From: Variant <variantmag@btinternet.com> Date: 17 June 2008 11:10:21 BST
Culture Sport Glasgow bans art magazine
The arts & culture magazine ‘Variant’ has been banned from Tramway, a key cultural venue in Glasgow “that promotes public participation, education and debate, placing the building at the heart of local, national and international concerns, issues and innovation.”
It has been brought to Variant’s attention that Culture and Sport Glasgow (CSG), the private company set up to take over the running of culture and sport from Glasgow City Council, has issued an order banning Variant magazine from Tramway.
The Summer issue of Variant features an article about the controversial creation of Culture and Sport Glasgow, which is based on an academic study undertaken by Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt at the University of Strathclyde.
Despite having been contacted earlier this year to input into the research for this article, James Doherty — Media Manager of Culture and Sport Glasgow, and President of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) — on publication threatened legal action over its content, and has since reneged on responding to Variant’s invitation to identify and correct any substantial inaccuracies he alleged existed.
Instead, Variant has learnt that Charles Bell, CSG Arts Development Manager, has issued an order to deprive readers visiting Tramway of access to the magazine.
Doherty’s immediate recourse to legal threats and the ensuing attempts at censorship represent an obvious conflict of interest with his role in the NUJ to uphold and defend the principles of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression, and the right of the public to be informed.
Ironically, Charles Bell was a key speaker at today’s conference ‘Raising the Art of Conversation’, billed as “a chance to discuss policy issues affecting the cultural sector”.

The article they don’t want you to read is:
‘The New Bohemia’
by Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt
Variant issue 32, Summer 2008
Text version: http://www.variant.org.uk/32texts/CSG.html
PDF version: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue32/Variant32RGN.pdf
PDF of CSG structure diagram: http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue32/csg_diagram.pdf

And you might also be interested in reading:
‘Public / Private Partnership: What crisis of legitimacy?’
by Leigh French
Public Art Resource+Research Scotland (PAR+RS)
http://www.publicartscotland.com/features/5-Public-Private-Partnership-What-crisis-of-legitimacy-
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