Last Friday I went to an art exhibition in the former Nisbets catering store in City Wharf on Ship Row – a strange place for sculpture, don’t you think?
Just off Union Street and across the way from Vue, stainless steel pots and pans, chopping boards and blue roll once adorned the shelves until Nisbets left in June 2023.
When I worked at Belmont Cinema we were frequent visitors to the shop – how often were we missing a niche bit of kitchen or bar supply when delivering a private hire?
It felt like every week. Cue the bar boss, or myself, nipping to Nisbets, petty cash in hand. But on Friday, art and community. An empty unit just beyond Union Street, transformed, at least for a little while, until the landlord finds a new commercial tenant.
The shop sat closed until Outer Spaces, the arts organisation I’ve worked with since the cinema shuttered, took it on in November last year. After 4 months of work, we put on a show. With project funding from Aberdeen City Council we commissioned three local artists to make work which explored mental health and then displayed it in the space.
By all accounts it was a success. Attendance was good for the opening, the work is superb and we’ve been able to contribute directly to the local creative economy, giving three artists, Maria Muruaga, Kirsty Russell and Lauren McLaughlin, an opportunity for commission and exhibition in a region where sometimes chances are scarce.
Our makeshift gallery has been visited by hundreds of people over the weekend, and has, for the time being, brightened up a part of the city centre previously neglected.
We’ll now use the unit as a studio for the city’s creatives, until which time the landlord needs it back for a new permanent let.
Aberdeen’s empty shops can provide a whole lot of good
Although we use Aberdeen’s empty shops and offices temporarily, we get a huge amount of good from the spaces while we’re there.
Artists give us feedback that it helps their practice and development and it builds the creative community in Aberdeen, even if the occupations are short-term in nature.
Food for thought at a time when apparently the amount of empty units on Union Street has again increased, despite the best efforts of Our Union Street, from 18% to 21%.
The galling thing is that town centres’ difficulties across Scotland simply won’t just go away overnight – online shopping continues to have a massive effect on the sector. Unless folk abandon Amazon, the problem will persist and vacancy will remain high in shopfronts up and down the country.
Thus, creative solutions are needed.
We can’t lament every shop closure
Over the last few weeks we’ve managed to support artists in the city by hosting Gray’s School of Art’s pre-degree show exhibitions at a space, Kooperator, at The Academy Shopping Centre.
Also, Peacock Visual Arts has held a huge workshop and exhibition at The Print Room on Union Street with the International School of Aberdeen. 300 works created by the kids at the school, on display in the city centre.
And we’ve had other success on Ship Row – above our now gallery in Nisbets we’ve been able to lend a space in City Wharf to Crow House Projects who are doing phenomenal work in building a film industry in Aberdeen.
All under the watchful eye of Case Maclaim’s wonderful Nuart mural, another example of artistic urban regeneration, just down the street on the Ibis.
Huge numbers of the city’s blossoming artistic talent are given opportunities to get their work in front of people. Without these unique gallery spaces, the chance to get work in front of the public would be much rarer.
And meanwhile, more units in the city will sit empty. We’ve heard in the last few days that Game in Bon Accord centre will be closed in the near future, joining closures of businesses like Itsu, Hollister and Fatface in Union Square.
We can’t lament every shop closure, as there will always be churn, but traditional retail is to an extent, failing. Something else must grow where it is paring back. And I know that with the impending closure of places like The Anatomy Rooms, in Marischal College, not just artists but also arts organisations will be looking for new, affordable, homes.
Art spaces won’t be right in every empty shop – no one would expect that. But it may help build a mixed economy in our town centres that are vital to regeneration.
The support is crucial to local artists and craft makers, who make our lives and cities more vibrant and colourful.
Colin Farquhar works as a creative spaces manager and film programmer in the north-east culture sector
Conversation