This Autumn Glasgow welcomes Europe’s most prestigious visual art award. Tramway will host the Turner Prize, organised by Tate with an exhibition of works by the nominated artists: Assemble, Bonnie Camplin, Janice Kerbel and Nicole Wermers.

Assemble group

The Turner Prize is awarded to a British artist under the age of 50 for an outstanding exhibition in the preceding year. Introducing us to new artists and ideas in contemporary art, previous winners include Damien Hirst, Grayson Perry and Gillian Wearing.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive programme of workshops, talks, tours and activities for people of all ages to get involved and be inspired by the creativity on show.

Given how many artists from Glasgow have made up the Turner Prize shortlists over recent years, it is great to have the Prize on show in Tramway, which feels like a natural home for the Prize this year.
- Dr Penelope Curtis, Director, Tate Britain

The winner of the prize will be announced on 7 December 2015.

Visit Tramway from 1 October 2015 – 17 January 2016 to see the show for free.

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The third annual Tramway Artists’ Moving Image Festival will run from 15 to 16 November at Tramway. Steven Cairns who is Associate Curator of Artists’ Film and Moving Image at the ICA in London will be the guest programmer.

The festival includes programming from the ICA Artists’ Moving Image Network featuring work from Steven Claydon, Keren Cytter, Loretta Fahrenholz, Anja Kirschner & David Panos, Agnieszka Polska, Hito Steyerl, and Ryan Trecartin.

In addition to screenings, there will be live events and discussions around two themes: Sound and Music in Artists’ Moving Image and Contemporary and Historical References in Artists’ Moving Image.

For more about the programme and festival passes, see The Tramway website.

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Find more events in our weekly bulletin here.

The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival is back this October, bringing hundreds of arts events to venues all around Scotland, all with the aim of raising awareness of mental health and tackling stigma against mental illness—and (of course) presenting some awesome film, theatre, visual art, literature and much more to brighten up your October.

Of course, with nearly 300 events (did you hear that? 300!) it could be a smidge difficult to make it along to everything. Luckily, the hard-working SMHAFF festival team are here with some of their favourites to help you make up your mind.

Vanessa Coffey’s Mirror Mirror

(Gail Aldam, Festival Manager):
“Having worked on the festival for a few years now, it’s always great when we can form a brand-new partnership and bring our audiences something totally new. This year I’m really excited for our first literature weekend, created in partnership with Aye Write! Glasgow’s book festival.  For one weekend in October we’re teaming up to host discussions with some great literary names, including Alasdair Gray, Denise Mina and Sophie Hannah, around ideas of reading, writing and mental health.”

(Alex Queneau, Marketing Manager):
“The event I’m most looking forward to is definitely our screenings of Alan Berliner’s First Cousin Once Removed at GFT and Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, accompanied by Q+As with the man himself. I’m a real film person, and I love going along to Q+As where directors and filmmakers talk with such a passion and love for film—not just their own movie, but the genre. First Cousin is a deeply personal film for Berliner too, created over a period of five years as he filmed his great friend and cousin, Poet Edwin Honig, succumbing to the grip of Alzheimer’s disease. I think the film and the post-show discussion will be a great event for anyone interested in exploring mental health through film.”

(Christine Irvine,  Communications Officer):
“The SMHAFF theatre programme is really strong this year and I’m looking forward to it kicking off with a double-bill of shows at one of my favourite Glasgow venues, the Tramway, on 3 Oct. The double-bill is two shows (not surprising!): one called Mirror/Mirror, exploring eating disorders; and the other, Mental, looking at the intertwining of depression and artistic expression. I love theatre that gets right up in your face and makes you think about things, so this intimate show for an audience of just 50 is right up my street!”

Barrowland Ballet’s Tiger

(Melanie Bavajee, Festival Assistant):
“So hard to pick! At the moment I’m really looking forward to seeing Barrowland Ballet’s Tiger again—we went to the preview night at Platform, and although I had very little idea what to expect when I went in, the show just blew me away with its inventiveness, beauty and emotion. Tiger uses contemporary dance to introduce us to a family who have grown totally dysfunctional; their lives fully caged in. It takes the arrival of a tiger to remind them of how much they love each other.  The talent and stamina of the three dancers was just amazing! A definite must-see of the Festival.”

