DCA
at 10 Years
Since Donald Dewar cut the ribbon on Dundee Contemporary Arts in March
1999, the building has transformed the cultural life of the city and
established its place not only on the Scottish stage, but on the world
stage of art. Formerly a derelict building playing host to local skateboarders,
DCA drew 30,000 to its first exhibition, which included artists such
as Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Anish Kapoor and Anya Gallaccio.
Over the past ten years a staggering 271 artists have contributed
to DCAs programme, seven of those subsequently picking up Turner
Prize nominations. The centre attracts over 300,000 visitors every
year twice the citys population and three times
their initial forecast.
In 2001, DCA staged perhaps its most influential exhibition to date.
Here + Now, a collaboration with Aberdeen Art Gallery and McManus
Galleries, was a seminal survey of Scottish art in the 1990s. Nobody
has attempted anything on a similar scale since, and it remains a
definitive snapshot of whos who in Scottish contemporary art.
DCA nurtures no neuroses about mixing high calibre cultural thinking
with cheerful local outreach. Its Community and Education programme
has won awards, while the Print Studio teaches over 100 creative courses.
Prints made at DCA have made their way into the collections of the
Tate and the Victoria & Albert Museum. The Visual Research Centre
is jointly run by DCA and University of Dundee, and uniquely, its
also open to the public.
When DCA opened, its two cinemas replaced a magnet for local art students
Dundees only arthouse cinema, the part-time Steps Theatre.
DCA screens between 200 and 300 films every year, from arthouse to
blockbuster, and their Discovery Film Festival is credited with giving
19,000 local children their first taste of world cinema.
Economic impact studies may not be as fashionable as they once were,
but DCAs was the ultimate good news story. In 2003 the centre
was credited with creating 258 jobs and over £4 million pounds
for the local economy, a success which was coined nationally as the
DCA effect. Even now, with major retailers failing every day,
the gallerys shop has boosted its sales figures significantly
on previous years. Its also reportedly Culture Minister Linda
Fabianis favourite place to shop.
DCA sits along the road from the art school, across the road from
the chippie, and on the other side of the underpass from Mecca Bingo.
Thats the way Dundee works, and it really works a treat.
Catrìona
Black, Sunday Herald 01.02.09