Glasgow Open House Arts Festival 2021: Artists in Isolation
Glasgow Open House Arts Festival is a DIY non-profit city-wide event, that encourages people from all backgrounds to explore alternative ways of interacting with the arts, outside of the usual gallery or museum. Hosted by the local community, the festival's 3 previous programmes have taken place in flats, garden sheds and other unexpected locations. The most recent festival programme in 2017 showcased the work of over 200 artists in 69 venues across the city. This year, we aim to create a safe & socially distanced festival, from the 24th to the 27th of September.
It’s been a really difficult year for everyone! We have all really missed engaging together in cultural and community events, and the pandemic has made us realise just how important the arts are for our mental health and well-being. With your help Glasgow Open House Arts Festival 2021 will bring desperately needed opportunities for joy and togetherness to the local community, as we recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic.
Through a programme of in-person and online exhibitions, performances and discussions, we aim to provide space for artists and the wider community to question and express their lived experiences of the ongoing pandemic. Imagine beautiful window displays in flats and houses across the city, collaborative sculptures in outdoor spaces, wall murals and painted shop-shutters, online and doorstep performances, all within a safe, socially distanced programme, free and accessible to all. We are encouraging artists, musicians, performers, community groups, schools, organisations and creative members of the public from all backgrounds to take part.
We are currently operating on a voluntary basis and paying out of pocket for festival expenses, so we are really counting on your help and support to bring our vision for a truly inclusive festival to life! Restarting the festival during a pandemic has been a big challenge for the team, and has only been made possible because many of our team members are supported by furlough schemes and therefore have more time to spare for voluntary work.
Going forward we don’t want to have to rely on voluntary labour. We want to create a fair and sustainable organisation that ensures the festival runs far into the future! With the help of this crowdfunder, we will support participating artists from all backgrounds to be able to take part in the festival, pay fair wages to the festival coordinators and cover the running costs of the festival.
We want to include as many projects and artworks across Glasgow in our festival weekend as possible! With your help, we will collaborate with and spotlight artists, organisations and groups already supporting diverse creative output in the city. Your support will allow us to fund our own community engagement programme of accessible workshops and materials packages for the under-represented communities outlined in our constitution.
Glasgow Open House Arts Festival was founded in 2013 by a small group of art graduates including the festival's director, Amalie Silvani-Jones, who has returned to relaunch the festival with a new team. A visual artist, Amalie has worked within various arts roles including for the Refugee Festival and Wasps Artists Studios. Amalie is currently supported by two festival coordinators: Sofia Cotrona (as Marketing & Blog Assistant), a student of History of Art and Business at the University of Edinburgh and Sophia Gruber (as Digital Content Creator & Video Editor), a multidisciplinary designer and filmmaker.
Glasgow Open House Arts Festival is committed to tackling issues of inclusion and equality. In order to make sure we engage & include the diverse groups of artists and audiences set out in our constitution, we have begun the process of forming an 'advisory committee' to provide support to the festival team. The committee meets online once a month and will consist of 7-10 Glasgow based advocates, with expertise and networks formed from working with diverse groups of artists and arts organisations.
By supporting this crowdfunder, you’ll be allowing us to spotlight artists from under-represented communities and playing a vital part in the continuation of everyone’s favourite DIY arts festival! 'Artists in Isolation' hopes to bring together and support the community to engage with the arts, in a truly inclusive festival.
We have some amazing rewards available in return for your support. As well as festival merchandise and artist prints, supporters will be able to claim a bespoke hand-drawn mural by Glasgow Artist Flore de Hoog or an individual painted mural by artist and designer Alice Dansey-Wright!
Our ‘Buy a kit, donate a kit’ scheme offers people the opportunity to purchase a do-at-home 'Window Art Kit' box with all the art materials and guidance needed to create a beautiful window display, for supporters to take part in the festival programme. With every kit purchased, there will be the option to donate a number of the same kits to communities outlined in our constitution.
There will be more amazing rewards announced throughout the campaign, keep your eyes peeled!
Glasgow Open House Arts Festival T-Shirt and Sweatshirt
A4 Original charcoal drawing on paper wrapped around wooden panel by Robert McCormack
A4 Artist Prints by Sophie Grindlay
Jenny Haytch Illustration Bundle
Hand-Drawn Wallpaper by Flore de Hoog
Hand-painted Mural by Alice Dansey-Wright
3 photographic prints from Chris Jones' series 'My Dad's Tools'
Video Credits:
Music: Life Online - Stay At Home (Prod. Ben Rayner)
Original track: https://lifeonline.bandcamp.com/track/online-life
Kindly donated by Life Online - Recording and Performing Music Project
https://www.facebook.com/lifeonlineuk
Video Footage: footage is a mixture of the festival's own archives and clips kindly donated by
Art in Scotland TV
https://www.artinscotland.tv/
Amalie, Sofia & Sophia X