Changin Scotland - Scotland’s alternative festival of ideas, culture and politics - 1st - 3rd November 2013 - Newbattle Abbey College

Changin Scotland

Scotland’s alternative festival of ideas, culture and politics

Friday 1st November - Sunday 3rd November 2013 

    Newbattle Abbey College, by Dalkeith

This November Gerry Hassan and Jean Urquhart are at Newbattle Abbey College just South of Edinburgh for a weekend on how to do social change, activism and campaigning in a different way!

This weekend will be a departure in feel, style and setting – and is facilitated and led by Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert of the Centre for Artistic Activism who are based at New York University.

This will be a participatory weekend bringing together community politics with cultural and civic engagement. It will look at how to be a creative kind of activist, build alliances, and beyond tactics and strategy, start to envision a different kind of politics and world!

We cannot promise to change the world in a single weekend but we can make a start! The weekend will address how cultural activists and practitioners can develop a better political intelligence, and political campaigners nurture a more informed cultural awareness, and the two influence and cross-fertilise each other.

This weekend will be stimulating, demanding and challenging, enjoyable and fun. We ask that people come rested, open minded and willing to collaborate with others.

Weekend Details:

The weekend runs from Friday 1^st starting with a meal at 6.30pm, all day Saturday and Sunday concluding 4.00pm. Extra attractions include an intimate gig with acclaimed folksinger Karine Polwart on Saturday night.

Tickets for the weekend are £60 (accommodation and food extra). Please contact for booking: Newbattle Abbey College Reception: 0131 6631921.

What previous participants say about the Centre for Artistic Activism:

‘It’s magical. Recalibrating reality.’ ‘It made me rethink my politics and challenge people who say, “I am not political”’. ‘Culture is everywhere. We all do it and this helped me embrace how to do a more creative politics’.

What they say about Changin Scotland: ‘The alternative Davos’ National Collective

We have a limited number of places so book early!
Next Changin Scotland dates: March 28-30 at The Ceilidh Place, Ullapool

Some upcoming VAGA events

Curator's feedback session: Venice Biennale 2011
The Fruitmarket Gallery: Thursday 25 August, 5.30pm-7.00pm

Continuing VAGA Scotland's series of curatorial discussions this informal event offers an opportunity to network and discuss the numerous shows from the 54th Venice Biennale. Come and join us to share your thoughts about the work you saw in Venice, over a glass of wine.

For VAGA members only.
FREE but please reserve your place if you wish to attend: ben@vaga.co.uk


The Clipperton Project: discussion event
Scottish Book Trust: Saturday 3 September, 11am-12.30pm

The Clipperton Project has invited a group of 16 artists and scientists from 6 different countries on the three-week journey to this completely isolated French atoll in November 2011. The scientists will undertake studies on Climate Change and the Biosphere whilst the artists produce work based on the history of the island and the voyage there. This event will explore the ideas behind The Clipperton Project and reveal what the participants hope to achieve from taking part. Speakers include: Gordon Liddle, Freelance Consultant (chair); Jonathan Bonfiglio, Project Director and Expedition Leader; and Charles Engebretsen, Sculptor. A discussion event of interest to: artists, scientists, gallery and museum curators, exhibition makers, project managers and arts professionals.

FREE but ticketed - BOOKING at: http://vaga-clipperton.eventbrite.com

Debate about MONA, art, and value - Wheeler Centre, Melbourne

David Walsh's Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart has become the most talked-about gallery in the country and is attracting thousands of visitors from all around the world. But is it any good?
Join philosopher John Armstrong; Artistic Director at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Juliana Engberg; and artist Dr Peter Hill in a debate about MONA, art, and value at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne on Thursday July 14 at 6pm.
The discussion will be hosted by Amanda Smith, presenter of ABC Radio National's Artworks program, and will launch Island magazine's new MONA issue. It also contains Peter Hill's memoir, "One and Three Flashbacks" on the influence of Joseph Kosuth's conceptual practices on his own work, as well as their interview about Kosuth's recent installation at ACCA, based on Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

Dr Peter Hill is Adjunct Professor of Fine Art at RMIT University

Closing event of the exhibition ¡Patria o Libertad!

