The Hollow Centre: The Scottish Arts Council's New Directions

In January 1997, the Scottish Arts Council organised a New Directions roadshow. Despite the novelty implied in the title, the chosen venues amounted to a round-up of the usual suspects.

In the apparent absence of anyone else complaining about this, the Stirling-based Hanging Together artists' group sent a letter to the SAC. The relevant part of the letter is reproduced here:

"... someone recently passed on some publicity material for the SAC's "New Directions" Roadshows. The choice of venues for these Roadshows seems to confirm some tendencies which we criticised in our previous letter:

• Staying with the former Regions (which was, after all, the basis for the resource review), we notice that three of the nine venues are in the former Strathclyde Region. By comparison, none of the venues are in the former Central Region.
• Looking at the map in another way, the familiar missing areas are conspicuous: no venues in Perth, Stirling, Falkirk, Hamilton, Motherwell, etc.