by Lil Brookes | Feb 25, 2021 | Arts, Community, COVID19, Cultural Heritage, Culture, Digital, Events, Lonliness, Uncategorised
In late March 2020 I watched with disbelief as my diary of project meetings, stock deliveries and workshops was wiped as the corona virus pandemic hit, leaving me wondering what next for my small business?
I’ve worked hard over the past five years to establish Gatekeeper Art with two main strands of business, as a selling artist and as a social historian delivering community heritage projects.
Following the initial clearing of my diary I salvaged some of the workshops in the projects I was working on then and adapted them to an online format and thus I was introduced to the wonderful world of “Zoom”. This is a new world for me and I have to admit to being both terrified and excited at the prospect of online delivery but willing to take on the challenge of a steep learning curve! (more…)
by Rikki Payne | Feb 18, 2021 | Arts, Community, COVID19, Culture, Digital, Events, Uncategorised
“The genie is out of the bottle now,” said the delegate from Paris looking glumly out of my lap-top screen, “We are giving away all of this work for free. How will we ever get people to pay for the arts again?” It was June 2020 and I was attending one of those seminars that have only seemed possible since the Covid pandemic closed performing arts venues last March. 250 creative industry delegates from across Europe sitting in their kitchens or studios sharing their plans about how to keep the sector alive without a live audience. (more…)
by Séverin Guillard | Jan 28, 2021 | Arts, Community, COVID19, Culture, Digital, FESTSPACE, Parks, Place, Public Space, Uncategorised
This week’s reblog revisits Séverin Guillard’s reflections on the 2020 edition of GlasGLOW
For the third year in a row, the Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens was the site for a commercial event, GlasGLOW, organised by the Scottish PR and event management company Itison. GlasGLOW is a sound and light extravaganza which aims, through a walk in a well-known public park in the city’s West End, to immerse attendees in a fantasy universe. While the 2019 edition displayed successively different thematic “worlds” focused on diverse topics such as Halloween, aliens, or a Stanger Things-inspired labyrinth, the 2020 edition was focused on the singular theme of superheroes, illustrated by the event’s motto: “the power within”. (more…)
by Conor Wilson | Jan 21, 2021 | Community, COVID19, Digital, Lonliness, Research profile, Skills, Uncategorised
Back at the beginning of April, I wrote a short blog post sharing my experiences of some of the challenges of doing a PhD during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes we might have been in lockdown, but the sun was shining and the colours of spring were beginning to bloom around us. Ok, I’m talking about Paisley here so it might be more accurate to say that it was getting slightly less cold and the sky had gone from grey to a slightly lighter shade of grey, but two things were certain: it wasn’t winter, and we had no idea how long the purgatory of the lockdown would continue. As summer drew in, the days grew longer and life eased slightly closer to normal. One by one, the zoom quizzes disappeared, the travel restrictions eased and family and friends were reunited during those glorious nights we sat, socially distanced, in local beer-gardens. But it wasn’t to last, the nights closed in as the days grew shorted and I find myself once again resigned to my flat trying to keep writing, presenting, teaching and researching during this strange, strange year. (more…)
by Colin Clark | Jan 14, 2021 | Community, COVID19, Place, Power, Roma, Uncategorised
It is evident that COVID-19 is radically changing the way we go about our everyday lives and the things we normally take for granted, whether it is community events, festivals, family celebrations and even attending funerals to show our respects. Through my voluntary trustee work with Romano Lav (Roma Voice), a small NGO based in Govanhill, it is apparent that COVID-19 is having a serious impact on the lives and livelihoods of the various Roma communities who stay in the neighbourhood. (more…)
by Linzi Clark | Dec 10, 2020 | Community, COVID19, Culture, Digital, Events, Lonliness, Place, Power, Uncategorised
On an average Monday morning at Wallace Street, I start my working day greeted by Margaret with her little Chihuahua pup in arms. She tells me about her latest knitted dog coat purchase as other bodies start to shuffle through the narrow corridor. We settle in a semi-circle of kind faces and laughter, and I can hear the sound of mugs clinking and the smell of coffee brewing in the background.
Now, my morning begins with adjusting the volume of my laptop, fixing my fringe in the camera and making sure everyone can hear me ok. (more…)
