Cutting Edge Glasgow
La Pocha Nostra by Megan Amber Cox
When it comes to art and culture Glasgow is at the cutting edge of what goes on around the globe. The offer is diverse.
Top Ten Charles Rennie Mackintosh
With all the fridge magnets and the hair dressers with their Mockintosh lettering, it is easy to forget how good Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s architecture and design work actually is. To set the record straight we’ve put together a list of the ten best stops on the Mackintosh tour.
Click the links in the description for maps and opening times.
Nothing like a good film on a rainy day…
The Glasgow Film Theatre isn’t just the best cinema in Glasgow – if you’re at all interested in independent, European, world, classic or arthouse movies, it’s the only cinema in Glasgow. Sure, it’s run in the kind of ramshackle, bordering on shambolic, way one might expect from a largely publicly-funded charity as opposed to a business proper, and it’s certainly not the most comfortable or spacious of the city’s picture houses, but that’s all part of its charm. And the technical malfunctions that occasionally mar screenings are seldom the fault of the staff – any cinema that tries to enliven its programme with obscure classics and cult gems, as the GFT does month in, month out, is bound to fall foul of the occasional dodgy print (like the virtually unwatchable one of Seven Samurai I endured in there a couple of years ago).
Trongate 103
In September 2009, Glasgow opened a new arts centre, called Trongate 103. For this city, which has around 600,000 inhabitants, this is the fourth of such spaces (not counting the many museums and galleries). This means that Trongate 103 is either an outrage and an economic suicide, or that the locals and visitors like this model of ‘all culture under one roof ‘. So, Trongate 103 joins the CCA (Centre for Contemporary Arts), The Lighthouse –which specializes in architecture and design– and Tramway, focusing on cutting-edge contemporary art, performance and dance (it is also the home of the Scottish Ballet).
