New director appointed to Glasgow art festival

A NEW director has been appointed to take the helm of Glasgow’s main visual arts celebration - at it emerged the event is now worth more than £2.1 million to the economy.

Sarah McCrory is replacing Katrina Brown as director of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, which is staged every two years.

Ms McCrory, who has worked as a curator for the Frieze Art Fair in London for the last two years, will be in charge of the “GI Festival” when it is next staged in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games in 2014. She was previously co-curator of Studio Voltaire, in London.

More than 130 artists were showcased across almost 50 venues at this year’s 18-day festival in Glasgow.

It was announced today that its shows attracted 205,067 visitors - an increase of a third from the previous event in 2010.

The festival has also produced new figures showing that the event was worth £1.7m to Glasgow’s economy and a further £436,878 to the rest of the country.

Ms McCrory said: “This is an exceptional festival in such a culturally important city.

“I hope to further add to Glasgow’s rich wealth of contemporary art with bold innovative exhibitions, events and performances by both homegrown and international artists.”

Sarah Munro, chair of the GI Festival, said: “Sarah is one of the most respected and innovative young curators in the UK today and brings to the festival her significant experience of collaborating with artists on a national and international level.”