Press Release
11.04 2011


Closing event of the exhibition
¡Patria o Libertad!

‘Guantanamera’
Screening and Artist talk with Ross Birrell, Paco Barragán and Roos Gortzak

Sunday, 8 May 2011 - 14.00 - 17.00 hrs
Entrance includes exhibition visit and a drink (see www.cobra-museum.nl for entrance fees. )

As a closing event to the well received international group exhibition ¡Patria o Libertad! (19.02 – 08.05 2011) in the framework of the Cobra Contemporary programme, the Cobra Museum will screen a recent work by participating artist Ross Birrell (Glasgow, 1969), followed by an artist talk with the Dutch curator Roos Gortzak (Kunsthalle Basel) and Paco Barragán, guest curator of the exhibition.

Guantanamera (2009) is a two-part film by Ross Birrell and David Harding, produced by Douglas Gordon. The work was shot in Cuba and Miami in the period immediately after the resignation of Fidel Castro and follows the recording and broadcasting of the most famous of Cuban songs, Guantanamera, by two singers from across the political divide of contemporary Cuban identity. The original lyrics to the song are derived from the Versos Sencillos of the Cuban national poet, revolutionary and martyr, José Martí who is claimed by both pro-Castro and anti-Castro Cubans alike. The Guantanamera films follow the recording and broadcast of separate versions of the song in Cuba and Miami.

Part 1, edited in poetic visual stanzas, traces a journey through the length and breadth of contemporary Cuba from Guantanamo to Havana. In Part 2 we encounter the annual José Martí parade and the inauguration of Barack Obama.

After the screening Ross Birrell, Roos Gortzak and Paco Barragan will speak in relation to Birrell’s work Envoy (NYC) (which is part of the exhibition ¡Patria o Libertad!) and Guantanamera. They will approach the themes of Patriotism and Freedom with reference to both José Martí and Alain Badiou on Art, Politics and Love, and the potential contradiction between fidelity to the truth of patriotism on the one hand and fidelity to freedom on the other.

Programme (English spoken)

14.00 introduction
14.15-15.00 screening of part 1 – film ‘Guantanamera’
15.00-15.15 break
15.15-16.00 screening part 2 – film ‘Guantanamera’
16.00-16.45 artist talk with Ross Birrell, Paco Barragán and Roos Gortzak

Ross Birrell (Glasgow, 1969) is an artist, writer and lecturer (Glasgow School of Arts). In 2007 Birrell was awarded an SAC Artist’s Film & Video Award to make a collaborative film with David Harding in Cuba and Miami. Previous films with Harding include Port Bou: 18 Fragments for Walter Benjamin (2006) and Cuernavaca: A Journey in Search of Malcolm Lowry (2006) commissioned by Kunsthalle Basel. Solo exhibitions include Envoy, Büro Friedrich, Berlin (2003) and the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden (2005). He recently took part in Living Today, Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow School of Art (2011), Strange Comfort (Afforded by the Profession), Swiss Institute Rome/Kunsthalle Basel (2010), Under the Volcano, Bluecoat Gallery (2009), Romantic Conceptualism, Kunsthalle Nürnberg and BAWAG Foundation Vienna (2007), Das Gelände, Kunsthalle Nürnberg (2008) and TIMECODE, Dundee Contemporary Arts (2009). Publications include ‘The Gift of Terror: Suicide Bombing as Potlatch’, Art in the Age of Terror (London: Paul Holberton Press, 2005), reprinted in Concerning War: A Critical Reader (BAK: Utrecht, 2006) and translated in Leituras Da Morte (Annablume: Sao Paulo, 2007) and in brumaria (Madrid, 2008). Guantanamera launched at Glasgow International 2010 and has subsequently been exhibited and screened in Swiss Institute in Rome, Kunsthalle Basel and Galleri Rotor 1, Gothenburg and will be part of a fothcoming exhibition at the Americas Society, New York in May. Ross Birrell is represented by Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam.

