Glasgow Gallivanting: June 2023

52 Comments
Mary Quant tickets and merchandise

Early in the month we visited the Mary Quant exhibition at Kelvingrove – no photography allowed, so you will have to make do with a view of our tickets and some jewellery I bought. It was absolutely fabulous and, if you are in the vicinity I highly recommend visiting. It’s on till October, so you have plenty of time. And if you can’t go but are good at sewing, you can download two patterns to make your own Mary Quant dress from the link above!

Another exhibition we attended was How did the garden grow? about the Glasgow Garden Festival of 1988 and its legacy. It was very wordy, as the example panel below shows, and probably wouldn’t mean much to those who didn’t experience the festival, but for us it was super-nostalgic. We bought the earliest of Early Bird tickets at £15 each which was probably the best value £30 we have ever spent. We practically lived there that summer.

Poster
Introductory panel

WestFest, Glasgow’s West End festival, has also been happening this month. As part of it, we went on a tour of Arlington Baths, the oldest member-run swimming pool in Europe. The Baths Club was founded in 1870 as a men-only institution, but three years later it became more enlightened and women were able to join. Photography was allowed but only, understandably, if it avoided people so there is nothing from the main pool. However the real jewel is the spectacular Turkish Bath, and because the two members using it were considerate enough to be in the same corner John was able to get some shots. The gym, some individual baths, and a very uncomfortable-looking massage table are also shown.

Arlington Baths Club
Turkish Bath
Turkish Bath ceiling
Gym
Baths
Massage table

We manged to attend several festivals simultaneously with this next event! As part of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society’s 50th Anniversary celebrations (and also of WestFest) Luke Jerram’s Gaia is on display at the Mackintosh Church at Queen’s Cross. Measuring six metres in diameter, which is 2.1 million times smaller than the real Earth, Gaia features detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface. Normally, you have to buy tickets to see it but we killed two birds with one stone by attending a Glasgow Jazz Festival concert. Grappelli Night with the Seonaid Aitken Quintet was just wonderful.

Luke Jerram’s Gaia at the Mackintosh Church
Luke Jerram’s Gaia at the Mackintosh Church
Seonaid Aitken Quintet

The final WestFest event we attended was Silenced: a Scottish Suffragette Musical. Sounds unlikely? Yes, it does and I’m not mad keen on musicals, but it wasn’t at all frothy or saccharine and packed a real punch. The cast, including several children, were all amateurs and were absolutely amazing.

Which leads me neatly on to women’s history in general which has, as always, been a big part of the month. I’ve led one Glasgow Women’s Library walk (Necropolis) and written another profile for Gallus Pedals – meet Big Rachel!

GWL and Maryhill Halls both have good exhibitions on at the moment. GWL Origins: Pre-Internet Community Building recreates a space to represent the beginnings of the library over 30 years ago. Check out the technology!

Pre-Internet Community Building
Pre-Internet Community Building
Pre-Internet Community Building

In the main library space are artistic responses by students from Dundee’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design to three women writer / activists currently being celebrated by the library:  Iona McGregor, Scottish LGBTQI+ activist and author of lesbian novel Death Wore a Diadem; South African author Miriam Tlali, one of the first people to write about Soweto, whose work was banned under the apartheid regime; and Rose Mbowa, playwright, director and actor, who passionately believed in theatre’s role in freedom of speech in Uganda.

Glasgow Women’s Library artwork
Glasgow Women’s Library artwork
Glasgow Women’s Library artwork
Glasgow Women’s Library artwork
Glasgow Women’s Library artwork

At Maryhill, Strike! features artwork by volunteer Rabia Saleem inspired by the match girls of Bryant & May in London who went on strike in 1888 for better conditions, as well as photographs and stories from the local Bryant & May factory which operated until 1981.

Strike! at Maryhill Halls
Work of Rabia Saleem
Work by Rabia Saleem
Annie Besant by Rabia Saleem
History of the modern match

And saving the best women’s history news till last, I was delighted to win a People Make Maryhill award for my women’s history walks. John and I attended the dinner in the Mackintosh Hub (formerly Ruchill Parish Church) and I received a certificate and commemorative mug. This was a great event to celebrate all kinds of community activists and I was proud to be a part of it.

Attendees gather
Stuart
Jim
Receiving my award
Home with my certificate and commemorative mug.

And what else? Well, I was concerned that the beginning of the month was going to be taken up by jury service, but a couple of days waiting for a phone call that never came was all it amounted to. Phew! That should be me off the hook for a couple of years.

I’m a total nerd about the new Stockingfield Bridge and the artworks around it so I was excited to see diggers on site again – the foundation for the head of the Beithir, a large snakelike creature in Gaelic folklore, has now been laid. The Beithir rises and sinks throughout the site and will eventually be tiled – a very long term project indeed (10 years I’m told).

Digging for the Beithir’s head
Digging for the Beithir’s head
Foundation for the Beithir’s head

And I can’t finish without the penguins. They’ve been enjoying the hot weather with ice cream cones, campfires, sunbathing, paddle boarding and hiking.

Ice cream
Camp fire
Sunbathing
Paddle boarding
Hiking

I hope your month was as good as theirs! Happy July.

Scotland, UK , , ,

52 Comments »

  2. Congratulations on your award Annabel! The Mary Quant exhibition sounds fantastic. I’ve always loved her designs. She was such an iconic designer and her clothes seem to sum up the 60s to me.

    Like

  3. What a fantastic month, for you ( congrats on your award) and all the interesting exhibitions you went to. It’s good to see another beautiful bath house, both you and Eunice have posted about these recently. X

    Like

  4. Gosh Anabel – there’s so much here … congratulations on your award – lots of stimulation. I’d love to visit – but not likely … Strike! looks fascinating … but then the Jazz evening … oh what delights – lots for you both to remember. Love the Penguins! Cheers Hilary

    Like

  9. I do like the adventures of your little penguins…brings me back to the real ones we saw last November. Another very busy month for you and congratulations on your award. Well deserved I am certain. (Suzanne)

    Like

  13. Congratulations on the award. I like living in a quiet little town but when i read your posts, I sometimes have a twinge or two. A Grappelli concert would be just up my street.

    We took school children to the Glasgow Garden festival. It seems a very long time ago now.

    Like

  15. Firstly, congratulations on your award which from what I’ve read about your volunteer work here is well deserved 🙂 As to all those exhibitions, several of them sound very interesting but the one that really grabs me is the Mary Quant one as I’m old enough to remember her designs and how they influenced the high street and my own teenage fashion choices 🙂

    Like

  17. A busy month. Well done on the award. I only visited the garden festival a few times and went up the tower. Glad to see the penguins are still going strong.

    Like

  19. What a month! Certainly lots going on in Glasgow. And how wonderful to be recognised for your hard work. Well deserved. But the thing I love most are those penguins! 😂 How utterly charming. Do you know who makes them?

    Like

  22. Page missing, Anabel? Loved the one with the oil rigs. Hope all’s well. Your steadfast reader, JR

    Like