The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film festival runs from 1-26 October, all across Scotland. For more information on what’s going on near you, visit www.mhfestival.com.

The 2013 programme can be viewed and downloaded online here.

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What:
Albert Drive Project aims to creatively engage with the residents, communities, businesses and families living on the drive in the Pollokshields area of Glasgow. The project is all about participation and actively getting to know each other. It will culminate in an event in July 2013. The project is led by Pollokshields based theatre company Glas(s) Performance in partnership with Tramway.

They will also work with artists in residence and are currently looking for applications for 2013. See more information about the available residencies here.

Why we like it:
Each week, Albert Drive will profile one of their neighbours. This is a unique and fun way to get to know people in the area.

Find out more:
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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

Emmi Keane is a young designer based in Glasgow. Her designs were recently selected by the Glasgow Youth Film Festival Youth Team for the 2012 brochure after a tough competition featuring all members of Tramway’s Young Artists.  Emmi’s interests lie mainly in illustration.  Her artistic loves include Stabilo fine tip pens, fashion designer Helen Story, Turner-Prize-winning painter Tomma Abts and penguins.  In the near future Emmi aspires to go to art school to further her already promising career as a designer.

60 Seconds with Emmi…

Q. Tell us a bit about yourself?

Ah, tricky question! I moved to Glasgow from Cardiff when I was 9, I am 17 now and I love Scotland! I am currently doing a portfolio preparation course to help me get into art school. I like clothes with animals on them. His Dark Materials are my favourite books and I have a thing for contrasting colours and intricate illustrations.

Q.    How did you get involved with GYFF 2012?

I love the Glasgow Film Theatre and have friends that are involved with GYFF so when my tutor at the Visual Arts Studio told us about the opportunity to design the programme cover and poster, I jumped at it.

Q.    What inspired your design?

After chatting to some of the festival organizers I had an idea of what they wanted out of the design: something that represented youth but still appealed to most people. Picture frames and screens made an interesting medium to exhibit all the film stills that would be shown at the festival. I sketched out how I wanted the frames to be positioned with the intention to photograph real frames and compile them but I liked the sketch and thought the hand drawings would enhance the design.

Q.    How was it seeing your finished design in your hands?

Pretty surreal! Even now I will see the programme or walk past the poster and think, “Hmm, that looks familiar …” before realising it is actually my design.

Q.    What do you plan to do next?

At the moment I am applying to art schools with the hope of studying communication design or illustration. Fingers crossed!

Q.    What film do you recommend seeing at GYFF?

Umm, it’s going to have to be Napoleon Dynamite. I’ve only seen the final dance scene and it’s truly awesome so I can’t wait to see the whole thing on the big screen.

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The Glasgow Youth Film Festival is offering Central Station followers 2 pairs of tickets to see Dragonslayer at the Glasgow Film Theatre on Wed, 15 Feb.

Dragonslayer is an evocative portrait of California’s outsider skate culture, winner of two prizes at the world’s coolest film festival SXSW, last year.

If you fancy winning a free ticket for you and a friend, leave us a message  in the comments below or tweet us mentioning @censta & @glasgowyouth. The deadline for entries is Tues, 7 Feb & winners will be notified by Fri, 10 Feb.

Here’s a bit of a preview to whet your appetite…

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The history of Tramway official starts in 1990, with the Capital of Culture. The connections made in that year led to an ongoing programme of performance that included regular visits from Peter Brook, Robert Lepage, Les Ballets C de la B and Belgium’s Victoria. In the past five years, Tramway has entered a new phase. The addition of a Hidden Garden out the back, the arrival of Scottish Ballet in a purpose built wing and a new emphasis on community engagement – much in the fashion of contemporary art policy – suggest that Tramway is moving in a new, dynamic direction.

There are two “theatres” within Tramway: the majestic T1, dominated by the apparently ancient red wall, built for the Mahabharata; the more intimate T4, a long, versatile space ideal for solo and immersive performance.  The stage in T1 is large enough for an opera house, and has hosted large scale ballet, opera and even orchestras. T4 was, for many years, the home of Into The New, the graduating programme of the Royal Scottish Academy’s contemporary performance degree.

