CCA-based businesses launch Go Fund Me campaigns following Glasgow School of Art fire

Two businesses based at the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Glasgow have launched Go Fund Me campaigns to raise money following the Glasgow School of Art fire earlier this month.

The CCA, which is located on Sauchiehall Street within the cordoned area around the school, has announced all exhibitions and events up to and including Sunday 15 July have been cancelled, postponed or moved to a new venue.

The closure has also impacted on the ‘cultural tenants‘ based at the building who are unable to access their offices. For the CCA-based craft, design and illustration shop Welcome Home and art book shop Aye Aye Books, there is a direct impact on their businesses and both are now facing financial difficulties.

Without access to the premises both businesses can’t trade but still have ongoing costs to cover, including staff wages and loans.

Aye Aye Books is aiming to raise £3,000 via its crowdfunding campaign. Explaining the urgent need for help, artist and director Martin Vincent said: “Right now we can’t trade, maybe for a few weeks, maybe for months. We have no income, but we have continuing costs – books that we cannot sell that we still have to pay for, magazines we can neither return nor sell, books we’ve published that we can’t distribute, loans that need repaid, wages that need paid.

He added: “It would be great to have a bookshop and a business to come back to, we have heard that some people really like us being here, which is why we’re asking for help.”

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Welcome Home is also aiming to raise £3,000 to help pay staff wages. Designer, curator and shop owner Mhari McMullan said: “My primary concern at the moment is to continue to pay staff who also rely on Welcome Home for their livelihood – this is very difficult to do with no income. The amount requested will go towards this and to cover some of the other running costs incurred during this period of closure.”

She added that at the moment they haven’t been able to assess whether there has been any damage to the shop’s stock, with this potentially having a long-term impact. “We currently have no access to check everything is okay in the shop, to any of our stock, paperwork or records. We have no income but still have outgoings and as small as this loss of time and money may seem to some, it can be difficult to recover from as a small business.”

In a statement, Julie Cathcart, communications manager at CCA, said: “We are expecting an update next week from Glasgow City Council with regards to the cordon. We hope to reopen as soon as possible and will update as soon as we know more. Thank you to all the organisations and individuals who have offered support to us, our programme partners and our cultural tenants.”

However, the news that the Mackintosh building is to be partially demolished following the second fire is likely to impact further on the venue. Glasgow City Council has confirmed parts of the building need to be torn down after surveys found its structure had moved more than previously thought. The art school’s south facade is the most significantly affected, while the west gable end has continued to deteriorate. The east gable has also continued to move outwards.

Raymond Barlow, the council’s head of building control, said: “It has become urgent that we take down the south facade. As the process begins it will be likely that the other walls will also need to be reduced. We do not know what effect this will have on the rest of the building so I have to be clear this site remains dangerous and is becoming more dangerous.”

The impact of the fire continues to be felt by many other businesses in the area which have been unable to trade since the fire on 15 June, due to being inside the safety cordon around the fire-ravaged Mackintosh Building and the badly damaged 02 ABC gig venue.

Images:
1. Welcome Home. Courtesy: Welcome Home
2. Aye-Aye Books. Courtesy: Aye-Aye Books
3. Welcome Home shop view. Courtesy: Welcome Home

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