Get ready for the art

This weekend is a great chance to see some art with the Glasgow International drawing to a close and the annual Streetland festival kicking off. Here's a little guide to the Southside Art Scene this weekend. Spread the word to your art loving geographically challenge friends over the river and get them to come see some culture.

GLASGOW INTERNATIONAL 2012

Main event 4th/ 5th May times vary
The biennial Contemporary Arts Festival which is really starting to make a name for itself. A host of art is happening throughout Glasgow but lots of it is in the Southside or involves Southside Artists stepping over the river ie our very own HIMP, one half of Southside Happenings, who has an exhibition on At The Arches (*).

STREETLAND
Main event 4th/ 5th May times varyGovanhill's very own festival of creativity, community & the street, Streetland returns for a third year, with a packed programme with a little something for everyone.  Its a kind of art exhibition meets performance meets community day extravaganza and it aims to "liven up the streets and back lanes of Govanhill while striving to celebrate the many diverse cultures that exist in the area and make up the community as a whole."
The last two years have been a lot of fun and they have always made the sunshine so fingers crossed for tomorrow. This year the festival's themes are focused on the universal appeal of music, food & cinema. There will be an opening event at Westmoreland St Gardens (Fri 6:30pm) in conjunction with the fabulous Glad Café, a Baby Disco party and a grand finale cinema event, Govanhillywood!

You can download the full programme here Streetland programme 2012

THE CHALET
Streetland - Opening event 4may 7pm/ prize giving 5 May 5pm

Celebrating excellence in fine art, The Chalet, a premier Govanhill contemporary art space, hosts this year's juried competition known for high-quality, poignant, yet vastly eclectic works from local and international artists.

See more info here The Chalet Prize 2012

SOUTHSIDE STUDIOSStreetland/ GI2012 - 5th May 11am-6pm / 8pm - 12pmThe south side studio is also getting involved and will have a naming ceremony for their new art gallery. I vote they call it Steve. They also have a workshop called Animate: Dance an exhibition called Familiar which is part of the GI2012 and a temporary installation/structure which is "placed at the heart of an urban block in response to its immediate context, and the pattern of tenements that define the streets, movement, and the character of Govanhill. The new structure invites people to explore the shared external space of the South Side Studio. Clad in stretch wrap the surfaces reflect light, changing in response to the weather and time of day, and at night the object glows revealing the structure within. The project was inspired by the aims of the Streetland festival ‘to engage and inspire the community in a creative exploration of streets and communal spaces."

See more info here Southside Studios

TRAMWAYGI2012 - Majority end on Sunday 6 May/ Monday 7 MayThe Tramway  is one of our favourite venues in the City and it has four different events on during the GI2012 festival. One "The Making of Us' is a collaboration in which a film was performed and recorded within a series of installation/ sets with the audience viewing the performance becoming 'extras' in the background. The resulting raw footage can be viewed on loop in the remains of the installation/ sets and an edited version will appear later as a film.

The other works on display and an installation/ dance "Black Forest" by Kelly Nipper and sets of films by Moyra Favey and Redmond Entwistle. I found the "Making of Us" to be the most interesting piece.

See more info here Tramway

EVERYTHING FLOWSGI2012 - 5/6 May 2:30 - 6pm Quenns Park Train StationPatricia Fleming Projects launch Everything Flows, a limited edition EP bringing together a selection of tracks and artwork from the experimental art into music scene emerging from the Glasgow visual art sector over the last twenty years. There is an accompanying exhibition at the artist-run Queen’s Park Railway Club where artists James Thomas and Solina Hi-Fi present a new installation transforming the space into an experimental workshop and listening booth.

See more info here Everything Flows

THE GLASGOW SCHOOLS
GI2012 - Sat 6th May, 2pm-4pm, Scotland Street School Museum
The Glasgow Schools is a project by artist Ruth Ewan. It maps out the city’s Proletarian, Socialist Sunday and Socialist Fellowship Schools, part of a network of alternative educational organisations that once spread across the UK, of which Glasgow was a particular centre. The schools explored a spectrum of left-wing ideologies with children and young adults.

The exhibition brings together, for the first time, archive material relating to the schools from a number of public and private collections. This is accompanied by an events programme of talks and discussion, song, performance and magic. Ewan presents a series of poster works, pamphlet, and a new documentary, made using archival footage and first hand accounts of the movements, exploring the affect they had on the lives of those involved. The project’s chosen exhibition space, Scotland Street School Museum, purposefully brings this influential and largely hidden movement into the wider context of Glasgow’s educational history.

See more info here Glasgow International

I AM THE ARCHITECT, THIS IS NOT HAPPENING, THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE

GI2012 - Until Mon 7 May daily at 10am and 5pmNew film and paintings by Henry Coombes exploring ideas of relationships, hierarchies and rules. The work is a response to Bellahouston Park by the artist while on residency.

See more info here House for an Art Lover

APOCALYPSE NOW NOW

SGI2012 - at 5th May, 8pm - 2am. Kinning Park Complex, £5 (Tickets available from Mono).
An event to mark the end of the world as we know it and see in the bells of the new dawn on the 5th of may 2012. Bar on site.

NOW NOW are newly set up at the Kinning Park Complex across from Kinning Park tube. The complex is a community interest company and houses 12 studios for creative stuff, artists and musicians. We are trying to rally up some support for the complex and advertise the hall spaces here. There are two hall spaces that can be rented out (for a good cheap price), KPC is non profit so all cash raised goes back into the building (and our mammoth repairs list).

See more info here Now Now on Facebook

THE UNIVERSE IS VERY BIG, YOU ARE VERY SMALL, ACT ACCORDINGLYGI2012 - The Arches, 253 Argyle Street, Glasgow / 02 April - 31 May 2012 (Noon - 11pm)

Taking direction from the GI's programme "Real Time" Hole in my Pocket explore the experience of time from a macro/micro view point. Trying to understand the concept of "the moment"/ "the present" when viewed against the enormous background history of the Universe.

Taking the theories of Hugh Everett III the duo explore ideas of multi-verses, alternate realities and the pressure and resulting action of Choice.

"An exhibition of astro-geek-brilliance, a splendid meeting of Science and Art for all budding Brian Coxs or Stephen Hawkins'." 

See more info here Hole in my Pocket  (**)

Right I think that's it. If I've missed anyone or anything out then very sorry. Please add your events in the comments below.

(*) First Blatant Plug

(**) Second Blatant Plug