Partnership Development

Linking art history with insights from botany, literary studies, anthropology, geography, and neuroscience, Willsdon’s pioneering research has enhanced understanding of gallery and associated media professionals on the importance of nature, gardens, and landscape in Impressionist and ‘Modern’ art. Willsdon’s curatorial and interpretation contributions formed the research basis of two major international exhibitions, attracting 800,000+ visitors; three associated exhibition publications; a film (cinema version seen by 110,000+), audio-guide (taken by 63,421 visitors) and two podcasts. Public lectures and interpretative study days, some via the Royal Academyof Arts education outreach programme, attracted diverse audiences of 700+ including scientists, children and teenagers.

Project Partners: Royal Academy, Cleveland Museum of Art, ARoS Kunstmuseum

Academic: Prof Clare Willsdon

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

Africa in Motion (AiM) film festival was founded by Lizelle Bisschoff to counter lack of knowledge of African cinema and cultures in Scotland. Using her subsequent research identifying ‘lost’ African films unknown in Europe, since 2013 Bisschoff has expanded audiences in Scotland and London, reaching 35,000 people since 2014 to the present, and enhancing their understanding of African cultures. Festivals and cinemas in Australia, Africa and the US now screen films promoted through AiM, and Bisschoff is training aspiring African film curators to put on film events in Africa. Bisschoff’s research, recognising films by marginalised African women directors, has raised their profile in the UK and beyond and, finally, AiM has supported UK film organisations to enact diversity policies, especially attracting minority ethnic audiences who are often difficult to engage.

Partner: Africa in Motion

Academic: Dr Lizelle Bisschoff

Resource: www.africa-in-motion.org.uk

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

Dr Kenny Brophy has been collaborating with the National Trust to organise prehistoric festivals featuring a fiery archaeological piece of performance art. The festival first took place in Brodick on the Isle of Arran in 2013 and it involved building a Neolithic wooden circle, using National Trust timber, and then burning the circle down as as a piece performance art. The aim of the event was to create an exciting event to engage and educate the audience about prehistoric rituals and life. Brophy gave a talk on Neolithic life and archaeology to accompany the event. Subsequently, larger events took place on Arran again since and then in Caithness, which featured a three hour long choreographed and scripted performance. In the future, Brophy hopes to generate greater impact by including prehistorical crafts and skills workshops, and potentially hosting a build 'n' burn event in an urban location.

Academic: Dr Kenny Brophy  

Partner: National Trust Scotland 

To find out more about this project or to discuss developing your own partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact Manager by phone (0141 330 3885) or by email. 

Academics in the College of Arts have worked with the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow to produce an original display of museum artefacts. With funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, Elizabeth Moignard and Richard Williams RA used 3D imaging and printing techniques to enlarge miniature 4^th century Greek theatre masks into life sized objects.

The scanned ancient masks came from the Kelvingrove, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Shefton Museum, Newcastle and the Museo Aeoliano Lipari, Italy.

The replicas made a significant contribution to the ‘Expressions’ display in the Kelvingrove and Moignard and Williams worked closely with curators to develop informative labelling for the display. Some of the reproductions have toured around Europe in exhibitions alongside videos of performances and have also appeared on stage. 

Project Partner: Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Academic: Prof Elizabeth Moignard

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

Professor Dee Heddon (Professor of Contemporary Performance) collaborates with the publisher Palgrave Macmillan as a committee member, reader, reviewer, and as the co-editor of the recently launched series of volumes, “Performing Landscapes”.

Dee is a regular contributor to performance festival publications, and she has also project-managed and co-edited a limited edition catalogue, The National Review of Live Art 1979-2010: A Personal History (Essays, Anecdotes, Drawings and Images). This was to both celebrate the 30^th Anniversary of the National Review of Live Art and to mark its final festival- NRLA 2010.

Currently, Dee is collaborating with Live Art Development Agency on an edited edition which pays testimony to the work of performance artist Adrian Howells, a Fellow of the University of Glasgow from 2006 – 2014.

Dee’s collaborations contribute to the publishing and performance industries by identifying gaps in the existing offer and providing expertise and specialist knowledge of specific areas of performance practice, specifically live art and autobiographical performance.  Dee’s writing extends from academic research publications to more popular, informed survey pieces, for example for the AntiFestival in Finland. Such collaborations allow Dee to share her knowledge with wider public communities which have led, in turn, to further invitations to attend events, act as an artists’ mentor, and contribute to discussions and agenda-setting in relation to the fields of performance and live art.

