The Moon Spins The Dead Prison | Publication Launch

Thursday 3rd March | CCA Clubroom

6pm - 8:00pm | Free but ticketed

In partnership with Glasgow Sculpture Studios, the School of Abolition (SOA) invites you to the publication launch of The Moon Spins the Dead Prison: An Anthology of Abolition. Please join for an in-person conversation on the subject of carceral geographies between SOA curator Thomas Abercromby and writers Lola Olufemi and Hussein Mitha and artist Jamie Crewe. Copies of the publication will also be freely available.

The Moon Spins the Dead Prison brings together a collection of new essays that explore the meaning, practices, and politics of prison abolition from local, national and global positions and perspectives. The publication is designed by Maeve Redmond and includes new texts by Harry Josephine Giles, Che Gossett, Hussein Mitha, Lola Olufemi, Koshka Duff & Connor Woodman, accompanied by a collection of new drawings by artist Jamie Crewe and an introduction by Thomas Abercromby, Rosie Roberts & Phil Crockett Thomas.

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Lola Olufemi is a black feminist writer and CREAM/Stuart Hall foundation researcher from London. Her work focuses on the uses of the feminist imagination and its relationship to cultural production, political demands and futurity. She is author of Feminism Interrupted: Disrupting Power (2020), Experiments in Imagining Otherwise (2021), and a member of 'bare minimum', an interdisciplinary anti-work arts collective.

Hussein Mitha is a researcher, artist and activist who lives in Glasgow. Their writing frequently deals with class, contemporary art, anti-imperialism and racial capitalism. They are on the organising committee of Red Sunday school, a new Socialist Sunday School for children and young people starting sessions in Glasgow in 2022. They are also currently working on a collection of essays on poetry and insurgency for Rosie’s Disobedient Press. They are a signatory of Boycott Zabludowicz in solidarity with Palestinian liberation and against the art-washing of apartheid Israel.

Jamie Crewe is a beautiful bronze figure with a polished cocotte's head. They grew up in the Peak District, England, and are now settled in Glasgow, Scotland. They have presented several solo exhibitions, including Solidarity & Love at Humber Street Gallery, Hull (2020); Love & Solidarity at Grand Union, Birmingham (2020); Pastoral Drama at Tramway, Glasgow (2018); and Female Executioner at Gasworks, London (2017).

Thomas Abercromby is an artist and curator based in Glasgow. He has a wealth of experience leading on research, planning, and implementing artistic projects in collaboration with some of Scotland's most important cultural institutions such as CCA Glasgow, Scotland+Venice, Glasgow International, Glasgow Sculpture Studios and The British Council. Recent and current projects include The Glasgow Seed Library, The Springburn Design Charrette, You're Never Done, and The School of Abolition.

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This event is part of School of Abolition; a year-long action research project developed and led by artist and curator Thomas Abercromby using contemporary art and activism to challenge Scotland's prison industrial complex and the ways in which we respond to harm and crime without resorting to further policing or imprisonment. Thomas has invited various artists, academics, writers, activists and other guest contributors to expand the sharing of abolition praxis as a way of reimagining our criminal justice system through a free public programme of readings, workshops, screenings and public art displays. The School will work in close collaboration with communities in Glasgow North, providing a support structure that recontextualises the very idea of policing and prisons towards community-based models of safety, support and prevention.

Supported by Creative Scotland, Necessity, and Glasgow Sculpture Studios

Design by Maeve Redmond

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We encourage all participants to do a lateral flow test before attending the session. Lateral flow tests can be picked up for free at your local pharmacy or you can also order them online to be delivered to your door by visiting; 

https://test-for-coronavirus.service.gov.uk/order-lateral-flow-kits/condition

For access queries and support to cover childcare, travel for those on low incomes and additional disability support available please email kirsty@glasgowsculpturestudios.org

Holding the Line | Screening & Performance by Alberta Whittle & The Joyous Choir

Saturday 20th November | Springburn Park Community Auditorium | 3pm - 4:30pm suitable for all ages

Join us for a special screening of Holding the Line: a refrain in two parts by Alberta Whittle with a performance by The Joyous Choir as part of School of Abolition

Holding the Line: a refrain in two parts examines the conflicting act of holding. The film includes footage taken from body cameras and mobile phones during racialised and hostile police stop and searches. It combines footage of Black Lives Matter protesters in active resistance to state-sanctioned harm and carceral systems of abuse that preserve white supremacist and neo-colonial ideologies.

The screening will be followed by a performance by The Joyous Choir in the spirit of Holding the Line's attentiveness to collective voices; singing, chanting, protesting, lamenting.  The choir will perform songs from the Underground Railroad—songs which were coded with hidden messages for the runaway slaves seeking freedom—alongside new songs on solidarity, freedom, and resisting the Hostile Environment written collaboratively by members of the choir.

It can be a bit chilly in the auditorium so please wrap up warm!

