Stuart Cosgrove, as the director of nations and the regions at Channel 4, manages the 30 per cent of the output that is produced outside London. As a journalist, he was the media editor of the NME and a regular presenter of the BBC's Late Show. He is currently well known in Scotland as host of the soccer comedy radio show, Off the Ball. Here he implores us to see the Lighthouse as something much more than a visitor attraction.
Why is it your favourite?
The Lighthouse, for me, synthesised Glasgow's historical journey. It was built by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1895 for the Herald newspaper. At the top he had built a small lighthouse tower. This is Art Nouveau and the printing press is of the industrial Victorian era.
The new glass entrance to the left of the building was designed in 1999 by Page and Park (now Page/Park), a firm involved in the city's contemporary renaissance. The theme of the building is one of design and city.
What's the history behind the building?
It's a flagship museum in the centre of Glasgow - one of the most creative centres of Europe. The Lighthouse is a by-product of the significant transformation the city has gone through in the past 30 years.
There's a famous song called Let Glasgow Flourish, and the opening line is: 'In the second city of the Empire, mother Glasgow watches all her bairns'. After London, it was the second city of the Empire, inextricably linked to the slave trade, with the wealth from America's tobacco industries. It was the biggest ship building and engineering area of the UK.
At the beginning of the 20th century, that began to decline. From the 1960s, it began redefining itself as a post-industrial city, a city of retail and tourism, leisure, new industries. Over the years, particularly from 1990 when Glasgow became European City of Culture, there has been a radical transformation of the city and and, in 1999, it became European City of Architecture.
Does it make a statement beyond Glasgow?
The Lighthouse is about every city of the world going through fundamental change. For instance, City as Loft, one of the current exhibitions (ends mid-September) is about Amsterdam and how radical architects have taken loft environments and transformed them as part of the bohemian culture.
The lighthouse is about design architecture and conceptual debate on where cities are going. It is the museum most in conversation with the city. It's not a mausoleum. It's engaged in the present.
How is it in conversation with the people of the city?
Part of a floor is given over to outreach education workshops and a children's gallery, called the Wee People's gallery [currently closed]. The Lighthouse also does projects in partnership with other bodies in Scotland, for example, the Scottish Executive.
How do you think people are influenced by it?
Frank Gehry, from the States who did the Guggenheim in Bilbao and the Maggie Centre, for cancer care, in Dundee, probably wouldn't have set foot in Scotland if the Lighthouse hadn't been there as a world centre for the discussion of architecture and design. It's these benefits which are not easily measured.
And again, the signage around the Lighthouse was done by Javier Mariscal who designed the graphics for the Barcelona Olympics. The person who sits down in 2010 and writes their PhD on the history of the Lighthouse will write an amazing set of links that lead to the design and architectural transformation of a culture.
Does the extension fit with the original Rennie Mackintosh design?
Yes. But I would question the notion of 'fitness'. Because it often means that things should blend, should match, presume to be colour coordinated; so probably not. But it offers dynamic difference and counter-distinction. It brings modernity against industry, light against shade, and white against red. I'm interested in these differences.
Does the building overshadow its contents?
I would cautiously say yes. But what is content? I am convinced that one of the things that the Lighthouse has got right is its capacity to influence that which is not inside its grounds. You could take a narrow, old-fashioned view and say that the job of a curator is to gather objects and put them on display for the visitor who says, 'wow, that was great, here's some money'. Do not see the Lighthouse as a visitor attraction, see it as a catalyst for change.
The Lighthouse is a big, open, bright space. Does it and should it work as a place to hang out?
Yes it does and it should. People hang out in the Doocot cafe on the fifth floor. Doocot means dovecot. Mackintosh's tower is not dissimilar to where a bird may choose to nest.
Who is the target audience?
The informed and interested citizen. The Lighthouse has to struggle to win over visitors outside its core clientele because you're dealing with things that are cerebral or conceptual, not necessarily the exhibition of the moment - like a James Bond exhibition.
