Writing as art exhibition

The Glasgow Scribes are a group of calligraphers who live in and around Glasgow.  We are holding our annual exhibition of members’ work on the 5th Floor, Mitchell Library, North St, Glasgow between Monday 14 May and Saturday 9 June 2012.  Admission is free. Library opening times are:- Monday to Thursday 9am to 8pm, Friday & Saturday 9am to 5pm.  Come and see the amazing range of work produced by our members and find out what calligraphy is and can be!

Live in Hiroshima

People in Glasgow will have a unique opportunity to hear a survivor of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima in a live link with the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum on Tuesday 1 November.
From 10am till 11.30am the link will be open between Glasgow University’s Interfaith Chapel (entered off  The Square on campus) and the Hiroshima which was incinerated on August 6, 1945 when between 90,000 and 166,000 people died.
The live conversation is free and open to the public. It will launch the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bombs Photo Exhibition.  This exhibition will run till the January 31, 2012. The person who will be interviewed in the live link is Mr Keijiro Matsushima, a retired Head Teacher of a junior high school who was 16 when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
The exhibition is organised by Japan Desk Scotland, with financial support from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. Earlier this year the Japan Desk Scotland held a highly successful exhibition in the Mitchell Library showing the story of Sadako A Girl from Hiroshima. During the course of that exhibition, people were invited to learn to make paper cranes using origami – the paper folding art form. Those cranes were sent to the Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima which receives around a million a year from people around the world who reflect on the terrible time when that city and Nagasaki were destroyed by atomic bombs. That exhibition was visited by the Consul General of Japan in Edinburgh, Mr Masataka Tarahara.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum coordinates international public engagement on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For further information, please contact Japan Desk Scotland at japandeskscotland@googlemail.com

Hiroshima exhibition produces peace cranes

Simply folding paper to make a pretty bird shape, is a gentle therapy that has been enjoyed in the Mitchell Library every weekday lunchtime during August. But the Japanese art form, called origami, is the perfect introduction to the story of Hiroshima and the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped there on August 1945.

A clear poster board exhibition tells the story of Sadako, a girl who was two when the bomb was dropped on her city. She was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 11 and died a year later another victim of the atrocity.

Sadako folded paper cranes in her final days and knew the ancient Japanese legend that a wish will come true if a person folds 1000 paper cranes. First, her classmates, and then the wider world raised a monument to peace in her honour and to recognise all the children who died in Hiroshima. Today, the Children’s Peace monument in Hiroshima attracts 10 million paper cranes made by people around the world as they remember the horror of that holocaust and plead for peace. Some of them will come from the Glasgow Origami sessions in the Mitchell Library.

The Gareloch Horticulturalists – a women’s Peace Group – were some of the many people who learned on the wing and folded some origami cranes. Their instructor was Yushin Toda, who patiently showed what to do.

Recently honoured by his country for the work he and his wife Fumi Nakabachi have done in Scotland to promote the culture of Japan, he was visited by Mr Masataka Tarahara the Consul General of Japan in Edinburgh who viewed the exhibition.

Said Yushin: ‘ It is not the number of people who have visited that is important. It is the fact that people have met together to see the exhibition and make the paper cranes and think about the issues, that matters. People from all over the world have visited the exhibition. One man from Australia, whose mother is an Origami artist, was able to fold cranes without hesitation.’

A business development manager, Yushin was particularly appreciative that someone left a facsimile edition of the Edinburgh Evening Dispatch newspaper dated 8 August 1945 describing Hiroshima as ‘a disastrous ruin’ and how ‘all living things have been seared to death.’

More than 300,000 people were literally burned to a cinder in the seconds of the atomic blast. And over the years, as with little Sadako, many thousands of others suffered from the after effects.

In a book left for visitors at the exhibition to record their reactions, one person wrote:

‘How shaming it is that now we know all the horrific effects of nuclear weapons use, we still have Trident, the British nuclear weapon at Faslane Naval base near Glasgow. It is illegal under international law, as well as being unethical. The majority of Scottish people do not want it on our soil or anywhere else.’

Some people placed candle lanterns on the water at Faslane on 6 August this year to mark Hiroshima Day.

The exhibition, organised by Japan Desk Scotland,  ran at the North Door exhibition hall of the Mitchell Library till the end of August. It was supported financially by Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.

Japan Desk Scotland will set up a ‘Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Photo Exhibition’ at Glasgow University Chapel from Tuesday 1 November 2011 till 31 January 2012.

 

Peaceful art of origami remembers Hiroshima

The art of Origami – paper folding – will be shared at the Mitchell Library in a poignant tribute to those who died from the outfall of the atomic bombs which hit Japan in 1945 and to the wish for global peace which followed.

Organised by Japan Desk Scotland in the Library’s main hall at North Street, Glasgow, G3 7DN, an exhibition about a little girl who was one of the victims will be shown. And at 12.30 week day from Saturday 30 July to Friday 26 August, visitors will be invited to learn how to make a paper crane. This highlights the theme of the exhibition ‘Sadako and the Paper Cranes – a girl from Hiroshima.