Despite a location away from the city centre, Tramway has a profile that extends beyond the city. Its support of choreography that is more usually found in major venues, such as Sadler’s Wells, has made it something of a cult within the dance community. Aside from the visitors, it has supported local and emerging artists through a series of schemes. This heritage is reflected in the new dance studios, that offer residencies for artists like the goddess Iona Kewney or punk icon Linder.

During the IETM, Cryptic present Orlando – also part of Glasgay!  An appropriate choice, as Cryptic’s artistic director Cathie Boyd was inspired by Tramway during the year of the City of Culture. Her willingness to make large scale theatre, that pulls on opera, technology and elaborate staging echoes the diverse companies that have graced the former tramshed.

Both a fine example of how industrial spaces were occupied by the arts when traditional industries began to disappear, and an ongoing experiment in linking performance, visual art and public space, Tramway is worth a visit for far more than just a show. The Hidden Garden is a small oasis in a very urban city, the use of the cafe by the local community reveals the various creative groups at work. A brief tour unveils art classes and the rehearsals of Junction 25, Scotland’s most experimental youth theatre. A building so idiosyncratic can never be an emblem of Glasgow’s culture, yet it represents the best of the West Coast: individual, lively and constantly surprising.   

The IETM plenary public performance is, unsurprisingly, diverse. Not only does it present the new generation of artists  – Glasgow’s Fish and Game are shaping up as a performance super-group, having worked with Nic Green and featuring Eilidh of Daily Ukelele Ceilidh fame, and the Royal Academy of Music and Drama’s students have adapted Gilgamesh - it draws in companies from across Scotland. Dogstar and Plan B arrive from the Highlands: even East Coast rival Edinburgh contributes Midsummer via The Traverse Theatre and Found from Curious Seed.

By incorporating many of the major theatres in the programme, the IETM is a snapshot of a typical weekend in Glasgow. There are the classic proscenium arch productions – TAG reveals the Monster in the Hall, with a script from major Scottish playwright David Greig – the massive multi-media stagings that take advantage of a more flexible space – step forward Cryptic and their adaptation of Orlando at Tramway. Yet the plenary goes beyond the usual. The Platform, one of the further arts outposts in the city, has a series of one-off shows, including the serious dance of Colette Sadler. Even the River Clyde has been enlisted, with The Curse of the Demeter happening on the tall ship and Laika Bridging The City Inn.

For Angus Farquhar, NVA’s Creative Director, these were the highlights:

There were many good points during the day, I like the fact that even with some stunning allotment and homemade dishes on offer throughout the day, the biggest spontaneous queue was for the dinner ladies doing extra chips between the double rubble schools competitions!

The other memory is the mixed expressions of horror and happiness on the small kids on the barber’s chair being mercilessly spun around and played with by the maverick 85A crew before their grassy headpieces were hacked off with giant scissors…

To help you re-live the day, we’ve uploaded some photos, courtesy of Neil Davidson, our photographer for the day. Take a look here. Do you have any of your own? If so, please do add them to the group, we’d love to see them.

Also, if you tasted anything you’re keen to re-create, then you could peruse our online Recipe Collection, full of recipes jotted down on the day and uploaded by us. Now you can re-create a little slice of Glasgow Harvest in the warmth of your own home.

If you managed to pick up a pack of Secret Seeds, keep checking back here to find out what you’re growing. Let us know how you’re getting on by uploading photos of your plants as they get bigger.

If you were at Glasgow Harvest, we’d really appreciate a couple of minutes of your time. Follow this link and fill out our evaluation survey. There are just four questions and they’re very quick to answer, it will help us in planning any future harvests.

Thanks so much to all who were involved. From the dinner ladies who helped out with the Double Rubble Chip Challenge, thirty volunteers, the eighteen schools who grew their own tatties, to the many allotmenteers who made sure there was always some soup on the go.

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To find out what Tasty twEATS & Harvest 2010, click here.

