Whats For You Will Not Go by You

Och well - we didn't win at the Creative Scotland Awards - but being nominated as one the top three community projects in the Arts in Scotland last year was a huge honour. Congratulations to the winner - The Zombie Project from Paisley....and also to fellow finallist Elderflowers from Edinburgh.

We (well Tara did) managed to mooch enough tickets for 9 of us from Nothing About Us to attend the awards dinner in the fabulous Kelvingrove Art Gallery - great craic was had by all! Govan certainly made an impression....

Compere Fred Macauly on stage

The Govan Table

Poet Tom Pow reading 'The Change'

Govan Old Team with new friend in the Kelvingrove

The great news for us in the evening was the success of our great pals the Whysman project in the Visual category.....nice one folks - well deserved indeed!

A Wee Epic about last Tuesday

Liz Gardiner of Fablevision speaking about George Wylie in Fergus Thom's film

Filmmaker Fergus Thom is part of the Whysman Festival team and he came along to our 'Questions about Govan...in honour of George Wylie' event on 1st May. The Whysman folk have now published the wee film that Fergus made of the night along with a new blogpost on their site - here

'Nothing about us...' Booklet now online!

Our beautiful wee booklet is now available to view online and to download.  So no need to fret if you didn't manage to get one on the day! With thanks to Bakkal for the design...

Aye Right

tsBeall and Matt Baker will be speaking today as part of the Engage event in GI - a tour and symposium that looks at the topic of 'artists working in the public realm'

Glasgow, Art, TV and Govan

Matt Baker and Tara Beall ...contemporary art as a collective action

BBC Scotland's Newsnight last night looked at the launch of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and featured NothingAboutUs - you can watch the clip here (you need to scroll to 16 mins 40 secs)

Reconvening the Govan Parliament

On Saturday 31st March about 100 folk gathered on a mound by the Clyde at Govan to honour this  ancient place of assembly. More than 2000 years ago people built a giant earthwork (known as Doomster Hill) by the river - a hill that was to become the parliament hill of the kingdom of Strathclyde for 200 years around the year 1000AD.

The ceremony was part of the Govan Together event 'Seeds for the Future', which celebrated one year of Govan Together activities, and also a wee celebration of GalGael's 15th anniversary. It was conceived and led by Matt Baker and Tam McGarvey, and the 2000 year timeline read on the mound was written by Tim Clarkson and Matt Baker.  (Although the 'Reconvening of the Parliment' wasn't formally part of 'Nothing about us...,' the timeline that was read out is also featured on our blog as series of posts on Govan's History.) Event management was by Fablevision Studios on behalf of Govan Together.

Processing from the Pearce Institute to the mound in the Riverside Housing Scheme (far right is John 'Jack' Sweeney - former Trades Union activist and carrier of the Govan stone for the Scottish Democracy Cairn )

Marchers arrive at the mound and the firebasket lit by the GalGael - Riverside Museum and Tallship in the background

Assembled around the fire

The public gallery - Riverside housing

Reading the timeline - centre (holding paper) Tam McGarvey and Brian McQuade (eminent Govan historian and 2012 Olympic torch bearer), also holding paper = Gehan MacLeod and on her left Allan and Ricco of the GalGael

Enjoying the fire

photos by Ben Rush

Matt Baker

Matt Baker makes artworks in the public domain, developing participatory and collaborative techniques through projects ranging from temporary events/installations to large-scale permanent artworks and cultural strategies for programmes of urban change.

In 2011, Baker was awarded the Saltire Society Award for Art in Architecture in Scotland between 2009-11. 
Since March 2011 he has been resident artist within the Riverside community in Govan - see here
From 2006-2010 Matt was the City Artist for Inverness – his work there placed the creative community at the centre of a dialogue about the contemporary identity of the Highland capital. Temporary artwork interventions, public debates and unlikely partnerships were the hallmark of the residency, which ultimately evolved into acclaimed public art organisation IOTA (now core funded by Highland Council). 

Baker was also Lead Artist from 2000-2005 for the award-winning regeneration of the iconic Gorbals neighbourhood in Glasgow. The project is widely recognised for its pioneering work in applying a socially-engaged art methodology to a large scale public art programme. More than 30 local, national and international artists were commissioned to work within the context of a place undergoing wholescale re-construction. 

The project 'Nothing about us without us is for us,' is led by Matt Baker in collaboration with t s Beall.

Artist website
Artist Blog

Twitter: _mattbaker