The Changing Room is an interesting space which has just been opened as a gallery. It is situated above the Bar in the Old Arcade and has been donated by the operators of The Stirling Arcade to run as a contemporary art space under the auspices of Stirling Council. The conversion has been accomplished through donated supplies and volunteers' time. The result is a well-proportioned space, well lit by skylights.
The fact that this opportunity has emerged is indicative of the town's changing urban and commercial geography. These factors can't be disregarded, as they impinge on the Changing Room's possibilities for success.
The development policies of the past 20 years have focussed on the large shopping project: the Thistle Centre, the Springkerse store units, and most recently the Thistle Marches extension. These have pulled the focus of the town southwards, to the detriment of King St. and Barnton St. This is an example of how a series of "rational" planning decisions can produce a corrosive effect which was unlikely to have been a declared aim at any stage. Once under way, it creates its own momentum, so that the situation can only be improved by building facilities for yet more of the superstores which have produced empty and neglected units in the town.
These matters are also relevant to the situation with the town's cultural spaces. A centre which combined studio facilities, exhibition and social space would be ideal. The description might even fit the Cowane Centre; in the early 90s the arts workers put some effort into overcoming the limitations of the decaying physical fabric and make something of it. But part of the problem has been its out-of-the-way position at the far northern end of Cowane St. The problems of the occasional uses of the former studio spaces at the Tolbooth and the permanent crisis at the Smith Museum also result from their locations.
Equally, one criticism of the Central Regional Council "Percent for Art" project in King St and Murray Place in 1995 concerned the lack of any aesthetic ambition to interrupt the designated view of the area as a transitory route between the heritage function of Top of the Town and the shopping function of the Port St. area.
Which brings us to the situation of The Changing Room. It has been obvious for many years that the Stirling Arcade is in crisis. At times, very few of the shopping units are let and many of the occupied ones are transient, resulting in a depressingly shabby feeling, especially in the confused central square. So it is small wonder that Arcadia were willing to donate use of some space to try something different (although we do applaud their imagination in doing so). The Changing Room will have something of an uphill struggle to establish itself in such an ignored location. That said, if it does lead a regeneration of the area, that will prove the project's wider social benefit.
September 1997
The Battlefields Exhibition, Autumn 1997
The Magazine Show, February-March 1998