Glasgow International, one of the most successful contemporary art festivals in the country, wants to build a PROJECT SPACE & SOCIAL CLUB for ALL!

GLASGOW INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL CLUB

We want to create a versatile and flexible project and social space for the next Glasgow International, a festival of visual art opening in April 2016.  The space will be a venue for new performances, events and screenings, as well as a forum for talks and discussions – a place for lively debate and discourse. The space will also be a home to our artist-led education programme.  Importantly, we need a place to socialise during the festival – a place to spend time together discussing what we’ve seen each day of the festival over a drink and a music performance, or an artist-hosted evening.   Glasgow International is a community of incredible artists, curators, galleries, and an enthusiastic and committed audience. This will be our place to spend time together.

At its heart, this is an artists’ project. The design and build of the space itself will be in line with the aims of the festival, to: collaborate with artists and arts organisations; commission new and ambitious work; and contribute to an essential and critical contemporary art discourse.

The space itself is a blank canvas, and we’re commissioning the superb designers Gabriella Marcella, and furniture designer Damian Kruse to make it a unique and welcoming place for the hub of the festival.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN THERE?

While the full line-up is still evolving, we can promise that we will deliver an incredibly active schedule, including artist talks, performances, workshops, lectures, live music, film screenings, meet-ups and parties, alongside access to all the information you will need for your visit to Glasgow International 2016. It will be a great opportunity to get together to experience, discuss and learn about the best the festival has to offer.

Should you be observing from afar, we will be making content available where possible, through recordings on our website, and images of events and performances. We are in the midst of programme planning at the moment, and will announce updates as the schedule comes together. We are really excited to confirm at this stage that the line-up of events will include:

• Diverse and intimate talks and in-conversations by some of the amazing international and British artists in the Director’s Programme, including Alexandra Bircken, Sheila Hicks, Lawrence Lek, Aaron Angell, Helen Johnson, Tamara Henderson and Claire Barclay, in conversation with a variety of curators, academics and fellow artists
• The unique event Mega Hammer, which aims to generate a space for pure expression for one night, bringing together a mobile troupe of performers with shared sensibilities, including Turner Prize nominated artist Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Jedrzej Cichosz, Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich
• A talk and workshop by the group of socially-engaged artists, ‘Open Jar Collective’, based on their project for Glasgow International 2016, Soil City: A Land Rights Research Lab
• White Columns curator Matthew Higgs talking about artistic talent from organisations like Project Ability, Creative Growth and Healing Arts Initiative
• New performance work by Lauren Gault and Zoe Miller
• An evening presented by the Glasgow Women’s Library
• A night with Fallopé and the Tubes and friends

WHY DO WE WANT TO DO IT?

We want to take full advantage of the artists both living in and visiting our city during the festival, and allow reflection on the exhibitions and ideas explored throughout the programme. Glasgow has a thriving artistic community, built on collaboration and a DIY spirit which we will embrace in this space. It will be a place for freedom of thought and discussion, to see a great musician, to relax mid-festival, and to enjoy a drink after a busy day of walking around exhibitions in the city. This project is a new way of achieving our ambitions and aims of taking risks, and developing the ambitions of the festival for future editions. We know it’s a big project, but we believe it adds immeasurably to the festival.

WHAT WILL YOUR CONTRIBUTION SUPPORT?

We need to raise £25,000 to create this exciting and dynamic project as part of the festival. Your generous contribution will go towards the redesign of the space, from materials, through to the ideas and work by our two talented designers, as well as the programme for the space. It will also support the rent, bills and insurance, and of course we need brilliant staff to make sure that everybody is looked after.

It’s a big undertaking, and an ambitious target, but we’ll give a lot of organisations a space to use in the centre of town, to bring an aspect of their programme to a new audience.

WHO ARE WE?

Glasgow International is a world-renowned biennial festival of contemporary art. Taking place across the city of Glasgow, it showcases the best of local and international art for audiences who travel to Glasgow from as far away as Brazil, Los Angeles and China, from just around the corner in Scotland and from many destinations in-between. The festival supports emerging Scotland-based talent as well as bringing in established international artists and is a highlight of the contemporary art calendar. We’re a young festival, in our seventh edition, having grown considerably with over 201,000 visitors over 18 days in 2014. This edition will take place from 8– 25 April 2016.

To date, the festival has included projects by over 650 artists, including, to name just a few: Gerard Byrne, Alasdair Gray, Michael Fullerton, Eva Rothschild, Ciara Phillips, Shirazeh Houshiary, Fikret Atay, Sarah Lucas, Ruth Barker, Joseph Beuys, Kate Davis, Jimmie Durham, David Maljkovic, Linder, Keren Cytter, Christoph Büchel, Corin Sworn, Richard Wright, Teresa Margolles, Jordan Wolfson, Bedwyr Williams, Charlotte Prodger, Avery Singer, Hudinilson Jr, Anne Collier, Kathryn Elkin, Lauren Gault and Hardeep Pandhal.

We’re a small team, and are fully reliant on the wonderful and committed artists, curators and organisations of Glasgow, who continue to produce world-class art, allowing us to share their work with our brilliant audiences.

For 18 days in April, Glasgow International brings together a snapshot of the huge wealth of artistic activity that happens in the city throughout the year. We shine a spotlight on the work that happens in Glasgow, allowing city-based artists a visiting international audience, and international artists a place to engage in important discourse within the city. Not only do we support and include over 70 different venues, but we also run a public programme, and curate 7 exhibitions across the major spaces in the city, like the Gallery of Modern Art and Tramway. Glasgow is a truly rich city for the production of contemporary art, and has a high percentage of artists who live and work in the city. Almost all exhibitions and events are free to enter.

OUR DESIGNERS

Gabriella Marcella is a Scottish-Italian designer who grew up here, in Glasgow. She has worked on commercial projects, for brands such as Urban Outfitters, Stüssy, Dr Martens and Bloomberg, and is also an important member of the Glasgow arts community, as she runs Risotto, a risograph studio used by many artists and musicians in the city, to make artworks, posters and flyers. Her house style is wonderfully bold and playful, and we can’t wait to see how she applies her ideas to the space.

Damian Kruse is an Irish designer and maker who lives and works here in Glasgow. Having studied product design at Edinburgh College of Art, he has an interest in all types of design and works primarily with wood, with a focus on making intrinsically useful objects. His work evolves from a minimalist aesthetic, with added, unexpected details, and he is really excited to see how this unique collaboration with Gabriella for Glasgow International will unfold.

REWARDS!

Most of our rewards have images below, but some will be uploaded shortly.

THANK YOU!

Thank you so much for your help in making our festival social space a reality. We really could not do it without you! Please do come and join us there – it’s a place for you, a place for artists, curators and visitors, and a place to just rest your feet in between exhibitions! We’re excited about making this project happen, and we hope you are too.