Paco Barragán (Oviedo, Spain) is independent curator and arts writer based in Madrid and Miami. He is Associate Editor of Artpulse magazine (Miami) and curatorial advisor of the Artist Pension Trust (APT), New York. He served as co-curator for the International Biennale of Contemporary Art (IBCA) at the National Gallery in Prague in 2005; and the Bienal de Lanzarote in 2009.
His exhibitions include: The End of History…and The Return of History Painting, Museum for Modern Art (MMKA) in Arnhem, 2011; ¡Patria o Libertad! The Rethorics of Patriotism, Miami Dade College, Miami, 2010; Cinema X: I Like to Watch, MoCCA, Toronto, 2010; When a Painting Moves… Something Must Be Rotten, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MAPR), Puerto Rico, 2009 and the Stenenser Museum, Oslo, 2011; The Non-Age. The Rebel of Age, Kunsthalle Winterthur, Wintherthur, Switzerland, and MMKA, Arnhem, The Netherlands, 2012. He is author of The Art to come/El arte que viene, 2002, Subastas Siglo XXI, and the The Art Fair Age released by CHARTA in June 2008; and editor of Don’t Call it Performance (Salamanca Ciudad de Cultura), 2004, with essays by Javier Panera, RoseLee Goldberg, and Coco Fusco, and Sustainibilities (CHARTA), 2008, with essays by Slavoj Zizek, Gianni Vattimo, Simon Critchley, Gilles Lipovetsky, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Christiane Paul.

Roos Gortzak is currently exhibitions and project manager at the Kunsthalle Basel. She has worked as curator (The Vincent 2006, Stedelijk Museum; Tropical Abstraction, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, 2005; Relay, Biennial Puerto Rica, 2004; The Bakery, Annet Gelink Gallery, 2003-2004); art critic (de Volkskrant, Metropolis M, Artreview); chief editor (Stedelijk Museum Bulletin, 2005-2007); coordinator (Curatorial Training Programme de Appel, 2006-2007); project manager (Casco, 2002-2003) and programmer (Kunstkanaal, 1998-2000). As co-curator of the group exhibition Strange Comfort Afforded by the Profession in de Kunsthalle Basel she worked together with Ross Birrell and David Harding.

This event is supported by the The Glasgow School of Art

For Rent: Consuelo Castañeda Exhibition Opening

For Rent: Consuelo Castañeda Exhibition Opening
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
7:00 p.m.
Americas Society
680 Park Avenue
New York, NY

Curated by Yasmeen Siddiqui and Gabriela Rangel.

This exhibition will run from May 17 through July 30. Access gallery hours, holiday closures, and directions.

The first in Americas Society’s "For Rent" exhibition series, Cuba-born, Miami-based artist Consuelo Castañeda creates participatory social-spaces assuming the form of an open and public lounge. The exhibition’s central hall features simultaneous projections of film footage from science fiction, documentary, and drama, as well as animation, forming a commentary on the influences of Russian cinematography in Cuba after the Revolution. She interprets Gego’s Retícularea, an art historically pivotal modernist sculpture taken from the Americas Society’s institutional archive. In addition, Castañeda represents her body of work in the form of wallpaper that reunites objects and artifacts from her practice spanning painting, sculpture, installation, video, and photography. In an effort to activate the lounge, the public will be invited to a series of events, which will include film screenings, discussions, and a literary reading.

Americas Society is part of ¡Sí Cuba! Festival, a New York celebration of Cuban arts & culture. For the complete line-up of ¡Sí Cuba! Festival events around the city, please visit SiCuba.org.

