Urgent appeal for funding as Summerhall warns it may have to scale back programming

One of Edinburgh's leading arts centres has issued an "urgent appeal" for public donations to help secure its long-term future.

Summerhall may have to scale back its year-round programming if it cannot raise new backing in the coming months.

The popular "arts village," which has been running since 2011, has raised concerns that arts and culture in Scotland are "drowning under the weight of an economic crisis."

Bosses have warned that Summerhall - which has been running at a loss for years - is facing its "greatest existential threat" and raised fears that the venue may slip into "terminal" decline unless it can raise significant new backing to allow it to keep operating under new owners.

Live music and theatre events, film screenings and visual art exhibitions are all said to be at risk at Summerhall, despite months of behind-the-scenes talks to keep the arts venue intact after it was put on the open market earlier this year.

Fresh concerns over the future of Summerhall have emerged days after one of Glasgow's leading arts centres announced it would be closing for several months due to its "increasingly challenging" financial position.

The Centre for Contemporary Arts, which will be shut from December until at least March, said it was having to completely restructure to try to ensure its long-term stability.

Summerhall has been facing an uncertain future since May when it emerged that the entire 130,000 sq ft site had been put on the open market. At the time, the selling agents said the complex offered "endless mixed use refurbishment and redevelopment opportunities," including student housing and boutique hotels.

Hopes of a reprieve for Summerhall emerged in the summer under proposals from its current management to keep the arts venue running for the foreseeable future through the new charity Summerhall Arts, which was created last year.

However funding is needed to pay rent on the building, as well as meet staffing and programming costs.

And Summerhall Arts has warned it cannot afford to rely on a bid to Creative Scotland for three-year Scottish Government funding, which is expected to be decided on within the next few weeks.

The arts agency, which is still awaiting a budget for the programme, is facing a projected funding gap of nearly £50 million to meet demand for funding and warned last week that Scotland was at risk of suffering a "cultural recession" unless there was an urgent roll-out of new government investment.

Summerhall Arts is trying to raise £150,000 through a crowdfunding campaign to help meet its projected costs and maintain its current level of programming.

However it has pointed out that more than 14,000 people backed a petition earlier this year, in the aftermath of Summerhall being put up for sale, calling for it to be retained as "a vital cultural institution," and highlighted how a £10 donation from each supporter would go a long way to securing its future.

The charity says it is in the final stages of negotiations with the current owners of Sumerhall to sign a lease which will allow the venue to stay open for at least another three years.

Summerhall has transformed Edinburgh University's former vet school building, which overlooks the Meadows, since it was created in 2011 by arts philanthropist Robert McDowell, whose Isle of Man-based family company Oesselmann Estate Limited put Summerhall up for sale after years of running it at a loss.

Now one of the biggest privately-owned multi-arts centres in Europe, Summerhall is home to more than 120 businesses and freelances, and attracts an audience in excess of a million each year, including 250,000 in August alone.

More than 100 different shows and events were staged at Summerhall during this year's Fringe, while the venue was used for Edinburgh International Film Festival screenings.

Summerhall's new appeal states: "Summerhall Arts wants to ensure the continuance of a cultural touchstone in Edinburgh, fostering even more opportunities for the experimentation, collaboration and cultural cross-pollination that has evolved within Summerhall over the past 13 years.

"It is too vibrant and too important a space in Edinburgh to allow it to stop or change. Summerhall Arts asks for your help in order to get underway and look forward to what’s next for the building."

Summerhall arts chief executive Sam Gough said he expected the lease agreement which would allow the arts venue to "definitely happen."

He added: "The lease is the vehicle to take Summerhall forward for at least three years, but we just don't have any fuel in the tank in order to get the vehicle moving.

"We have set a fundraising target of £150,000, which will get us through the start-up phrase and hopefully be enough to pay staff and create a programme of events to get our cash-flow going.

"If we don't manage to bring in funding over the next months I think things would be pretty terminal for Summerhall. We would need to be very selective about what we do in future.

“We've negotiated ourselves into a favourable position, but we can't do anything without some start-up money."

Sam Chapman, head of visual arts and cinema at Summerhall, said: "At a time when arts and culture in Scotland are drowning under the weight of an economic crisis and as Summerhall faces its greatest existential threat, it is crucial that we find a way to preserve the renowned visual arts programme.

"Support will allow us to deliver a year round programme of exhibitions and commissions offering support to, and a platform for, both local and national creatives working in the visual arts.

"Donating To Summerhall Arts will ensure that we are able to continue to facilitate the development and exhibition of non-commercial artwork, to degrade barriers that exist for people to engage with artistic practices and exhibitions, to make art accessible to people of all backgrounds, abilities and economic circumstance and to sustain the national creative community.”

Performance poet, theatre maker, musician and writer Imogen Stirling said: "Summerhall is a venue that exists for its artists.

"It wants to platform new voices and elevate those already speaking boldly.

"It’s a venue that seeks to nurture, empower and support, a venue that actively wants to make artists feel valued.

"This is our opportunity to show Summerhall how much we value them in return. We must rally together to preserve the future of this brilliant venue and keep Scotland’s creative scene thriving."