Project Partner: Palgrave MacMillan, Live Art Development Agency

Academic: Prof Dee Heddon

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

The Etchings Project is a catalogue of the etchings of James McNeill Whistler, including a virtual exhibition. It contains many previously unknown etchings and identifies sitters and sites. It is fully annotated, illustrated, and linked to the online website of Whistler’s Correspondence.
The website is a major resource on 19th century art and the art market, and is accessed by art dealers, auction houses, curators, collectors, artists, students and public all over the world. Plans are now under consideration to extend the online website to include Whistler’s oil paintings and works on paper. Forthcoming exhibitions benefiting from this project include An American in London: Whistler and the Thames, travelling to London, Washington, and Japan in 2013-2014.

Academic: Prof Margaret MacDonald

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

Professor Carl Lavery and his collaborators embarked on an ambitious cross-disciplinary project inspired by the ruin of Hashima, which was funded by the AHRC as part of the 'Care for the Future' scheme. Hashima sits deserted in the South China Sea and is considered an example of 'ruin porn.' Lavery and the team created a film which explored the sense of toxicity and temporality of Hashima. The project included partnerships with film-makers, geographers, cultural historians, and fine arts specialists. The objective was to encourage people to engage with ruins, to see it within its time and place and and learn from its environment, because ruins are not only crumbling castles strewn across the countryside, they are littered across our urban landscape too. The ultimate goal of the project is to get people to engage with their heritage and environment as a living process, and not fixed and permanent.

Academic: Professor Carl Lavery

Partners: AHRC, Lee Halsall, Prof Deborah Dixon, Dr Carina Fearnley, Dr Mark Pendleton, Prof Brian Burke-Gaffney 

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership of your own with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or by phone (0141 330 3885).

Live Music Exchange (LMX) is a an online hub for promoters, musicians, agents, researchers, educators, journalists, bloggers, local authorities, venue staff, policy makers and anyone with an interest in the live music industries. The website is the one-stop-shop for information about the live music industries in the UK.
Initially funded by the AHRC, LMX is jointly hosted by the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. The website features regular blogs from industry personnel and opinion pieces by academics and others. Its services include training, mediation, events management and consultancy.
The project has involved collaboration with UK Music, Live Nation, the Scottish Music Industry Association, Edinburgh City Council, and Glasgow City Council.

Website: http://livemusicexchange.org

Academic: Dr Matt Brennan

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

The historically informed performance of Handel’s Messiah by John Butt, an academic in the College of Arts, and Dunedin Consort became the best-selling production for the well-known independent record producer Linn Records. The records enjoyed sales of over £144,000 (20,000 copies). The combination of Butt’s historical performance knowledge and musical expertise gave the pieces an originality and freshness appreciated by audiences.

Dunedin Consort are currently Scotland’s leading baroque ensemble and the success of their recordings with Butt have meant that the group has expanded its performances and outreach activity, including several international touring opportunities. Dunedin Consort have won several awards and continue to make further recordings. 

Project Partner:  Linn Records

Academic:  Prof John Butt

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

In a special celebration of the composer Martyn Bennett and his final album ‘Grit’, staff and students from the College of Arts participated in the opening concert of Celtic Connections in Glasgow. 

As musicians, members of the College of Arts played in the concert alongside violinist Greg Lawson, who prepared the piece for performance. The complexity of the notation used to prepare this unorthodox piece was of considerable interest, so Greg came to the College to discuss the process with Dr David McGuinness and shared the scores with undergraduates on the Notation course.

In addition, academic and teaching staff, and students, were all involved in Greg's subsequent performance projects at WOMAD 2016, Edinburgh International Festival 2016, and Celtic Connections in 2018 (playing at the Hydro, with this performance also broadcast on BBC Television) & 2019 (playing in the Royal Concert Hall & Barrowland Ballroom).

