Glasgow Cultural Statistics Digest

Glasgow Cultural Statistics Digest

In this major report, commissioned by Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Life and part-funded by Creative Scotland, the leading cultural policy analyst John Myerscough, found that 21 years after the city became the first in the UK to win the title of European Capital of Culture the sector has gone from strength to strength. Myerscough is author of the groundbreaking work on The Economic Importance of the Arts in Britain (1988), which included a case study on Glasgow.  The latter formed the baseline for the study he led on the impact of Glasgow’s year as European City of Culture, Monitoring Glasgow 1990.

Key Statistics

• Museums attract 3.57 million visitors, with an additional 0.55 million visiting heritage sites (such as the Mackintosh buildings and Glasgow Cathedral).
• Live performances total 3,456 per year (excluding clubbing), averaging over nine performances every day – and attracting an audience of 2.31 million.
• 1 million people enjoy theatre, while 1.31 million enjoy concerts of all types.
• The market for culture overall (excluding clubbing, cinema and libraries) increased by 45% in the 11 years from 1989 to 2008/09 and is 20% higher than the early peak in 1990 attributed to the Year of Culture.
• Scotland’s creative community concentrates greatly in Glasgow which is home to 42% of the country’s dancers, actors and broadcasters, 38% of its musicians and 29% of its artists and graphic designers.
• Glasgow is second outside London in attracting overseas leisure tourists.

Performance: The organisations dealing with live performance are the largest element, both in terms of turnover (£88 million) and jobs (1,488) in Glasgow’s cultural offer. This involves 44 organisations and the concentration of production power, including the big four (five) Scottish national performing companies, is unequalled in any British city outside London. Glasgow’s 25 venues have a combined seating capacity of 32,274 (excluding cinemas and clubs). In 2008/09, the Glasgow venues mounted some 3,456 performances, an average of over nine per day and 80 per cent more than 20 years ago.

Glasgow has a lively theatre sector comprising several large receiving theatres (King’s, Theatre Royal, Pavilion and Clyde Auditorium), contrasted producing theatres (the Citizens, the Tron Theatre and The Arches) and many independent companies in drama and dance.  The city is the production base for a wide range of performing companies, which tour nationally and internationally.  The largest part of the performance workforce is in music, with two symphony orchestras and Scottish Opera.  Glasgow’s popular music scene, endlessly able to renew itself, continues to make an international impact. 

Visual Arts: Glasgow has become the liveliest centre for the visual arts outside London. The opening of Trongate 103 and continued investment in supporting both studios and artists has helped to grow audiences from 210,000 in 1989 to 823,000 in 2007/08. The role of the Glasgow School of Art, as one of Europe’s leading art schools, is central to the development of the visual arts in the city. Some 20%of students come from overseas and graduates continue to win prizes at home and abroad – since 2005, 30% of nominees for the prestigious Turner Prize, and two winners, have graduated from the Glasgow School of Art. Glasgow International continues to showcase the visual arts to domestic and foreign audiences.

Literature, Audio-Visual and Multi-Arts: Aye Write! continues to grow year on year, as a major literary festival.  Contemporary art flourishes at the Gallery of Modern Art, Tramway and the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA). The diversity of art forms is also represented in institutions such as The Scottish Mask and Puppet Centre and Platform in Easterhouse.

Screen and Digital Industries: A major feature of the Glasgow economy, some 57% of Scotland’s screen production infrastructure is based in Glasgow, comprising around 200 businesses, making upwards of 960 hours of television production each year.  The direct spend on film and TV drama production rose from £7.7 million in 2003 to £17.8 million in 2008 – and 2010 is said to have been the best year yet.  Total cinema audiences in Glasgow can only be estimated, but suggest 3.6 million admissions to screens in the city and a further 2.9 million in Outer Glasgow, representing 7% growth between 2006 and 2009.

Museums: Glasgow has 17 registered museums, which are open to the public – 10 of which are the property of the city.  The quality and range of the collections and the importance of some of the museum buildings make them an exceptional resource.  The city collections complement and match in quality those of the National Gallery in Edinburgh. In 2009, 3.47 million attendances were recorded, with 91% of the total attending city museums, with independents recording the remaining 9%.  Some 42% of the attendance at city museums is by Glasgow residents, a further 21% from Outer Glasgow and the remaining 37% from further afield, including an estimated 26% being tourists staying in the city.

Kelvingrove is by far, Scotland’s leading visitor attraction and the addition of the new Riverside Museum is expected to boost Glasgow’s domestic and international reputation further still.

Historic Building and Heritage: Glasgow has some 3,681 Category A listed building, the assets including the works of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Alexander ‘Greek’ Thompson, Scotland’s finest medieval cathedral and a remarkable 19th century townscape.  The city has invested, through the Heritage Lottery Fund in the Merchant City, Parkhead Cross and Govan Cross. Independent support comes from the Glasgow City Heritage Trust, the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust and the Scottish Civic Trust.  Some 26 trails’ leaflets and 20 tour guides are available, covering 37 different architectural, townscape and garden topics.

