A Glasgow-based artist-run workshop and studio organisation, set up in 1988, that gives sculptors and makers affordable access to specialist tools, workshops and technical support.
Glasgow Sculpture Studios (GSS) is a production space for artists in North Glasgow. It describes itself as the largest art production facility in Scotland and a home for artists working in contemporary sculptural practice. It has specialist workshops for metalwork, woodwork, plaster, resin, ceramics and digital fabrication, plus studios for artists, a technical team who help people use the equipment, and a fabrication service, GSS Fabrication, that makes work for clients in arts, architecture and design.
The organisation was set up in 1988 by a small group of recent art school graduates who wanted access to production facilities so they could build careers in Glasgow. It began in an industrial estate in Maryhill and, in the early 2000s, spent about eight years in temporary homes at the Briggait in the Merchant City and at Kelvinhaugh Street in the west end. In 2012 it moved to the Whisky Bond, a seven-storey former bonded warehouse beside the Forth and Clyde Canal, where it is the anchor tenant. It says its aim is to make specialist skills and production space affordable for professional artists and makers, and that "access is at the heart of everything we do".
Its home is in Scotland: the Whisky Bond is in North Glasgow on the canal, and GSS is a member of the Canal Co-operative, a network of local organisations working to make the canal area a good place to live, work and visit. It is also a member of Scotland's Workshops and has links to similar organisations across Scotland. It has taken part in the Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art, listed on that festival's site.
On people and culture, the organisation grew out of a community of artists helping each other, and its pages describe a code of conduct and values, though we could not read the details. It runs a Learning and Engagement programme that brings its facilities and skills to wider groups, as well as an artists in residence programme. The exhibition programme was suspended in 2016, according to its own history page, while classes and community outreach continued. These are the organisation's own descriptions.
The jobs at an organisation like this include workshop technicians in metal, wood, ceramics and digital making, fabricators who make artwork for clients, learning and engagement staff who run classes for community groups, producers and programme managers, and administration and finance staff. It shows that you can build a career around making and technical skills as well as through being an artist. Anyone interested in practical craft or technical skills can look at GSS's courses and fabrication work on its website, where its staff and board are listed.
Website: www.glasgowsculpturestudios.org
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