Project Partners: Celtic Connections, Greg Lawson

Academic: Dr David McGuinness

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

A text/image performance, Return to Battleshipe merged from the AHRC funded project ‘Future of Ruins: Reclaiming Abandonment and Toxicity on Hashima Island’. The performance has played to a mixture of audiences in numerous venues in the UK and Argentina. The performance was funded by the AHRC and seeks to disclose knowledge about ecological futures. The performance is authored by the artist Lee Hassall and Carl Lavery.

Project partners:

The Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science, The Performing Garage, Worcester, Japan Foundation and the Oriel Gallery Aberystwyth.

Academic:

Professor Carl Lavery

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

David has been engaged as a music producer and composer on five series of the TV drama series Skins, made by Company Pictures for E4/Channel 4 and for MTV in the US, working with a variety of artists including Gabrielle Aplin, Rae Morris, and the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
Music Performance students from the University, alongside students from Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Glasgow Academy of Musical Theatre Arts, and the University-affiliated choir Madrigirls, have gained experience of media recording sessions.
Most of the recordings are made inhouse at the University, broadening staff skills in providing material for broadcast, and the music production processes have informed and directly contributed to the content of the Performance and Notation courses of the undergraduate Music programme.

Project Partners: Company Pictures

Academic: Dr David McGuinness

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

There are two distinct collaborations that together form a narrative of linked work in contemporary opera libretti. Production and success of Sublimation, a short opera co-written with composer Dr Nick Fells (GU), led to a further commission for The Lady from the Sea, a full length opera with music by composer Craig Armstrong. Sublimation was selected to travel to South Africa for performance by Cape Town Opera. The Lady from the Sea had its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival, as a key part of Scottish Opera’s 50th anniversary season.
Sublimation sold out at all its shows, to audiences totalling thousands of people. The production of The Lady from the Sea won a Herald Angel Award at the EIF.

Project Partners: Scottish Opera

Academic: Zoe Strachan, Dr Nick Fells

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

An academic in the College of Arts was an academic advisor for the National Theatre of Scotland’s (NTS) production of Euripides’ Bacchae. Isabel Ruffell was commissioned by the NTS to produce a literal yet modern translation of the play with a commentary for the playwright, David Grieg, to work with.

Ruffell played an ongoing role at rehearsals, which allowed the performance to bring the comedy of the play into focus without losing the meaning of the lines. The play reached audiences of over 30,000 in the UK and over 9,000 in New York.

Project Partner: National Theatre of Scotland

Academic: Dr Isabel Ruffell

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

‘What’s Next for Queer Performance?’ was a public discussion event programmed as part of Glasgay!, Scotland’s annual celebration of LGBT culture. Chaired and curated by Dr Stephen Greer, the event brought together a panel of practitioners to explore the festival’s legacy and – in conversation with an audience of over 170 - look ahead to the future of queer performance. Amidst increasing – but by no means comprehensive – legal and social recognition of LGBT subjects across Europe, who or what might the ‘queer’ in queer performances stand for?
 
The panellists for the evening were Glasgow-based playwright and director John Binnie (whose work first appeared at the festival in 1998), award-winning writer Stef Smith (best known for 2010’s Roadkill, directed by Cora Bissett) and performer, writer and theatre maker Martin O’Connor (whose many collaborations include work with Scottish Opera and Glasgow’s Theatre Royal). The evening was opened with a provocation from Glasgay!’s festival producer, Steven Thomson.

Project partner: Glasgay!

Academic: Dr Stephen Greer

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Exchange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).

Walking Interconnections is a collaborative research project with a team of researchers from the Universities of Bristol and the West of England, as well as 19 co-researchers from the disabled and environmental activist communities and supported by The West of England Centre for Inclusive Living.

The project used creative research methods to develop dialogues between disabled people and environmental groups, two traditionally separate communities. Co-researchers took one another on a walk of their choice, drawing maps, taking photographs and making audio recordings of their conversations.

Professor Deirdre Heddon then transcribed the recorded conversations and used their words to produce a 30 minute audio play, ‘Going for a Walk’. This play illustrates the resilience, creativity and determination of the participants.

Project Partner: 
University of Bristol, University of the West of England, The West of England Centre for Inclusive Living

Academic: 
Prof Deirdre Heddon

To learn more about this project or to discuss developing a partnership with the College of Arts please contact Dr Fraser Rowan the College of Arts Knowledge Echange and Impact manager by email or phone (0141 330 3885).