SCOTLAND'S leading theatrical talent school has added its weight to the campaign for a key arts venue to have its licence to stage club nights restored.

Hugh Hodgart, the director of drama at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), writes in a letter published today that "any threat to the future of The Arches as a contemporary performance venue is a threat to Glasgow's place within Scotland, the UK and beyond".

The strongly supportive letter from the RCS comes as more than 400 artists, including writers, playwrights, actors, DJs and musicians, released an open letter writing of their "shock and dismay" at the effective removal of the venue's nightclub status by Glasgow City Council's Licensing Board last week.

More than 36,000 people have also signed a petition urging the city to allow the venue to once again stage club nights, the income from which the venue uses to pay for its acclaimed artistic and cultural activity.

Mr Hodgart says the venue is a "special friend and partner" to the RCS and concludes: "At time when Scotland is leading the world in active citizenship it would be a matter of great regret if one of its most influential contemporary performance venues was no longer playing its vital role in broadening boundaries and challenging cultural conservatism."

The board of The Arches meets next week and may still appeal the decision of the licensing board.

The open letter of protest signed by more than 400 names from the Scottish arts world warned that the potential closure of the arts venue would have a "catastrophic effect" on the cultural life of Scotland.

It urged power brokers to consider the "huge ramifications" of the decision of one of the key venues of the "cultural renaissance" of the city in the last 25 years.

The letter was written to three of the senior figures in Scottish arts: Fiona Hyslop, the culture secretary, Janet Archer the chief executive of Creative Scotland, the national arts funding body, and Bridget McConnell, chief executive of Glasgow Life, the arms-length cultural body of Glasgow.

Ms McConnell and Ms Archer have replied to the organisers of the open letter, expressing their "concern" at the potential closure of the venue.

The signatories include the Makar, or national poet, Liz Lochhead, electronic musician Hudson Mohawke, Stephen Greenhorn, members of Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian and Franz Ferdinand, Orla O'Loughlin, the artistic director of Traverse Theatre, Andy Arnold, artistic director of The Tron, leading contemporary artists Toby Paterson & Jim Lambie.

Names signing the open letter also include Cora Bissett, the theatre director, Dominic Hill, artistic director of The Citizen's Theatre, actors Ashley Jensen, Aidan Gillen and Kate Dickie, the writer Irvine Welsh and the comedian and writer Stewart Lee.

Also signing the letter is leading DJ Orde Meikle, Angus Farquhar the creative director of NVA, Guy Hollands, the associate director of the Citizen's Theatre, the musicians RM Hubbert, Dave Anderson the playwright and composer, Ben Harrison, the artistic director of Grid Iron Theatre Company, and Alan McGee the manager and founder of Creation Records.

Mark Thomas, writer and comedian, Don Paterson, the award-winning poet, and Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai have also signed the letter.

It says: "We are not satisfied that full consideration has been given to the potentially catastrophic impact this decision will have on the cultural life of Scotland.

"The Arches is a hugely important institution in Scottish culture which performs a number of key roles."

It adds: "The Arches nightclub also plays a vital role in the live music scene of which Glasgow is so rightly proud, and which is reflected in the city's status as Unesco City of Music.

"Alongside the nightclub's own role, it helps to fund the Arches theatre and arts venue.

"This a uniquely successful and innovative financial model which deserves to be celebrated and encouraged...as a key venue at the centre of Glasgow's remarkable cultural renaissance of the past 25 years The Arches importance to the future of the cultural life of Scotland cannot be overstated, and yet this latest decision leaves it in an extremely compromised situation, the cultural ramifications of which are huge."