In March, a £400,000 Creative Communities programme placed artists and arts organisations into each of Glasgow’s 23 wards (seven of which are in the east end). The programme was created as part of Glasgow City Council’s 25 year Cultural Plan to create and champion local art and strengthen the links between culture and wider aims of improving overall health.
In this current first phase of the programme, artists will be immersed in communities, working creatively with local people and organisations to co-design the residency activity which will take place in the second phase. Anyone who makes a contribution to a local community, whether through living or working there, is welcome to take part and artists will be based in local spaces and places.
The aim of the programme is to open up dialogues across the city in order to enable Glasgow’s diverse communities to make new connections and realise new opportunities through creativity. Activity will cover a range of art forms, including music, performance, visual art, film and craft. These activities will shape and inform the second phase of the programme which will start later in the year and run until April 2020.
Each of the 23 projects selected were awarded a fee of £10,000 to carry out the work in their area, with the remaining budget being used to support delivery of the city-wide programme, the development of support networks, training and resources for the artists and for participants, research and evaluation of the initiative’s impact, as well as direct costs of activities the selected artists and arts organisations undertake, such as provision of materials, venues, and equipment hire.
Photographer Ilisa Stack is the Artist in Residence for the Shettleston area supported by Street Level Photoworks. Ilisa has immersed herself in the area meeting many members of the community. She has been working closely with the local History Group, Fuse Youth Cafe, Mount Vernon Primary School and Carmyle Community Centre to name but a few delivering many workshops and bringing more visual arts to the community. She has attended well turned out events at the History Group’s exhibition at Shettleston Library and the Shettleston Heritage Day that took place at Shettleston New Church.
Ilisa has held two very successful pop-up events in the area. The first was at Tesco Shettleston where customers enjoyed viewing the photo boards showing past and present images of Shettleston and the surrounding areas and speaking with team member Rachel Mimiec about what type of art activities they would like to see in the area. Some shoppers were also happy to be photographed at the in-store studio!
Shettleston Library was an archival event, where members of the public where invited along to look at old images of Shettleston and share past stories and photographs that they had. Both events were paramount in finding out from the community what would they like to see in a year-long residency that could take place later in the year.
The Shettleston Ward spans to include Tollcross, Carmyle, Sandyhills, Mount Vernon, Fullarton, Braidfauld and Dalbeth.
If you would like to know more about the Creative Communities project, share stories about the area or add to the pictorial community archive that Ilisa is building then please contact her at ilisa@streetlevelphotoworks.org.
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