrial spaces become vacant at an increased rate, arts organizations achieve notoriety through staging exhibitions within them. Liberated from the confines of a formal gallery and temporarily displaced into rent-free sites dotted randomly about the city, artists gain access to a wider, albeit unsuspecting audience and receive exciting new stages to project their work.
 
Out of the flurry of the past two major recessions, Edinburgh received its leading contemporary art galleries; the Fruitmarket in 1974 and the Collective in 1981. Now it bears witness to a new wave of art groups; amongst which are organisations set for the same longevity as their predecessors when the economic dust settles.
 
The Scottish Arts Council (SAC), in recognition of the long, as well as short-term potential these projects hold, have perspicaciously set aside a fund for ‘artist-led groups and collectives’ which has been available for the past three years. Stephen Palmer, from the SAC, could not confirm whether the fund would be available in 2010 but with previous support granted to increasingly well-established groups, such as The Embassy in Edinburgh and Transmissions in Glasgow the surge in new organisations this year makes the need greater and more relevant than ever.
 
Tom Nolan, Edinburgh College of Art graduate and co-founder of the Rhubaba collective said: “The notion that a recession spurs creativity and initiative seems to be fairly well founded, and it feels as though there's a lot of energy for this sort of thing at the minute. Clearly, none of us are leaving college to face blank cheques for our work, so we have to think laterally about how we can survive as artists and continue to make work and get it out there.” 

Rhubaba’s recent presentation of the emerging artist, Ed Atkins in the ex Edinburgh Copyshop employs the pop-up gallery trend as a platform. However, Rhubaba are not the trailblazer’s of such artistic fashion; in March, the Embassy Gallery staged ‘Boneless Box’ in St Margaret’s House; then, a redundant office block. October saw ECA students install ‘7MINUTEMEN’; an eclectic inter-media exhibition within an empty retail unit on Lauriston Place. 

Hyperground, an artist run initiative, followed suit, presenting a solo exhibition by the sculptor Keith Farquahr entitled  ‘Nudes in Colour', in the front room of a Bruntsfield flat in December.
 
Such arrangements are symbiotic, artistic stimulus results in a new appreciation of the property along with the works installed within it which is as good for the owner as the artist and as such, fuels the popularity of these nomadic exhibitors. Rhubaba’s heavily publicized exhibition attracted almost 100 people to its space on the opening night alone; an impressive figure for a unit that would have otherwise stood empty and invaluable advertising for the owner.
 
Unsurprisingly, these projects have seen support from Edinburgh’s council. Speaking to The Journal, Councillor Deidre Brock, culture and leisure convenor said: "Edinburgh is brimming with artistic talent, with new and exciting arts spaces popping up all the time across the city. The council is delighted to help out up-and-coming artists wherever it can, by providing advice on setting up and running studio/exhibition spaces and suggesting possible venue locations.”
 
In Glasgow’s East end, the recently established David Dale Studios and Gallery profited from the recession’s fallen property prices and ended the block’s 12 year hunt for a new owner. Filling the derelict space with 21 artist’s studios the group have set up a permanent base from which to disseminate their work. Max Slaven, one quarter of the directorial team describes the recession as an indirect prompt for such projects: “The current economic situation encourages established galleries to dilute and tailor their programs in order to maintain the funding already squandered on them, it is encouragement to do it yourself,” he explains.
 
Approaching the recession with creativity and opportunism allows for the art world to refresh and regenerate itself in the present whilst providing a stepping-stone for emerging arts organisations to establish themselves in the future. 

“As will always happen when artists become disenfranchised with the previous wave,” says Slaven: “artists will find ways to overcome.”