Creative Scotland awarded funding to Fablevision in partnership with UWS 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 was run in conjunction with the School of Media, Culture and Society, University of the West of Scotland, exploring “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 were four residences for award-winning artists, tsBeall, Ben Parry/Lee Ivett, Andy McAvoy and John Mullen, delivered in collaboration with their counterparts in Gdansk. As part of this programme, Fablevision Studios involved long-term unemployed local people in making a documentary film to follow the project and explore its conclusions.
The project began in January 2017 with a high profile conference at the Riverside Museum involving academics, planners and politicians, and Fablevision in partnership with the University of the West of Scotland explored how to engage all parties in post-industrial regeneration and how to establish good practice and community interest in city planning.
Artists
Andy McAvoy: Project artist Andy McAvoy investigates a war time technological shift and its human impacts.
John Mullen: Project artist John Mullen explores value of heritage in both Govan and Gdansk
Lee Ivett/Ben Parry: Artists Lee Ivett and Ben Parry as part of Riverside Solidarity project.
Tara S Beall: Artist T.S. Beall develops new research on women’s roles in Govan/Gdansks’ industrial pasts.
Regeneration and Waterfront Heritage Research Network 