In Tramway 1, Douglas Gordon decade ’24 Hour Psycho Back and Forth and To and Fro’

Tramway 2, Swiss artist Christoph Büchel New Commission

Trespass/Desire Diane Torr Le Drapeau Noir

http://www.tramway.org

I hadn’t read any reviews before I went to the Tramway.  I knew it had been causing controversy but I didn’t really consider it. This day was filled with two shows that is all that I could do.

The first show I went into was by Douglas Gordon ’24 Hour Psycho Back and Forth and To and Fro’

Glasgow is so lucky to have a venue as big and encompassing as Tramway. It is an amazing place harbouring tiny gems of performances and huge installations.

The space is stunning the visual presence and composition of this work is beautiful. I of course was not allowed to take any images in either show so I have supplemented your imagination with a small memory drawing.

This work is worth going to see and experience for yourself and worth re visiting if you are so lucky. The aesthetic is so clean and sharp, and the movement of the film is slow in contrast to the small composition of screens across the gallery it was like being in a Hitchcock film. The physical sensation created by this work is one of suspension and being physically aware of your own body.

Christoph Büchel New Commission

This work left me in shock and extremely exhausted. It is intense, challenging, banal, and offensive to the senses on all levels, vulgar, vulnerable, and all consuming. I was consumed, chewed up and spat out at the end. This is probably the most challenging work I have seen so far. The content is personal; the ugliest monster my own psyche could invent was brought in front of me. The smell, the stillness the skeleton of this work was intense and nauseating, moving around in the space was invasive to a sense of self-preservation.

Extremely powerful. I won’t be going back. Liking a piece of work and being able to constructively see the value are two different things. I did not enjoy it, but it may be the most incredible work of the festival.

I had to take a rest and really think and consider the work, it was shocking.

I rested and repaired, and went to see Diane Torr perform Trespass/ Desire at Le Drapeau Noir.

There was a spontaneous sheep amongst the crowd, rubbing up against the patrons…this is how the evening started

Trespass/Desire

Torr is the content; she is not your predictable performer, not sleek bodied, young or well-polished dancer. She is a woman, mature, intense and a serious performer. Her presence and actions are dramatic, expressive, intense; movement that conveyed anti-polish, exploration of space, and also content related to exploring the body in space and time, her space and her time.Torr danced in two parts, her second half involved bananas, suggestive, sexy, humorous I loved it.  Too bad you missed it.

I have a very bad dark video clip I will post to accompany the blog. Thanks Diane Torr for keeping it real.

Tramway Pecha Kucha

So I have to admit that all this art seeing is totally exhausting and the Seal dance really took it out of me from the night before, Great Fun as a festival should be, but it did cause me to move at the speed of slug the next day.

It took me much longer to post my bog and by that time everything was fairly shut and the only thing I could reasonably do was start my adventure with sharing my favourite place Le Drapeau Noir with a good friend. I should mention that I popped in to Che Camille’s to see if I could get a quick interview with Camille herself about Schema the exhibition on by Helen Shaddock (opening this Sunday, 25th April

12pm – 5pm at Che Camille, Floor 6, Argyll Chambers, 34 Buchanan St, Glasgow

With live music by First Tiger at 1pm & 3pm Exhibition runs: 6 April – 4 May)

And came away with a beauty of an accessory. So here I am taking myself way too seriously waiting outside. With my new feather fantastic!

Had a great casual talk with Raydale Dower about the place and just spent some time enjoying the nuance and art of the space itself.

Off to Tramway for Pecha Kucha A Radius Event I would like to add.

It was great here was the line up

Sarah Munro

Scott Myles

Erica Eyres

Torsten Lauschmann

Neil Bickerton

Thea Stevens

Muscles of Joy

David Shrigley

Luke Collins

Fiona Jardine

Kendall Koppe

Martin Clark

They had 6 minutes 40 seconds, 20 slides 20 seconds to share their thoughts and ideas. I am fairly confident this will be a regular thing. It was completely sold out! It was that good.

Today, talk at GFT, Cakewalk at the Arches

Performance Social landscape Clyde

More cake walk…can’t wait.

And I would just like to add that the directorial credit for Seal Dance is Emlyn Firth. :)