We encourage all participants to do a lateral flow test before attending the session. Lateral flow tests can be picked up for free at your local pharmacy or you can also order them online to be delivered to your door by visiting;

https://test-for-coronavirus.service.gov.uk/order-lateral-flow-kits/condition

For access queries and support to cover childcare, travel for those on low incomes and additional disability support available please email kirsty@glasgowsculpturestudios.org

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Alberta Whittle is an artist, researcher, and curator. She was awarded a Turner Bursary, the Frieze Artist Award, and a Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award in 2020. Alberta is a PhD candidate at Edinburgh College of Art and is a Research Associate at The University of Johannesburg. She was a RAW Academie Fellow at RAW Material in Dakar in 2018 and is the Margaret Tait Award winner for 2018/9.

Her creative practice is motivated by the desire to manifest self-compassion and collective care as key methods in battling anti-blackness. She choreographs interactive installations, using film, sculpture, and performance as site-specific artworks in public and private spaces.

Holding the Line: a refrain in two parts was originally commissioned by Art Night for the 2021 edition of the festival.

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Maryhill Integration Network (MIN) brings refugee, migrant, and local communities together through art, social, cultural, and educational groups and projects, offering people a chance to learn new skills, meet new people, share experiences and take part in worthwhile activities to improve their lives and the life of their communities. The Joyous Choir is MIN’s community choir, they use singing as an inclusive and enjoyable activity that celebrates the richness that New Scots bring to Scotland’s artistic landscape and cultural life. Since 2013, the group has used singing to support social inclusion, diversity, and empowerment in a welcoming and creative space.

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This event is part of School of Abolition; a year-long action research project developed and led by artist and curator Thomas Abercromby using contemporary art and activism to challenge Scotland's prison industrial complex and the ways in which we respond to harm and crime without resorting to further policing or imprisonment. Thomas has invited various artists, academics, writers, activists and other guest contributors to expand the sharing of abolition praxis as a way of reimagining our criminal justice system through a free public programme of readings, workshops, screenings and public art displays. The School will work in close collaboration with communities in Glasgow North, providing a support structure that recontextualises the very idea of policing and prisons towards community-based models of safety, support and prevention.

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The Springburn Auditorium is a unique upcycled community arts space. A former council grit shed saved from demolition—now full of pianos that were otherwise doomed for landfill. Their tiered seating was built in collaboration between Glasgow Piano City and Edinburgh’s Pianodrome. This screening and performance is an opportunity to attend one of their very first events.

Supported by Creative Scotland, Necessity and Glasgow Sculpture Studios

Prisoner’s Herbal | Walk & Workshop with Nicole Rose and Mitch Miller

Friday 22nd October | 12pm - 2:30pm

Join us for a guided walk through the Hamiltonhill Claypits Local Nature Reserve led by anarchist organiser and herbalist Nicole Rose and artist Mitch Miller to learn about the use and stories of edible and medicinal common place plants, how to use them and what health challenges they can support. Throughout the walk, Nicole and Mitch will reflect on the importance of inner-city green spaces as sites of healing, respite and recreation for working class communities. We’ll finish our walk with a tea tasting as one example of the different ways we can prepare plant medicines.

This event is suitable for all ages and is free to attend but booking is required. Follow the button below to book your place

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Prisoner's Herbal is a book written by the anarchist organiser, herbalist and ex-prisoner, Nicole Rose. The book shares her experiences of using plants in prison as a means of circumventing medical neglect and the dehumanising effects of being separated from wild spaces. The book is widely distributed to prisoners and solidarity projects around the world.

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Glasgow Sculpture Studios and Hamiltonhill Claypits Local Nature Reserve have been working with artist Mitch Miller since 2018 on a project that looks to capture and document the social history of the Forth & Clyde canal and surrounding area.

Mitch makes participatory artworks that he calls ‘Dialectograms’ that blend comics, maps and ethnography to tell the various stories that make up a specific place or area. To make these artworks, Mitch spends a lot of time getting to know a place, talking with lots of different people and hearing their stories, experiences, and points of view. These stories will then be gathered and woven into a ‘Dialectogram’ by Mitch which will become a public artwork in the newly reopened Hamiltonhill Claypits Local Nature Reserve.

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This event is part of School of Abolition; a year-long action research project developed and led by artist and curator Thomas Abercromby using contemporary art and activism to challenge Scotland's prison industrial complex and the ways in which we respond to harm and crime without resorting to further policing or imprisonment. Thomas has invited various artists, academics, writers, activists and other guest contributors to expand the sharing of abolition praxis as a way of reimagining our criminal justice system through a free public programme of readings, workshops, screenings and public art displays. The School will work in close collaboration with communities in Glasgow North, providing a support structure that recontextualises the very idea of policing and prisons towards community-based models of safety, support and prevention.

