ABOUT

Creative Scotland has awarded funding to our sister charity Fablevision to deliver a programme of artists residencies, seminars and learning exchanges as part of the Govan and Gdansk (Poland) Riverside Solidarity Project. Focused on the waterfront heritage of both cities, the year-long project, which is being run in conjunction with the School of Media, Culture and Society, University of the West of Scotland, will explore “what’s next” for Govan and Gdansk. Can the past inform the planning process? Can our built environment and Govan’s intangible heritage – the stories and memories of its people – enhance the shape of things to come?
There will be four residences for award-winning artists, tsBeall, Ben Parry/Lee Ivett, Andy McAvoy and John Mullen, to be delivered in collaboration with their counterparts in Gdansk. In addition, photographer and urban planner, Tom Manley, will work to document the process in images. As part of this programme, Fablevision Studios will involve long-term unemployed local people in making a documentary film to follow the project and explore its conclusions.
“It’s ironic that our film makers would probably have had work in the Govan yards if shipbuilding and ship repair were still major industries on the Clyde,” said Studios’ creative manager, Louisa Taylor. “As it is, they will now have the opportunity, through this film, to explore what the future might hold for Govan.”
The project begins in January 2017 with a high profile conference at the Riverside Museum involving academics, planners and politicians. Fablevision, in partnership with the University of the West of Scotland, will explore how to engage all parties in post-industrial regeneration and how to establish good practice and community interest in city planning (organised in association with the Royal Society of Edinburgh-funded Interdisciplinary and Cross-Institutional Research Network Regeneration and Waterfront Heritage Zones in Northern Europe).
The documentary will be screened as part of the final exhibition (under the auspices of NHS Greater Glasgow Health) in the atrium at the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital.