Made in Easterhouse 20:26: An art exhibition in the making

A new exhbition - Easterhouse Makes - opens this month celebrating those who attend creative art groups as part of Platform’s Taking Part programme and is part of Made in Easterhouse 20:26, marking Platform’s 20^th birthday.

We invited Pearl Kinnear, lead artist for the groups who meet on Tuesdays, to make the community-led exhibition with the group members. With participants age ranging from 11 to 88, the collection of work celebrates everyone’s signature style and takes full advantage of the large-scale exhibition wall at The Bridge, with large scale digital prints on display bringing it alive with colour, texture and shape.

Pearl and artist Joanna Twaites chose works from the portfolios of class participants and each artwork you see is a close-up detailed area from each selected piece of work.  These signature marks have been scaled up to magnify the beauty of each person’s own way of drawing and painting, developed in the classes over the past year.

In tandem with this, each detailed area of an artwork has been overlayed with a drawing or plan of inside or outside The Bridge building.  Pearl chose to show the merger of community and building, the importance of each to the other, as well as the intrinsic mark left on each organisation from every person that chooses to walk through our door, be it artist, participant or audience member.

Participant, Dawn who attends Art Factory, describes this experience through her own creative process: “Collages are my favourite … I like to experiment with layering the shapes and colours on each bit of paper … it feels like I’m bringing a bit of colour back into my life.”

Click onto the photo carousel at the top of the page to read more from the individual group members across the classes.

Included in the exhibition is a collaborative project created by several members of our NuGen art class for teenagers. The work was developed in response to their upcoming transition to high school after the summer, reflecting on the emotions that come with this milestone. The piece embodies a central theme of the exhibition, that art can be a powerful way to explore emotion and foster connection in times of uncertainty.

Easterhouse Makes is a celebration of the ever-growing creative community that meet at Platform. All the people that work within, or use the building, make it what it is. Platform is more than bricks and mortar, it is its own community.

The exhibition is running Friday 26 June - Saturday 5 September, Mon - Sat 10am-5pm (8pm on Tuesdays and Fridays). It is free to attend and suitable for all ages.

If you would like to join any of our Taking Part art classes, places will be available to book on Saturday 11th July –  lick here.