PROJECT DIARIES

from Outside In: New Dialogues Project

ARTISTS LOOKING TO THE LIGHT

Glenside Hospital Museum: Curating Memories

Natasha Harrison provides an overview of the curating course that led to ‘Looking to the Light’ exhibition which highlighted the collection and artist responses at Glenside Hospital Museum.

In January 2022, I attended and assisted with the curating course run by Stella Man at Glenside Hospital Museum in Bristol, as part of a wider National Lottery Heritage Funded project delivered by national arts charity Outside In. he group met fortnightly to learn the skills needed to curate and to consider how to curate he exhibition due to take place this summer at Glenside Hospital Museum. The exhibition consisted of 10 artists’ work in response to the museum’s collection.

On week three we arranged to visit exhibitions taking place in central Bristol. The trip was planned with the intention for us as a group to look at the exhibitions from a design perspective and to try to unpick the story the curator wanted to get over to their audience.

We looked at two exhibitions at the Arnolfini which were Dame Paula Rego’s ‘Subversive Stories’ and Donna Huanca ‘Cuerva de Copal’ art installation. Both exhibitions were stylised quite differently for instance Donna Huanca used sound, mirrors with sand, while Dame Paula Rego’s etchings were framed behind glass and hung more traditionally onto white walls. Other etchings were hung on painted blue walls which made the work more cohesive. We thought the storytelling embedded in her work would appeal to a variety of audiences.

Later on that day we continued onto the Bristol City Museum to see The Grayson Perry Art Club Exhibition which consisted of work done by artists during the lockdown in 2020. There were three pieces that really caught my eye, one of Banksy’s stencils hanging from the balcony which he used for ‘Create Escape’ which was a piece he placed on the wall of Reading jail.

‘Triple Art Bypass’ by Lucy Sparrow, which was an art installation that consisted of a mock up of an operating theatre which was fully kitted out with a wide variety of hand-sewn felted objects.

Lastly ‘Ticket Rug’ by Simon Fraser, using wool on canvas was hung on a wall and protected by perspex.

I feel the Exploring Collections and Curating course have deepened my understanding to the point that the three pieces that really impressed me, on reflection could in various ways be connected to memories of Glenside Hospital Museum.

I found the exercise thought provoking, fun and meaningful. And I learnt that curating an exhibition is an art within itself.

“It has given me research skills, looking at archives and talking to practitioners about how things are archived, what gets collected and the ethics around collecting people’s work. I’ve also learnt about the history of different psychiatric care in Scotland because the collection was collected from different institutes. The research was really exciting and it was something I’ve not done before.”

New Dialogues participant

“Because some of the work I was responding to had been made by people who have passed away it felt like reaching back through time. That felt like quite a big responsibility.”

New Dialogues participant

GLASGOW MUSEUMS: UNLOCKING THE EXTRAORDINARY

Joyce Laing was Scotland’s first art therapist. From the 1970s onwards, Joyce collected art she considered ‘extraordinary.’ Much of this work was rescued from mental health institutions before it was destroyed. In 2012 she donated her Art Extraordinary collection of over a thousand pieces to Glasgow Life Museums.

‘Unlocking the Extraordinary’ showcased new work made by artists in response to the collection. Most of the artwork was made in artists’ own homes during the Covid-19 pandemic, with limited resources and is testament to the fact we each have a story as unique as our art.

The Process

Lockdown restrictions created conditions that limited access to spaces, materials, money, facilities, and support for the artists. The artists highlighted the resonances and tangible connections this created with the makers of the Art Extraordinary collection who made astonishing work using limited resources whilst often living in spaces of confinement.

Discussions around the nature and role of making as therapeutic process and working with found materials raised questions of applied value and of hierarchies in art materials and the art world. Working together online but physically separate, a phenomenal space came into being built on new community and compassion, where artists shared personal experience and creative practice, giving new insights into the collection. This openness was underpinned by a deep respect and value for the Art Extraordinary makers, their fragments of history and art, and resulted in two exhibitions of dynamic and sensitive work.

“A phenomenal space came into being built on new community and compassion, where artists shared personal experience and creative practice, giving new insights into the collection.”

UNLOCKING THE EXTRODINARY

PROJECT ABILITY EXHIBITION