There is a Japanese legend ‘fold 1000 paper cranes and your wish will come true.’ This is what little Sadako was doing before she died in 1955 aged twelve from leukaemia. She had been two when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Her classmates campaigned to create a monument for her and other children who had died from the outfall from the atomic bomb. The Children’s Peace Monument was completed in 1958 in the city. Now, more than 10 million paper cranes are sent to the Monument every year from around the world. This year, thanks to the discreet work of two Japanese Glaswegians, Yushin Toda and Fumi Nakabachi, the Japan Desk Scotland aims to send cranes, folded in Glasgow at this exhibition, to the Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima.

Supported by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and the Consulate General of Japan in Edinburgh, the event will display posters from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. For further information email: japandeskscotland@googlemail.com

Writers to speak

Novelist Sophie Cooke will be reading from her own work at the next Strathclyde University Visiting Author event. To be held on Wednesday 2 March at 5.15pm in the Ramshorn Theatre on 98 Ingram Street, the FREE meeting is open to the public. Sophie is author of critically acclaimed novels The Glass House which was short listed for the Saltire First Book Award, and Under The Mountain.

She will discuss her writing in the context of social and political reality versus fiction and the idea of ‘The Impossible in Art.’  Playwright Rupert Thomson, former editor of The Skinny magazine, will join her. He recently published a manifesto for ‘The Theatre of the Impossible.’

The University’s current Keith Wright Literary Fellow, Doug Johnstone, will introduce a showcase event at AYE WRITE festival on Saturday 5 March at 10.30am in the Burns Room of the Mitchell Library.

Three undergraduates from the popular Journalism and Creative Writing degree course, winners in the university’s long-running and prestigious Keith Wright Memorial Prize for creative writing, will read and discuss their work alongside members of the University’s creative writing staff. Free tickets can be obtained from the Mitchell Library in person (Monday to Thursday 9am-8pm and Friday and Saturday 9am-5pm) or from a member of the creative writing teaching staff at the University of Strathclyde.

St Mungo’s bairns sing up

Children and adults join in praise of St Mungo at the Mitchell Library. Nine brave school chidren stood up and sang out to launch the St Mungo’s Festival at the Mitchell Library on Saturday 8 January. All pupils of St Patrick’s Primary in Anderston, they were the only ones well enough to turn out for the concert to celebrate Glasgow’s Patron Saint from those who’d rehearsed the specially written song ‘St Mungo Came Here.’ Said Head Teacher Susan O’Donnell: ‘But for the ‘flu, there would have been 30 singing.’ The school is a true reflection of the multi-cultural theme which runs through the Festival. It has a roll of 132 children who speak a total of 24 languages. Dr Irene O’Brien, who is Principal Archivist and responsible for Special Collections at the Mitchell, said after the launch event: ‘This went very well. It is lovely to see the children enjoying learning about St Mungo.’ Other parts of the launch event included Russkaya Cappella, a Russian Orthodox version of hymns about St Kentigern – another name for St Mungo- sung by an adult choir and the St Mungo Singers. There was also an amazing – and amusing – duo of speakers telling a little of the story of the saint’s early years in Fife as a trainee monk in the 6th century. The Rev Father George F. Gillespie, parish priest of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Broomhill, told the tale in Latin with the Rev Dr Laurence A.B. Whitley, minister of Glasgow Cathedral which is Church of Scotland, providing the English translation. Said Bailie Catherine McMaster, whose enthusiasm has nurtured the St Mungo Festival from within Glasgow City Council: ‘The idea was to enable people to hear what the medieval listeners would have heard and to discover how the stories of the Saint were passed down.’ Extensive research in recent years found a copy of a medieval manuscript – the Jocelyn’s Book – in Dublin which told the story of St Mungo. A facsimile is on view at the Mitchell Library and it was this ancient document that the priest and the minister used for their presentation. Celebrations continue until Saturday 15 January and include a ballet by Visual Statement Dance Company performed in St Enoch Shopping Centre and the first of the Molindiner Awards for schools for history related projects.

Let the Olympia’s new show begin!