Market Gallery Forum: Art and the Economy - Saturday 6th Nov

Market Gallery Forum: Art and the Economy.

The Forum's programme includes presentations by the following keynote speakers:

Francis McKee
Mark Fisher
Mark Robinson
Peter McCaughey
Ellie Harrison

Location: second floor of Barras Bargains, corner of London Road and Bain Street, Glasgow, G40 2ST.

Time: 10:00 - 17:00 on Saturday 6th November, 2010.

With the themes discussed in the Forum in mind, Market have specially programmed an exhibition of work by recent GSA MFA graduate Ellie Harrison - work previously unseen in the UK. Her exhibition comprises two installations including The History of Financial Crises, in which the turbulent history of 20th century capitalism is re-enacted by popcorn machines.


Market are running free buses from the Forum at 1715 to Market for the opening of Ellie Harrison's exhibition. Please join us then for round-table discussion, an artist talk by Ellie Harrison, and refreshments.


Location: Market Gallery, 334 Duke St., Glasgow G31 1QZ.

Time: 19:00 - 21:00 on Saturday 6th November, 2010

Artist's Talk: 19:30

For more information please visit

http://www.marketgallery.org.uk/

Professor Ann Markusen - Friday Event Lecture - 29 October 2010

Professor Ann Markusen
Creative Placemaking: Artists, Designers, and Arts Organizations as Shapers of Urban Space and Vitality

Friday Event Lecture
at the GFT 11am – 12.45pm
29 October 2010

Professor Ann Markusen has researched the livability and economic development outcomes of many American places at every scale: city, town and hamlet. In her discussion of ‘Creative Placemaking’ Professor Markusen will present research conducted over ten years and two continents, including a major White Paper, Creative Placemaking, to be published by National Endowment for the Arts in October 2010, that includes 15 new case studies of the marriage of art, design and economic development across the US. Her research concludes that partners from public, private, nonprofit, and community sectors can strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighbourhood, town, city or region around arts and cultural activities, resulting in vibrant and stabilised places: findings that are relevant to the architecture, urbanism, design and art communities alike.

Abstract from Professor Ann Markusen:
"In this talk, I begin with human rather than physical capital, with creators such as artists and designers, to make several points about their under-appreciated contributions to cities, places, and regional economies. Using Census data and qualitative methods, I explore the career trajectories of creative workers and underscore the place-based strategies, arts organizations, and dedicated spaces that nurture them. From a scan done this year for the US National Endowment for the Arts, I explore the roles of artists and designers as initiators of and partners in revitalization, showcasing successful cases in large cities and tiny towns, documenting the challenges in building partnerships and assembling resources."

For more information, please visit

http://www.gsaevents.com/annmarkusen

Exhibition making as Activism – Whose Politics?

Taking place during the Frieze Art Fair, Frieze Talks was a daily programme of keynote lectures, panel debates and discussions presented by Frieze Foundation and programmed by the editors of frieze magazine.

Exhibition making as Activism – Whose Politics?

12pm, Sunday 17 October

A myriad of approaches are taken by artists, writers and curators whose work responds to complex social issues and political situations. To what extent do the political and personal intersect? Can art be effective activism and vice versa?

* Jeremy Deller (Artist, UK)
* Galit Eilat (Writer, Curator and Founding Director of The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon, Israel)
* Emily Roysdon (Artist and Writer, USA)
* Chair: Negar Azimi (Senior Editor, Bidoun magazine)

The talks can be listened to or downloaded from the following website:

http://www.friezefoundation.org/talks/

Glasgow Women's Library - Auction of Pleasures

Auction of Pleasures

Glasgow Women’s Library Presents…
An Auction of Pleasures
Friday 17 September 2010, 6pm to 10.30pm
at St Andrew’s in the Square

A Dinner and Auction to raise funds for Glasgow Women’s Library refurbishment of their new home at the Mitchell Library.