However, it does break out of that quite often. It had an exhibition called Electric City about pop culture in 2000 and it showed the history of Glasgow through the eyes of the teddy boys.
Interview by Felicity Heywood
Why is it your favourite?
The Lighthouse, for me, synthesised Glasgow's historical journey. It was built by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1895 for the Herald newspaper. At the top he had built a small lighthouse tower. This is Art Nouveau and the printing press is of the industrial Victorian era.
The new glass entrance to the left of the building was designed in 1999 by Page and Park (now Page/Park), a firm involved in the city's contemporary renaissance. The theme of the building is one of design and city.
What's the history behind the building?
It's a flagship museum in the centre of Glasgow - one of the most creative centres of Europe. The Lighthouse is a by-product of the significant transformation the city has gone through in the past 30 years.
There's a famous song called Let Glasgow Flourish, and the opening line is: 'In the second city of the Empire, mother Glasgow watches all her bairns'. After London, it was the second city of the Empire, inextricably linked to the slave trade, with the wealth from America's tobacco industries. It was the biggest ship building and engineering area of the UK.
At the beginning of the 20th century, that began to decline. From the 1960s, it began redefining itself as a post-industrial city, a city of retail and tourism, leisure, new industries. Over the years, particularly from 1990 when Glasgow became European City of Culture, there has been a radical transformation of the city and and, in 1999, it became European City of Architecture.
Does it make a statement beyond Glasgow?
The Lighthouse is about every city of the world going through fundamental change. For instance, City as Loft, one of the current exhibitions (ends mid-September) is about Amsterdam and how radical architects have taken loft environments and transformed them as part of the bohemian culture.
The lighthouse is about design architecture and conceptual debate on where cities are going. It is the museum most in conversation with the city. It's not a mausoleum. It's engaged in the present.
How is it in conversation with the people of the city?
Part of a floor is given over to outreach education workshops and a children's gallery, called the Wee People's gallery [currently closed]. The Lighthouse also does projects in partnership with other bodies in Scotland, for example, the Scottish Executive.
How do you think people are influenced by it?
Frank Gehry, from the States who did the Guggenheim in Bilbao and the Maggie Centre, for cancer care, in Dundee, probably wouldn't have set foot in Scotland if the Lighthouse hadn't been there as a world centre for the discussion of architecture and design. It's these benefits which are not easily measured.
And again, the signage around the Lighthouse was done by Javier Mariscal who designed the graphics for the Barcelona Olympics. The person who sits down in 2010 and writes their PhD on the history of the Lighthouse will write an amazing set of links that lead to the design and architectural transformation of a culture.
Does the extension fit with the original Rennie Mackintosh design?
Yes. But I would question the notion of 'fitness'. Because it often means that things should blend, should match, presume to be colour coordinated; so probably not. But it offers dynamic difference and counter-distinction. It brings modernity against industry, light against shade, and white against red. I'm interested in these differences.
Does the building overshadow its contents?
I would cautiously say yes. But what is content? I am convinced that one of the things that the Lighthouse has got right is its capacity to influence that which is not inside its grounds. You could take a narrow, old-fashioned view and say that the job of a curator is to gather objects and put them on display for the visitor who says, 'wow, that was great, here's some money'. Do not see the Lighthouse as a visitor attraction, see it as a catalyst for change.
The Lighthouse is a big, open, bright space. Does it and should it work as a place to hang out?
Yes it does and it should. People hang out in the Doocot cafe on the fifth floor. Doocot means dovecot. Mackintosh's tower is not dissimilar to where a bird may choose to nest.
Who is the target audience?
The informed and interested citizen. The Lighthouse has to struggle to win over visitors outside its core clientele because you're dealing with things that are cerebral or conceptual, not necessarily the exhibition of the moment - like a James Bond exhibition.
However, it does break out of that quite often. It had an exhibition called Electric City about pop culture in 2000 and it showed the history of Glasgow through the eyes of the teddy boys.
Interview by Felicity Heywood
