The Regenerators: Director’s Programme of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art

Exhibition Dates: 20 April - 7 May 2018 
Research context: Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art (more commonly known as GI) is a biennale city-wide, multi-venue, festival that takes place over 18 days in April/May in every even year. 90 exhibitions were staged through the city across in 78 venues. Total attendances increased by 8% from 2016 to 244,320, which represented 21,316 unique visitors. A significant increase in press coverage saw some 273 articles with a combined PR Value of £77.7million. This compared to 152 articles with a value of £14.2million in the 2016 edition. This is a staggering increase of 448%, largely due to an increase in broadcast media coverage (I was I featured in interviews on BBC Scotland (First Broadcast, Friday 20th April) and on STV2 (First Broadcast, Thursday 19th April)). Glasgow International saw me make the biggest work ever staged at the festival. It was commissioned by Glasgow International in conjunction with the Year of Young People 2018 and Festival 2018 (the cultural programme of the Glasgow 2018 European Championship) and support from Clyde Gateway and Glasgow School of Art. Studio International said of the work, “Here, (Richard) Parry’s programme excels. Peter is an artist who makes playful work that investigates the symbols of power and authority using satirical and witty illustrations. Peering through the windows of this facade, visitors will see surprising and humorous scenes made by Peter and the young people.” Research content:From GI communication: “Mick Peter is an artist who makes playful work that investigates the symbols of power and authority using satirical and witty illustrations. For this ambitious new work Peter, together with young people from across Greater Glasgow (as part of the Scottish Government’s Year of Young People 2018: http://yoyp2018.scot/), have created an 80m long ‘billboard’ to cover the empty façade of a historic former gas-purifying shed in the East End of the city. The new hoarding depicts, in drawings reminiscent of a newspaper strip cartoon, crumbling buildings from different eras, including a medieval castle, tenement housing as well as modern flats in the process of being demolished. Peering through the windows of these buildings, visitors will see surprising and humorous scenes made by Peter and the young people, who have also imagined what public art might look like for the site. A solitary piece of ‘public sculpture’ will be wheeled out ceremoniously each day before being returned to its lockup behind the new drawn façade. The project is intended to create a thought-provoking double take on the hoardings that surround building sites whilst inviting us to consider Glasgow’s architectural history and the loaded nature of the transformation of its industrial built heritage. The young people’s participation in the project has been led by a core curatorial group of students from Glasgow School of Art’s Widening Participation team. These are: Luke Andrew, Caitlin Callaghan, Shannon Flockhart, Thomas Whiting, Fraser Whiting, Teagn Duffy and Kristen McNairn.” The original drawings and some of the work produced with the young people now reside in the GSA Archive and there was a subsequent show of their work for the project co-curated with the wider participation programme. Commissioned by Glasgow International. Supported by EventScotland as part of the Scottish Government’s Year of Young People 2018, Clyde Gateway, Festival 2018, Matic Media & Glasgow School of Art’s Widening Participation Department.