Creative Scotland defends funding artist to stay in Glasgow

THE public body which awarded an artist £15,000 to not leave Scotland’s largest city for one year as part of a research project has defended its decision in the face of mounting criticism.

Creative Scotland approved an application from Ellie Harrison to fund The Glasgow Effect, which aims to challenge the “demand for travel” facing artists and academics.

The 36-year-old, who will take a leave of absence from her job as a lecturer in contemporary art practices at Duncan of Jordanstone College in Dundee, said the experiment would enable her “to cut her carbon footprint and increase her sense of belonging, by encouraging her to seek out and create local opportunities.”

But the project prompted a storm of criticism on social media yesterday, with the title - a common reference to the city’s long-standing public health problems - attracting particular controversy.

Creative Scotland said in a statement it was “interested to see how the project progresses”.

“Ellie is a recognised artist with an MA with Distinction from the Glasgow School of Art,” a spokesperson said.

“Her idea, articulated in a strong proposal which met all the criteria for Open Project Funding, focused on exploring whether it’s possible for an artist to generate an existence for themselves by living, working and contributing to a single community, as opposed to being constantly on the road because of the need to earn money from commissions from different places that incur costly travel and accommodation costs and high carbon footprint usage.

“Ellie’s project is based on the premise that if society wishes to achieve global change, then individuals have to be more active within their communities at a local level. In restricting herself to staying within the city boundaries she is keen to explore what impact this will have her on her life and on her work as an artist with national and international commitments.

“Our funding will support Ellie’s creative practice in Glasgow and we will be interested to see how the project progresses. As part of our funding conditions we will require an evaluation of the project once it is completed.”

Harrison said the response to the project had been “overwhelming” in a statement posted online.

“Glasgow has been my home for seven-and-a-half years and to suddenly have a response like this to one of my projects has been quite overwhelming,” she said. “You have given me so much material to digest, it will take the whole year to do so. I hope to follow-up by meeting many of you face-to-face, when all the fuss has died down.

“Like any provocative artwork, The Glasgow Effect has been devised to operate on many levels at once, and the questions about ‘community’ being raised on/off social media these last few days is certainly one of them. As much as I do care sincerely about the environmental issues raised by the project as my previous work should testify, I also want to highlight the absurd mechanisms at play within Higher Education which were its initial impetus.”