My call last week for a more vigorous approach to restoring the Mackintosh building at the Glasgow School of Art received an almost entirely positive response from readers, who shared my dismay at the slow progress in restoring this fire-ravaged marvel. There were, though, one or two dissenting voices, who accused me of “excessive sentiment” and asked whether the desire to rebuild the building has “got anything to do with what art might be, needs to be, in the 21st century”? To which I’d say, if the art of the present would benefit from generous, adaptable and well-lit studios, such as the old building had, and proximity to some of the greatest design of the past, then yes, it does. And if the unknowable art of the future needs access to the newest technologies, that can be provided in a rebuilt structure. As for what my critic calls “sentiment”, I’d call it an appreciation of art and design – which, surely, is part of the point of a school of art.