photographs by Colin Mackie
images by Page/Park

Developments to breathe new life into the Olympia building at Bridgeton Cross were unveiled at a public meeting on Wednesday 15 September in Dale Street community learning centre.
A clearly enthused Ian Manson, Chief Executive of Clyde Gateway told the audience of around 60 people: ‘I would not be standing here if I did not think we were close to achieving this.’
The £10 million needed to transform the empty and decaying ‘B’ listed building into a hub for the community, is almost all in place. The Olympia was a theatre and dance hall but has been lying empty in private ownership for many years till Clyde Gateway and Glasgow City Council managed to buy it for £1.8 million and obtain £8.2 million of Scottish Government Town Centre Regeneration funding.
The ground floor will become a library and learning centre with a cafe and community acrchive clearly accessible and visible from the renewed Bridgton Cross area. ‘This is modelled on the very successful Mitchell Library,’ explained Ronnie Campbell of Glasgow Life.
The first floor will provide elite athlete training facilities for the national governing bodies for Boxing and Wrestling. This will be managed by Sportscotland in association with the Scottish Wrestling Association and Amateur Boxing Scotland.
The second and third floors will be commercial space with two floors of 500 square metres of lettable space with the opportunity of providing 100 jobs. This will be managed by Clyde Gateway Developments Ltd.
Applications for planning and building warrants will be submitted this month. The tender for a contractor should be put out in October with an appointment planned for January when work is expected to start. The new facilities will be open in the autumn of 2010.
Said local Councillor George Redmond: ‘This is an investment in the people of this area, not just in the building. There is no point in developing the Olympia building if people don’t want it.
At this point a resident commented: ‘This building is spot on!’
A portion of the jobs are expected to go to local people and anyone keen to be considered and to know how and when to access training, is invited to contact Clyde Gateway direct. Tel: 0141 276 1573 or email: info@clydegateway.com or see their website: www.clydegateway.com

Award winning architects Page/Park designed the re-newed Olympia building. The original listed domed facade – opened as a theatre in 1911 to seat 2000 -will be retained and a new structure in Orr Street to replace the existing dilapidated building. The entrance will have a new Art Deco styled grand stairway to allow the light from the dome to shine throughout the building.

Mitchell Move for Women’s Library

by Lynsay Keough

Glasgow Women’s Library will move to its new home at the city’s prestigious Mitchell Library later this month, launching the next stage of a major fundraising drive to get the premises fit-for-purpose.

To celebrate the move, and to help raise the vital funds needed for their new home’s restoration – the Women’s Library is holding an Auction of Pleasures at St Andrew’s in the Square, Glasgow, on September 17, where guests will have the chance to bid on adventures and treasures that money can’t usually buy.

These include: dinner aboard a yacht owned by Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon, having a bespoke garment knitted for you from a selection of vintage patterns from the Women’s Library archive, and artworks by groundbreaking women artists and a behind-the-scene’s visit to Scottish Opera

Restoring the former Anderston Library-part of the Mitchell library- to the necessary standards for today’s users, means a £1.5 million renovation programme and the Auction of Pleasures is just one initiative that Library staff have come up with to raise the cash. Other initiatives include Women on the Shelf,  giving people the chance to sponsor a book, shelf or section in the new Library.

The importance of the Glasgow Women’s Library collection was formally recognised recently with the announcement that it has been awarded full status as an Accredited Museum by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. This means that Scotland has moved closer to getting a new national museum, as the Women’s Library is now working towards further accreditation as Scotland’s national women’s museum, library and archive.

Sue John, the Library’s Strategic Development Manager said: ‘We are asking people across Glasgow and beyond to help us build a truly unique resource by supporting our Auction of Pleasures on September 17 and enjoy what promises to be an amazing evening of luscious food, quality entertainment and a few special surprises.’

The Auction of  Pleasures takes place at St Andrew’s in the Square, Glasgow on Friday September 17, 6pm to 11pm. Tickets cost £45 per person or £400 per table (10 people). For details on how to book your place please contact Laura Dolan on 0141 248 9969 or email pleasures@womenslibrary.org.uk
www.womenslibrary.org.uk

Glasgow celebrates the life and story of its patron saint

The life of Saint Kentigern, better known to the people of Glasgow as St Mungo, has been celebrated with a week of music, readings and services across the city.
Glasgow has honoured its patron saint and his mother,  St Thenew – corrupted to St Enoch - with a festival  that embraced all Christian communities.

 The celebrations started at the Mitchell Library, where a copy of a book about Mungo’s life – the Vita St Kentigern –  was on display.
His life was chronicled in the 12th century by a monk called Jocelin, who served at Furness Abbey in Cumbria.
There was an international flavour to the display as a Russian icon of the saint was also on view. The image marks the dedication of the Russian Orthodox church in the city. The Kentigern Cycle was sung  by the Russkaya Cappella singing group. They were joined by the Saint Mungo Singers in a lovely rendering of ‘Let Glasgow Flourish’ .  Pupils from St Patrick’s Primary in Anderston struck a more youthful tone with traditional and modern performances of the St Mungo Rhyme and St Enoch, telling the story of the mother of Mungo.
A highlight of the launch was readings from Jocelin’s Life of St Mungo, first in Latin by Archbishop of Glasgow, Mario Conti, and in English by Rev Dr Laurence Whiteley, Minister of Glasgow Cathedral.
Bailie Catherine McMaster spoke of ‘the little fragments of legends that make alive for us how our city was born.
This celebration is to remember where we come from,’  and she referred to the festival as ‘a  birthday present to St Mungo.’
The week’s celebrations also included an ecumenical service at Glasgow Cathedral, a feast day Mass at St Mary’s in Abercromby Street, Calton, and the performance of a specially commissioned ballet  by Visual Statement ballet company, at the St Enoch Centre to celebrate the life of the saint’s mother.