In 1991, former Arches Artistic Director Andy Arnold realised the potential of the cavernous space underneath Glasgow’s Central Station and received the keys to the space from British Rail. Fifteen years on, the Arches has become one of Europe's leading cultural venues - in 2005, over 200,000 people came through our doors for a variety of events. The multiple possibilities of the space mean that we play host to some of Britain’s hippest club nights, live music and comedy events, exciting new theatre and visual art exhibitions. People often drop in for lunch or a drink in our café bar and end up staying for the rest of the evening – catching a band or a piece of experimental theatre, taking in some art or meeting up with friends before getting on to the dancefloor.

The Arches is unique amongst both Scotland’s bars and clubs and the country’s arts venues because of the unique way our programme is funded. We’re a not-for-profit organisation: our clubbing, bar, café, live music and corporate hospitality revenue is reinvested in our arts programme (constituting 88% of our funding) - allowing us to carry on producing intelligent, ground-breaking productions and offering emergent artists a supportive platform for risk-taking. We like to think that we make the arts accessible to new, younger audiences, but we never dumb down to patronise them.

We set out to respond to changing cultural interests, particularly amongst young people, in Glasgow and throughout Scotland. The Arches is perfectly suited to explore this type of work because it houses such a diverse range of cultural activity. As we enter our fifteenth year we continue to break down entrenched notions of what an arts venue should be, making use of the cross-fertilisation between clubbing culture and visual art, live music and theatre audiences, while our café bar thrives as Central Glasgow’s top cultural hub, meeting place and hang-out.