Supported by Creative Scotland, Necessity and Glasgow Sculpture Studios

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This session will be held outdoors so please dress appropriately for the weather

We encourage all participants to do a lateral flow test before attending the session. Lateral flow tests can be picked up for free at your local pharmacy or you can also order them online to be delivered to your door by visiting; 

https://test-for-coronavirus.service.gov.uk/order-lateral-flow-kits/condition

For access queries and support to cover childcare, travel for those on low incomes and additional disability support available please email kirsty@glasgowsculpturestudios.org

Freelance Project Coordinator - Call for Applications

The Nivens from S(i)even (Red Road, Glasgow)

A reconstruction of the family home occupied for over forty years by Bob Niven and family. Original: pencil and Ink on mountboard, 1189mm x 841mm. ©Mitch Miller 2011

Glasgow Sculpture Studios and Hamiltonhill Claypits Local Nature Reserve have been working with artist Mitch Miller over the past year or so on a project that looks to capture and document the social history of the Forth & Clyde canal and surrounding area from Applecross Basin to Firhill.

Mitch makes participatory artworks that he calls ‘Dialectograms’ that blend comics, maps and ethnography to tell the various stories that make up a specific place or area. To make these artworks, Mitch spends a lot of time getting to know a place, talking with lots of different people and hearing their stories, experiences, and points of view.

For the next phase of this project we’re looking to take a more collective approach to this work. As part of this, we’re looking to appoint a Freelance Project Coordinator to provide dedicated support to the project Community Team. The Project Coordinator and Community Team will work closely with Mitch to expand the reach of the project and to help us gather more people’s stories, thoughts, and reflections on our area’s past, present and future.

We’re excited about working in a more collective way but we’ve recognised that involving more people means that we need some dedicated resources to properly support this. The Project Coordinator will play a really key role in ensuring that everyone feels supported and that we’re all keeping in touch and communicating effectively.

ROLE DESCRIPTION

APPLICATION FORM

Please email your completed application form to Kirsty Hendry at kirsty@glasgowsculpturestudios.org by

Friday 7th May 2021 at 5pm.

We hope to hold interviews week beginning 17th May.

Application Information Zoom Session | Thurs 22nd April 6pm - 7pm

Please email kirsty@glasgowsculpturestudios.org to book your place

Kirsty Hendry, Mitch Miller, Reuben Aspden will talk more about our work to date and give more context to how the project has developed. We’ll be on hand to answer any questions you might have about the role or project, but if you’d prefer to ask us questions in a different format please let us know and we can make arrangements for you.

Eothen Stearn on Triangle France

Image courtesy of Eothen Stearn

Ahead of the application deadline for our annual Residency Exchange Programme with Triangle France - Astérides, we asked last year’s recipient, GSS member Eothen Stearn to reflect on their time there:

"My time at Triangle France Astérides was brilliant in all sorts of ways. Both as artist and individual on a personal journey. Marseille has a beautiful welcoming intensity to it. People look you right in the eyes. It is warm in every sense of the word. It is the most exciting place full of life and collisions that made me think differently. The sky was a new kind of blue. I swam alone weekly, ate fresh food and beautiful spices from the market. I visited local archives and museums. I learnt a lot.  I found this residency held a mirror on my practice, I was forced to look at it in a deeper way, to spend longer with it and deconstruct my methodologies I felt this sense of gratitude being given that type of infrastructure and curatorial / peer support. My voice was welcomed and listened to. I made friends that I will keep and had inspiring encounters with strangers that I will remember. It was also good for me to get away and remember who I am in a new place and why I make art and what its power is. Being given that deeper, thoughtful and independent processing of work, I re-kindled my own relationship with making, thinking and doing through a gift of a slower sense of time. I am still in conversation with my cohort from that time - and have collaborated in ways with them afterwards (radio shows, publications). I also got invited to do an exhibition with someone I met there. I have never had a studio that big with beautiful natural light with big windows. They are private spaces but the building of La Friche gives you a sense of community. It's truly unique, I can't recommend this experience enough. I was very lucky to get to go. Thank you!" 

Our open call to Glasgow based artists to undertake a residency with Triangle France - Astérides is still live - the deadline for applications is 5pm (GMT) on Monday 7th September

Applications should take the form of a single PDF document comprised of the following:

• Your contact details (Name, Address & Postcode, Telephone No, Email)

• Statement outlining your artistic practice (500 words)

• A statement outlining how a residency with Triangle France - Astérides would enable you to develop your artistic practice? (350 words)

• 8-10 images, or up to 3 youtube or vimeo links to works that you feel best articulate your practice and best support your application. Please also include a short description (title, medium, date, etc) and/or contextual information for each image.

• Artist CV (2 A4 pages maximum)

Completed applications should be sent via WeTransfer to info@glasgowsculpturestudios.org. Please note emails with attachments will not be received, so applications must be sent via WeTransfer.

You can find out more information about the opportunity here. If you have any further questions or require any assistance with your application, please contact Christian at Glasgow Sculpture Studios at christian@glasgowsculpturestudios.org.