The crisis at the CCA has exposed a deeply flawed approach to Israel, says Mark Smith

Don’t call the police but the night the new CCA in Glasgow opened in 2001, I piled eight friends on top of each other into my little four-seater Nissa Micra, arms and legs everywhere, and parked outside on Sauchiehall Street (in the days when you still could) and had a great night at a big old opening party (the DJ was Jarvis Cocker so it was top stuff). I remember everyone saying, over the tunes by Jarvis, how amazing the place was. But I also remember, even then, some people wondering how long it would last.

The potential problems were evident from the start. The CCA had a huge capital grant, and cash from Scottish Enterprise and Historic Scotland among others, but it was always short on money and less than six months after the party with Jarvis, it was already in the red. Part of the problem was its founding philosophy in a huge building that costs heaps of money to run. The director at the time, Graham McKenzie, said the sort of art the CCA would be putting on would not be profitable or commercial, which is a recipe for financial dependency or financial ruin, both of which happened.

In the years that followed, the CCA never worked out an answer to the problem and was always just slightly ahead of the snapping jaws of deficit and debt. Even in the last few months, almost £800,000 of Scottish Government money was ploughed into the place, but it wasn’t enough and the CCA closed down in the end because it wasn’t able to achieve a sustainable financial position and never really had been; sad but true.

Where have George Square's statues gone and........

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