The Auction of Pleasures will be a memorable, magical evening of good food, good company and entertainment for the best of causes. There will be the opportunity to bid on unique, innovative items that excite and please the senses; from bespoke garments, year-round culinary delights or why not bag a truly fine artwork – there will be something in our Auction of Pleasures that you will be tempted to bid your all to have. Within a stunning venue make sure you add your name to the remarkable women of achievement in Scotland who will be in attendance.

£45 per person or £400 for a table (10 people)

Booking is essential.

For more information or to book your place, call Laura Dolan on 07783 975 044

The Glasgow Women's Library is also looking for auction items that may be unique experiences or items that excite and please the senses - if you can offer something, please contact the library.

David attends the launch of Art & Research at GSS

On Wednesday, David attended the launch of the Summer 2010 edition of the Glasgow based on-line journal Art & Research at Glasgow Sculpture Studios.

Ross Birrell, Artist and Editor of the journal, introduced this season’s journal, its contents and contributors, as well as providing an overview of the journal from it’s inception in 2006 and outline themes for forthcoming issues.

This edition features contributions by Maria Thereza Alves and Jimmie Durham whilst on his three month Production Residency at Glasgow Sculpture Studios. This issue is prepared in the context of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2010 (GI) and is framed by the philosopher Simon Critchley’s text The Infinite Demand of Art presented at the GI symposium where he reflects, among other things, on the work of French artist Philippe Parreno with whom he has begun to collaborate and also includes an extensive interview with Critchley by Anders Gullestad.

The issue also includes artist pages from Bik Van der Pol who recently exhibited at CCA, Glasgow, an interview with Alain Badiou on the subject of his play Incident on Antioch and his writings on St. Paul in relation to truth, and the event which was recorded on the occasion of the French philosopher’s visit to Glasgow in February 2009.

Art & Research is an artist-led, internationally peer-assessed e-journal focused upon questions, contexts and methodologies of artistic research and practice. Art & Research aims to serve professional artists and academics, curators and critics, artistic researchers, postgraduate and doctoral research students and undergraduates.

AHM attend: Three Directors at the Gallery of Modern Art in Conversation

Three Directors at the Gallery of Modern Art in Conversation

Today AHM went to the National Galleries in Edinburgh where Tim Marlow chaired a lively discussion with Douglas Hall (1961-1986), Richard Calvocoressi (1986-2007) and Simon Groom (2007-to present).

David goes to the Briggait

This weekend was the official launch of The Briggait, the building in which a number of WASPs studios are situated, and it was an Open Studio event where the artists, (including Helen's - the AHM Co-ordinator) opened their studio doors to the public.

On Saturday David and some of his family visited the studios

Here are a number of reviews and online images about the Briggait:

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/features/editor-s-picks/revamp-puts-new-art-into-briggait-1.1042153

http://news.scotsman.com/arts/Glasgow39s-iconic-former-fishmarket-The.6430132.jp

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/glasgowandwestscotland/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8845000/8845932.stm

http://www.thebriggait.org.uk/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/waspsstudios/

Tatton Park Biennial Curator's Talk

Yesterday David attended the Tatton Park Biennial Curators' Talk at Glasgow Sculpture Studios.

Over the weekend David attended the 'Littoral' events in Leith and Edinburgh to mark the 60th anniversary of Kurt Schwitters' arrival in Leith on a fishing boat from Norway in June 1940.


‘Littoral’ ( literally - at the edge) of Ian Hunter and Celia Larner
has been responsible for numerous seminal conferences and
seminars over the years. Based in Lancashire it has in recent years
been concerned with the influence of Schwitters on post 2WW
British art. Central to this has been securing the original site of
the Merzbarn in the Lake District and turning into a centre for the
study of Schwitters life and work.

Professor Hamish Ritchie described the impact of Holocaust
refugees on the cultural life of Britain. Around 60,000 came to
Britain in the years up to 1940 and their contribution has been
massive. (see attached paper)

Sir Alan Peacock concentrated on one, the composer Hans Gal,
who taught at Edinburgh University and became a well-known
Edinburgh figure.

