Funding body defends s15k for arts project

ARTS funding body Creative Scotland has said the £15,000 it paid Dundee University l ecturer Ellie Harrison to stay in Glasgow for a year was j ustified because of the controversy the funding caused.

The part-time l ecturer was paid £15,000 from the public purse to support the “Glasgow Effect” project.

The year-long project saw the artist challenge herself to remain within Glasgow’s city boundaries for a year to gauge what impact it would have on her artistic career.

She also refused to use public transport during her 12-month self-imposed exile in Glasgow.

Ms Harrison’s project attracted controversy because of the public grant she received for it and because the term “Glasgow Effect” was seen as disparaging as it is normally used to describe the poor health of many of t h e c i t y ’s residents.

The project ended on December 31 2016.

Although Ms Harrison took part in 14 talks or discussions about the project, the only other work she produced as part of the project was a 4,500-word essay about higher education.

One discussion Ms Harrison took part in during her year in Glasgow was a web chat with an arts festival i n Huntly t hat was viewed by 51 people online.

Creative Scotland came under fire for awarding the £15,000 grant to Ms Harrison but a spokeswoman said they were satisfied with the results of her project, citing the controversy itself as a major part of its value.

She said: “In February we received a report from the artist Ellie Harrison outlining the work she undertook with the funds that she was awarded from Creative Scotland’s Open Project Fund in late summer 2015.

“We believe the artist has achieved her aims for the work set out in her original proposal and the project has opened up new questions and challenges that will continue to impact on her practice for some time to come.”

In an interview earlier this year, Ms Harrison said: “People focus on what I spent the money on, not on what I didn’t spend it on.

“The Glasgow Effect was a boycott of the oil industry, of privatised public transport.”