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 DCA’s programme, seven of those subsequently picking up Turner Prize nominations. The centre attracts over 300,000 visitors every year – twice the city’s 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 who’s 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, it’s also open to the public.

When DCA opened, its two cinemas replaced a magnet for local art students – Dundee’s 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 DCA’s 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 gallery’s shop has boosted its sales figures significantly on previous years. It’s also reportedly Culture Minister Linda Fabiani’s 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. That’s the way Dundee works, and it really works a treat.

Catrìona Black, Sunday Herald 01.02.09