I think you are using the word archive inaccurately is the new project by My Bookcase in collaboration with Market Gallery.

This summer the Market Gallery committee has decided to devote time to opening and examining the contents of its archive. My Bookcase has been invited to provide the platform for multiple perspectives concerning archival practices to convene.

During August, as part of the first phase of the project, My Bookcase founder, Cristina Garriga, is inviting individuals and organisations within Glasgow and Scotland to join Market Gallery for a series of informal conversations around archival practices. These conversations will be opened up to the public and together we will examine the tools that are used to make an archive, and consider the archive in relation to educational methodologies.

Conversations will revolve around key issues that the committee is facing:
-Who is the Archive for?
-The Archive as a physical space
-Ways of encountering knowledge
-The Archive as a network in contrast to an isolated resource
-The Digital Archive

Contributors and attendees are encouraged to bring along with them a publication/object/folder/print from their archive and/or archival practices, which could be lent to us for the duration of the summer as a way of opening up conversation and documenting this collaborative process.

The programme of informal conversations include contributions by: Jenny Brownrigg (GSA Exhibitions Director), Viviana Checcia (Public Engagement Curator at CCA), GENERATOR Projects, Sally Harrower (Manuscripts Curator at National Library of Scotland), artist Rachel Lowther, Nicola Maksymuik (archivist at Glasgow Women’s Library) and Francis McKee (director of CCA).

The summer programme will culminate in a one-day forum in Autumn 2015 (date tbc) at Market Gallery where speakers from the UK and Europe will be invited to open up the conversation to new influences and possibilities.

If you are interested in the project, would like to attend the programme of informal conversations or want to contribute by lending us an item from your personal archive, please send an email to: afterword@mybookcase.org.

More About My Bookcase:

My Bookcase is a social enterprise based in Glasgow dedicated to explore the book as a physical object of cultural, social and historical significance.

Founded in September 2014, the organisation’s main aim is the creation of an online platform that explores the concept of the library in the form of an innovative service through which members can catalogue the content of their own bookshelves, and arrange to meet and borrow books from each other in their locality.

To complement the new platform, My Bookcase engages with a number of satellite projects with the book at its heart. My Bookcase’s programme of public activities include the participation in exhibitions such as the major Alasdair Gray Season and The Making Room at Southblock, the delivery of workshops and talks such us the upcoming Printshop! at Tramway, the ongoing project of gathering book donations for the reconstruction of the lost Mackintosh Library and community projects such as My Bookcase @ The Whisky Bond.

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11 Mitchell Lane is a design show and shop from Analogue Social, an open community of designers in Scotland. The show sees Gallery 4 of The Lighthouse converted into a home. Running from 5 – 7 December, the home features work of Cat Cochrane, a writer/journalist and designer whose words will tell the story of a couple who are building a life together and collecting beautiful, functional, long lasting objects and items along the way. On the off chance that you still need to do your Christmas shopping, it’s helpful to know that almost everything in the home will be for sale.

Analogue Social at The Lighthouse

See work from over 40 designers working in numerous areas including furniture, textiles, print, ceramics and jewellery. Over the weekend, take part in several free workshops which include weaving with Heather Shields, notebook making with My Bookcase, hand embroidery with Alan Moore of Ten30 and more.

Analogue Social Live Screenprinting Photo: Analogue Social/James Vale

11 Mitchell Lane runs at The Lighthouse from 5 – 7 December. For more about the schedule of events see Analogue Social’s Facebook event here.

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Steven Swinney is a designer from Elgin, in Glasgow, not in London. He graduated from the Glasgow School of Art with a degree in Communication Design.

Since graduating from GSA, life has been super crazy and hectic. In the best way. Right after our Glasgow and London Degree Show exhibitions, I was employed by GSA to be in charge of coordinating and curating the Design School’s presence at the Commonwealth Games. My concept for this was an egalitarian art school which offered the public the opportunity to get involved with some of the processes involved in creative practice through a series of workshops led by graduates that I wanted involved in the project. I curated an exhibition of selected graduates’ work and this was available to buy at public-friendly prices – an attempt to further dispel the myth surrounding galleries and the cost of owning original artwork.

Since then, I have been nonstop grafting as a freelance designer, which is super, super hard work but really rewarding. I’ve been fortunate enough that I have had incredibly exciting cultural sector jobs come my way (hold tight Neil and Steve) that are rad to work on and keep offering up more opportunities.

I have been working as the designer for My Bookcase a new social initiative dedicated to the understanding, appreciation and dissemination of books. Being entrusted as the sole graphic designer and design advisor on a job as important as this has been really daunting but is really gratifying when you see your ideas being successfully implemented in the real world. This project has also led to off–shoot jobs, for example, myself and My Bookcase are running a collaborative workshop as part of Analogue Social’s 11 Mitchell Lane event at the Lighthouse in Glasgow – something which fits with my interest in design and education.

A recurring medium in my art school work was books and I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to continue working within this medium since graduating. I’m currently working on two publications different cultural clients. Designing the book for the Fashion Cultures Festival has let me collaborate with the photographer Callum Rice and the illustrator Ailsa Sutcliffe, which has led to a really rich body of content to work with and the freedom the client has offered is crazy but great! I’m also producing a 3-volume series of books for the fashion designer Tommy Zhong whom I met whilst at GSA. There’s also the smaller jobs that you find out about through chatting to people in pubs or at exhibitions. I ended up redesigning someone’s business cards and a bar’s menus just through striking up a conversation with people.

I would like to offer the best advice I received in the run up to Degree Show, “Art School is a frame of mind.” – Neil McGuire, 2014. Big up.

Comment below or on Twitter using #LifeAfterArtSchool & mentioning @CenSta with your experience after art school.

Stay tuned for updates from art school graduates all this week. In the meantime see a what to expect from the upcoming Life After Art School features here.

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