Creative Scotland bosses defend £15k '˜Glasgow Effect' project

ARTS bosses say that paying a lecturer £15,000 to stay within Glasgow city boundaries for a year was worth it '“ because of the controversy it caused.

paying a lecturer £15,000 to stay within Glasgow city boundaries for a year was worth it. Picture: John Devlin

Creative Scotland funded the ‘Glasgow Effect’ – a research project by Ellie Harrison to determine the effect that a 12-month self-imposed exile would have on her art during 2015.

The funding body has now said that project was justified, in large part, because of the controversy it provoked.

The Glasgow Effect project was undertaken artist Ellie Harrison. Picture: contributed

Ms Harrison, a part-time Dundee University lecturer who describes herself as an “artist and activist” took part in 14 talks about the project during her year, and produced a 4,500-word essay about higher education.

One discussion, a web chat with an arts festival in Huntly attracted 51 viewers online.

Creative Scotland came under fire for awarding the £15,000 grant to Ms Harrison but a spokeswoman said they were satisfied with the results of her project, citing the controversy itself as a major part of its value.

The Glasgow Effect project was undertaken artist Ellie Harrison. Picture: contributed

She said: “In February of this year we received a report from the artist Ellie Harrison outlining the work that she undertook with the funds that she was awarded from Creative Scotland’s Open Project Fund in late summer 2015.

“The artist also gave a talk about the project on the 8 January 2017 at Glasgow Film Theatre where she reported on the project and shared her thinking with a public audience.

“We believe the artist has achieved her aims for the work set out in her original proposal and that the project has opened up new questions and challenges that will continue to impact on her practice for some time to come.”

The spokeswoman said Glasgow Effect had been designed to “interrogate key social, environmental and economic issues that the artist has a long-standing interest in”.

She added: “A key focus was to explore how artists can address the challenges that they face in working in an ethically and environmentally responsible way while seeking to maintain and grow their arts practice within a UK national and international context.

“There has been much work undertaken as a result of the funding that we awarded to Ellie Harrison with some of the outcomes being”.

The year-long project saw the artist challenge herself to remain within Glasgow’s city boundaries for a year to gauge what impact it would have on her artistic career.

She also refused to use public transport during her 12-month self-imposed exile in Glasgow.

Ms Harrison’s project attracted controversy because of the public grant she received for it and because the term “Glasgow Effect” was seen as disparaging as it is normally used to describe the poor health of many of the city’s residents.

The project ended on December 31 2016.

Creative Scotland said that during her 12 months in Glasgow, time Ms Harrison would have used in paid employment, was used for a number of local, community initiatives and that she had reduced her carbon footprint to zero by only using her bike for transport.

The spokeswoman added: “The project generated an unprecedented amount of media attention and public discourse, questing the role and value of artists in contributing to our civic life; considering the lack of equality in our society and in Glasgow specifically; and considering the environmental impacts of everyday decision making.

“These are important issues that don’t present easy answers but Ellie’s work has create space for people to reflect on and discuss these issues through very public means.”

In an interview given earlier this year, Ms Harrison said: “People focus on what I spent the money on, not on what I didn’t spend it on.

“The Glasgow Effect was a boycott of the oil industry, of privatised public transport.”