Chancellor announces additional £5 million for the Glasgow School of Art
UK government awards additional £5 million to support the School’s new Graduate and Research Centre.
Speaking at the Commonwealth Games Business Conference in Glasgow today (22 July 2014), the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced an additional £5 million of funding from the UK government to the Glasgow School of Art (GSA). This £5 million will contribute towards the costs of creating its Graduate and Research Centre.
The additional funding follows an announcement in June by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander that the UK government would provide £5 million towards the Mackintosh appeal, set-up to support the GSA to repair damage to the Mackintosh building, caused by a fire.
The UK government recognises that one of the greatest impacts on the GSA would be the loss of momentum towards its ambition to create a revolutionary Graduate and Research Centre. This is why it has committed to contributing £10 million to the GSA, to help it recover its damaged heritage and build its ambitious future.
The creation of a Graduate and Research Centre is a key part of the GSA’s campus redevelopment which will see it create one of the leading higher education campuses for learning and research in the visual creative disciplines.
Speaking at the Commonwealth Games Business Conference in Glasgow, the Chancellor said:
The people of Glasgow and many people far beyond were horrified when a few weeks ago fire ripped through the Art School, gutting its priceless library.
The UK government has already made a £5 million contribution to the Mackintosh Appeal to help ensure that the building is restored to its former glory.
And we are today making an additional £5 million contribution to support the School’s new Graduate and Research Centre.
Protecting the school’s strong heritage and equipping it for the future… at the forefront of Scotland’s creative industries… an institution secure in its position of world renown.
Professor Tom Inns, Director of The Glasgow School of Art said:
We are extremely grateful to the UK government for this support which recognises both the importance of research in creative disciplines to the future of the British economy, and the international profile of The Glasgow School of Art as a leading centre of studio-based creative education.
The GSA has one of the largest research communities in the visual creative disciplines in the UK. The Graduate Research Centre will help us to develop our research profile further through new partnerships with national and international organisations.
It will allow us to build on successes to date by our centres of expertise including the Digital Design Studio, Mackintosh Architecture Environmental Research Unit and Institute of Design innovation and on ground-breaking research projects such as our work in the area of health and wellbeing design, as well as developing new and exciting research strands.