At the Plenary session David asked if there was a definitive published
text/book on the influence of Schwitters on British art. It seems
that there is none. Does anyone know if there is one. If not then
obviously an urgent task waiting for someone to do.

"Historical note. Sandy Moffat while at the 57 Gallery in
Edinburgh curated a show of Schwitters’ work in 1976. The
catalogue is a collector’s item."
David Harding June 2010

Creative Scotland roadshow/discussion

Sam attended the fourth and final Creative Scotland roadshow/discussion on Tuesday 25th May at the Briggait, Glasgow.

Here are her responses to the event...

"Arriving to a full on jazz big band, delightful though they were, made it completely impossible to have any kind of (informal) conversation with other delegates, especially those from other artforms whom I (and others?) might not know before the main event....

Next the acoustics of the Briggait's central space made it very difficult to hear the speakers as there was so much echo....

I tried to find fellow visual artists before it began and found Beth Forde and Steve Slater from Tramway (performing arts) which is worth noting in a group of 250 people.. ......I don't know nearly everyone, of course, in the visual arts world, far from it, but I was astonished at how few people I knew from the visual arts world were there, I can only speculate that either; a) they were making a political point by not attending. ie we are against the whole concept of Creative Scotland? or b) we feel there is little point in engaging with a body whose focus (rightly or wrongly, and this is something Andrew Dixon must address) is giving so much precedence to the "Creative Industries" and the arts as instrumental (validated by health and other social benefits) ..........

Good statements I remember from Andrew Dixon, (Head of Creative Scotland) and Fiona Hyslop ( Minister of Culture) were

"the language of investment in artists of the future, rather than subsidy"

CS to be seen as as a "rallying force for culture rather than an institution"

Andrew suggested that Scotland could become one of the top ten most cultured countries in the world, having discovered that Scotland is rated 18th out of 60 countries as a "national brand" (using the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index, does that not sound a made up institution or what?!)

Worrying statements are

"The need to set social and economic objectives not just cultural"

"International working of the Government should see Scottish Culture as part of this import/export model....culture as a "calling card" to other countries"

CS has 30% of the Scottish Governments cultural budget and wants to be inclusive but also wants it to be seen as a "brand", every time I hear that term my blood freezes ; echoes of Thatcherism and the horrors that followed; rear their ugly head ("There is no such thing as society")

The three questions on each table at the Briggait meeting for us to contemplate were;

1) Are there new models or ways in which Creative Scotland can invest in the arts, creative industries or screen sectors?
Answers from our table...... Private/Public partnerships, Tax breaks for sponsors and artists

2) How can we get everyone championing Scotland's creative success (in homes, schools, across the regions and artforms)\
Answers from our table ....(lame I thought) get rid of demarcation between specialisms, professionals and amateurs...aaargh

3) How can Scotland maximise the international potential of its cultural production?
Answers from our table (again, we had no idea what other "tables' at this meeting were coming up with in term of ideas)
Confusion about role of British Council compared to CS's international role? A special unit had been suggested at CS which will focus on a small number of areas; reputation, creativity, economic impact and to showcase the best of Scotland's culture .....who is talking to whom?

Sam to attend Creative Scotland Dialogue Event

Tomorrow (Tuesday 25th May 2010) Sam will be attending the Creative Scotland Dialogue Event at the Briggait.

GSA MFA Interim Exhibition

On Friday Sam attended the preview of the MFA Interim Exhibition at Glasgow School of Art.

The show runs until 22 May.

AHM recommend..

AHM say the following event is unmissable...

Date: 27th July 2010
Venue: National Galleries of Scotland
Lecture Theatre
Time: 12:45pm

Details: The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Keepers of the National Galleries of Scotland will be in conversation about the collection and its importance.