Libraries: Glasgow has Scotland’s largest library network, with 34 service points and 365 staff (2008).  At 4.52 million in 2008/09, library visits in Glasgow are above the mid-1990s level and still climbing.  Glasgow is also an exception in increasing the number of active borrowers. In 2008/09, the figure rose by 10% compared to 2005/07 – the growth of children’s book issues increased by 26% in the same period.  The library service tackles adult-literacy problems from the cradle to the grave – issuing packs to parents of all newborn children, targeting pre-5s with Bounce ‘n’ Rhyme sessions, and the Get Glasgow Reading Campaign and adult literacy tutors working across the city.

The Mitchell Library remains an outstanding resource as Europe’s largest public reference library.  The services, as with libraries across the city, have evolved, offering support for business, media and digital access and an expanding family history and archival service.

Festivals and Events: Major events have been identified as a ‘mechanism to deliver Glasgow’s brand, economic, social and cultural objectives’. Glasgow’s festivals enjoyed audiences of 738,000 in 2008/09, which was 12 per cent more than in 2006/07.  From the World Pipe Band Championships and Piping Live, to the MOBO awards, Hogmanay and the hugely successful Celtic Connections, Glasgow’s festival calendar is year-round.  Some nine of the 22 events and festivals are held in the dark months of the year, between November and April.  Festivals have succeeded in attracting significant proportions of visitors to the city.

Training and Outreach: Around one fifth of the spend in Glasgow’s cultural sector is accounted for by training.  The Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, which prepare for direct entry into the cultural professions sit at the top of the training pyramid.  Glasgow is also home to five Scottish national youth organisations. The GSA and RSAMD are critical to the future of the cultural and creative sector in Scotland. GSA’s student leaver cohort of 2008/09 was 55 per cent from outwith Scotland, including 26% from overseas.  The RSAMD student body comes 39% from out with Scotland and 17% from overseas.

Glasgow has seen a substantial growth of outreach and education provided by the cultural institutions themselves.  Outreach/education programmes in the City drew 446,000 participations.  Major providers are Scottish Opera, the Citizens Theatre and the RSNO.  Scottish Ballet has constructed its own training pyramid.  The museums in Glasgow attracted 213,000 participations to their education programmes.  Glasgow Museums accounted for the majority, reaching 88% of Glasgow’s primary schools in 2008/09, and the service is wholly aligned to the curriculum and needs of the schools.

Voluntary Organisations: There are limited data with regard to the contribution made by voluntary organisations in the arts and culture in Glasgow.  There are some 128 organisations in the city, providing a good spread of opportunity.  The largest groupings are in amateur dramatics/youth theatre (38), music (38) and history/heritage (28).  The lowest numbers of organisations are found in the north and east of the city. The number of dance clubs and studios remain high at 57 across the city.

Creative Industries: On a wider basis, the creative industries include digital media, broadcasting, film, multi-media, publishing, press, architecture, design, advertising, audio-visuals and commercial music, software and games.  The most recent data shows Glasgow has the greatest concentration of creative industries in Scotland and one of the largest in the UK, outside London, but alongside Manchester and Birmingham.  In 2005, the most recent figures, showed the creative industries, excluding arts and culture, employed 24,633 across 985 businesses. 

Tourism: Visitors to the city were recorded as 2.39 million in 2008. Overseas tourists made 710,000 trips and UK residents 1.68 million.  These represented some 29% of overseas and 14% of UK trips to Scotland.  Tourist spend in Glasgow totalled £620 million and VisitScotland calculates that 7.9% of all jobs in Glasgow are in ‘tourism related activities’.  In the overseas leisure tourist market, Glasgow has achieved second position outside London, behind Edinburgh, but well above its English big-city rivals, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham.

Shopping is identified as the main reason for visiting Glasgow by 25% of “tourists and leisure visitors” and culture by 22%.  The Glasgow Scotland With Style campaign has helped to increase hotel room numbers and occupancy rates, which were 74.7 per cent in 2009/10.

Funding: The revenue funding of Glasgow’s arts, museums and libraries totals £73 million, £38 million (including support costs), come from Glasgow City Council.  The Scottish government provides support of £35 million, which is devoted entirely to the arts, which the city funds to the tune of £9 million.  The city is required, as with other local authorities in Scotland, to fund alone its museums (£15 million) and libraries (£14 million).  Glasgow’s share of national arts and museum funding is 31% of the total, compared to Edinburgh’s 46% and the rest of Scotland’s 22%.  Glasgow’s arts funding reflects the fact that it is home to four of the five national performing companies, the funding of which is direct from central government and accounts for £22 million of the £35 million Scottish government arts grant-in-aid.

Between 1995 and 2009, Glasgow received £470 million in funding from the National Lottery and Outer Glasgow a further £206 million. Glasgow’s share amounts to 23% of the total value of Scotland’s Lottery awards – the biggest proportions going to the city were from the arts (31%) and the Millennium (45%) distributors.  Capital funds have been used primarily to address the physical renewal of Glasgow’s cultural infrastructure.  The Kelvingrove refurbishment also raised a record sum in private-sector contributions.