For our last Meet the Volunteers this block, please meet Nick Thomas, who has been an invaluable addition to our Create Saturday Visual Arts Classes. Keep an eye on the website, we will be advertising for the next block soon.
"In the ‘difficult first year’ out of art school, the Create workshops have been something of an oasis – albeit a tiring one – in the midst of a week generally filled with a service work and application forms. I graduated from painting and printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art and, although I moved away from these to time-based media whilst studying, the participants at Project Ability have since reminded me of the simple satisfaction of creating images and sculptures. Seeing the development of ideas from week to week, the range of source material (ipad games have featured heavily!) and the excitement generated by (among other things) overhead projectors, I’ve left Trongate 103 on a Saturday afternoon exhausted but invigorated.
A project I’ve been involved with over the last year has seen me researching the history of the Third Eye Centre, active in Glasgow in the ‘70s and ‘80s. The Third Eye was forward-thinking in terms of its programme of social engagement, which included community work and a strong relationship with Barlinnie’s infamous Special Unit. One of the offspring of this period in Glasgow’s artistic history is Project Ability, and I was lucky enough to be able to speak to Joyce Laing recently – art therapist at the Special Unit and co-founder of Project Ability. Hearing Joyce talk so eloquently about her life, helping those who would perhaps otherwise not have had access to the arts, was incredibly inspiring. Knowing that her valuable work continues to this day, and being able to contribute in a small way, has been integral in reaffirming my belief in the positive effect that art can have in people’s lives."
