Project Ability celebrates its 20th Anniversary
of making art accessible during RAW: Real Art Week with the exhibition -A Slice
of The City.
Project Ability, Scotland’s leading visual arts organisation for people
with disabilities, is to celebrate its 20th Anniversary of making the arts accessible
by taking part in the Glasgow Art Fair, and RAW: Real Art Week once again. The
company was first set up in April 1984, and the Glasgow Art Fair 2004 will mark
the 7th year that the company has been exhibiting the work of local emerging
artists alongside work from both commercial and public funded galleries from
across Scotland and the UK.
This year the company aims to repeat their achievements of last year when they
sold well over 50% of the work they exhibited – making them one of the
success stories of the Fair… feedback they received from buyers attributed
it to both the affordability and quality of the art on offer. Anne Knowles,
General Manager of Project Ability commented, “The Glasgow Art Fair is
a really important date in Project Ability’s calendar. Not only does it
provide us with an alternative marketplace to sell our work – but it also
provides artists from marginalised groups with the opportunity to show their
work to a wide audience.”
This year, to coincide with the Art Fair, and as part of RAW, Project Ability
is presenting A Slice Of The City, a 3D installation[iii] featuring six public
art proposals created in a project that was led by artists Kenny Hunter and
David Stamp. The proposals are for an imaginary commission for a sculpture to
inhabit a real space (a large triangular traffic island) in the Trongate that
is currently being upgraded as part of the regeneration of the Merchant City.
At the moment there are no confirmed commissions for the site but it is likely
that there may be in the future. The location[iv] referred to is a relevant
space for the artists[v] involved in the project because it is right beside
the Centre for Developmental Arts where the company has been based since 1990.
Kenny Hunter, who has extensive experience in delivering public art commissions
said, “Although I have been involved in gallery education programmes before,
this is the first time that I have done a project like this – it has required
more thought…Public art is about communicating to the people of the city
- and less about the personal feelings of the artist – I wanted to get
the group to project their own ideas to the public realm but also to think about
the use of the site, and to take into account the passersby.”
Hunter encouraged each of the six artists involved in the project to research
the site, looking at the history and architecture of the city, and specifically
at the local community. The final results are six very different and unique
proposals, from Steven Reilly’s humourous interpretation of the traffic
congestion problems in the Trongate, and Doreen Kay’s careful study of
the surrounding buildings, to Davie McCracken’s homage to Glasgow’s
nickname -‘dear green place’ with his sculpture of a tree –
referring to the tree that never grew from Glasgow’s coat of arms.
As part of Project Ability’s 20th Anniversary celebrations, and the RAW
events, Project Ability is also hosting an Open Doors Day on the 17th April
for members of the public to visit the Trongate Studios (an artists' resource
for people with mental health problems) and to meet just some of the 350 artists
that take part in their arts programme each week.
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A Slice of the City - The Artists
Davie McCracken
Davie McCracken has been a member of the Trongate Studios, a unique artists’
resource for people with mental health problems, (funded by Greater Glasgow
NHS) for ten years. Davie usually works with wood, and often creates quirky,
larger than life sculptures. He was recently commissioned by Strathclyde Police
to build a number of pieces, including a fake cash machine to be used as a prop
in their ‘Hard Target’ campaign.
The Tree That Never Grew, his sculpture in A Slice of the City refers to the
symbols in Glasgow’s Coat of Arms which also include: the bird that never
flew, the bell that didn’t ring and the fish that never swam. Produce
such as salt, fish, cheese and fruit that would have been traded in markets
in the Merchant City surround the tree. The tree is a symbol of what has disappeared
from Glasgow Cross – the markets are now gone, replaced by discount stores,
and the trees which represent Glasgow as “a dear green place “are
absent too.
Martin McCann
Martin McCann has been a member of the Trongate Studios for two years. Last
year was the first time he exhibited work in the Art Fair, and he sold four
pieces making him one of the most successful artists. Martin creates unusual,
intricate looking sculptures by piecing together bric-a-brac and discarded toys.
His sculpture Up the Clyde on a Banana Boat in A Slice of the City denotes his
distinctive style…a toy monkey sits astride a ship constructed in Glasgow’s
shipyards having stolen a banana from the fruit market!
Steven Reilly
Steven Reilly has been taking part in Project Ability’s workshop programme
since the early 1990’s. Since 1997 he has belonged to Art Trek Ltd, a
co-operative business that was formed by five learning disabled artists. Over
the past five years the business has grown steadily and Steven along with the
other five members have shown their work at the Glasgow Art Fair and in exhibitions
as far afield as the USA and Japan. They have also contributed to and travelled
to conferences in the UK and in Europe, developed their teaching skills and
assisted in delivering visual arts workshop programmes for their peer group
and for children and young people with disabilities.
Doreen Kay
Doreen Kay was first introduced to Project Ability back in 1991 when she took
part in a community project to design a mosaic, but she only began attending
Project Ability’s visual arts workshop programme for adults with learning
disabilities last year. This year will be the first time that she will have
had work exhibited in the Glasgow Art Fair. Although she has not been making
art for very long, she has been successful in selling her work, and she recently
had one of her images selected (along with some other Project Ability artists)
for use in the publicity materials for the Tennents sponsored Triptych Music
festival. www.triptych04.com