Its been an award winning this week for both staff and students, as well as this we have seen them being involved in other activities both in the community and the college.
Read on to find out more on these items and more.
Lecturer At Glasgow Kelvin College Scoops Prestigious Photography Award
Simon Murphy has just won the top prize in the Photographic section of the 2019 Scottish Portrait Awards. The award ( RICHARD COWARD SCOTTISH PORTRAIT AWARD IN PHOTOGRAPHY) presented in Edinburgh recognises excellence in black and white portrait photography. Colleague Christine Stevenson from the college's photography department in Springburn commented: " To win the Scottish portrait Award is a marvellous achievement for Simon. As a former student of mine, it is wonderful that his hard work and talent has been recognised with this prestigious award." The chosen portrait of artist Alan tanner comes from his documentary work from the area of Govanhill in Glasgow's' southside. Simon began photographing folk in Govanhill when he lived there in the early 2000s.
Murphy first met Alan Tanner in Milk, a lively social café in Govanhill that supports refugee and migrant women living in Glasgow. They got talking and Tanner agreed to being photographed. Within minutes Murphy says he was up in Tanner’s flat, ‘surrounded by a cloud of smoke and listening to stories from Tanner’s time in London in the 60’s and 70’s, when he lived around the corner from Jimi Hendrix, and designed album covers for bands such as Hawkwind and Procol Harem.’
The photographs from that first meeting were great, Murphy says, but he wanted something more intimate and collaborative. He returned a week later with some tubes of paint.
‘We found a broken glass picture frame,’ he said ‘and I asked Alan to do something with the paint. After making some marks on the glass he raised his paint-covered hand to his face and smeared it over his eyes and head. Then raising a cigarette to his mouth, I asked him to look directly into the lens and I clicked the shutter.’ That was the winning image.
Murphy says of his Govanhill series, ‘Although each portrait is of an individual and carries its own story, collectively the work is a portrait of the place and a celebration of one of the most diverse and vibrant areas of the city.’ The project has grown into a commitment. Murphy self-publishes a photographic newspaper that can be picked up free in Govanhill shops and cafes. ‘Anyone who wants the paper has to go to Govanhill, he says, ‘and if they do maybe they will buy a coffee or a book and contribute to the local economy.’
Murphy says he never had any interest in entering competitions before, but he’d seen previous work in the Scottish Portrait Awards photography exhibitions and had been impressed by the quality. He came across a leaflet appealing for entries and he thought, ‘Why not?’ This week he was rewarded with £3,000 after his work was selected as the winner from hundreds of entries.
The work by Simon and more artists will be on tour in the Scottish Portrait Awards Exhibition until May next year, appearing at the Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh until 30 November 2019, then the Glasgow Art Club from 16 January to 15 February 2020 and the Kirkcudbright Galleries from 14 March to 24 May 2020.
The Scottish Portrait Awards is run by the Scottish Arts Trust. The competition is open to anyone born, living or studying in Scotland. See www.scottishportraitawards.com for more details
A Successful ‘Be Bright Be Seen’ Event At Springburn Campus!
We were thrilled to run our first ‘Be Bright, Be Seen’ event at the College earlier this week.
It was a great opportunity for cyclists from the College and the local community to meet up and access free services such as bike repair, a breakfast and bike lights and hi-viz vests.
Thanks again to everyone who took part in it. We had a great time!
We would like to thank again our partners: Bike for Good, Glasgow City Council and Paths for All.
A special thanks to Springburn local Community Council, NGHomes and North Glasgow Food Initiative for their support!
Remember to follow us on Twitter @GkcSustain and on Facebook @sustainGKC.
As usual, if you have any questions or comments, please be in touch with Olga, our Campus Cycling Officer at osanchez@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk or Sandra, our Active Travel Officer at slavergne@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk
Incorporation Of Tailors Prize Winners
Congratulations to our Incorporation of Tailors prize winners Beth Halliday, for advanced category and Mitch Gardiner for non advanced.
Both students attended the awards dinner at Tradeshall, on Friday the 8th of November, where they received their membership certificate and prize money to assist them in their future studies.
Well done to them both
Volunteers Tidy Up Nursery Gardens
Donna McGill is working in the Easterhouse Campus, with the Flexible Learning Department, as Community Connector for Thriving Places.
In partnership with Claire Williams, from Community Energy Scotland, who had applied for some funding, we got some volunteers together to carry out some repairs and gardening. Some of the volunteers are from the local homeless unit, Eskdale House.
Last week we had 7 volunteers on Thursday and 5 on Friday. Chris, Ryan, James, Eddie, Lewis and John all worked hard to repair and paint the fence and put in some plants to the raised beds, at the nursery gardens in Easterhouse Campus of Glasgow Kelvin College. Donna provided soup and sandwiches, and the nursery very kindly provided tea/coffee and biscuits.
Film Screening At Springburn Campus
After the success of our first film screening and the amazing documentary ‘Climate Change: the facts’, we are excited to announce that we’ll be hosting another film-screening.
Join us on Monday 18th Nov, from 11am at Springburn campus, at the Lecture Theatre. It will be followed by a Q&A and the lunch will be provided.
We will show the episode 1 of the BBC One documentary series ‘War on Plastic’ (2019), which exactly highlights the serious issues caused by plastic in the UK and all over the world.
“Every minute of every day a truckload of plastic is finding its way into the oceans."
The trailer is available here:
Staff and students, all welcome!
Christmas Card Competition 2019
It's that time of year when you are given the opportunity to show off your creative abilities and design and enter our competition to design the college Christmas Card.
The winning design will be delivered by email to our Stakeholders - so animated designs are welcomed (please no Flash files)
Your design should featured a relevant seasonal message and should contain your own or other copyright free artwork.
The card should be 15 x 15 cm or 800 x 800 pixels, you can work in any medium, just be creative, but your entry should be submitted as JPEG, Ai, PSD or TIFF file at 300 dpi.
The competition is open to all students enrolled at Glasgow Kelvin College.
Send entries to santa@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk no later than the 25th of November 2019.
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That's us finished for this week.
The Blog will be back as normal next Friday, so if you would like to include anything please email the details to Tracey on tborland@glasgowkelvin.ac.uk and we will makes sure it is put in.
Have a great weekend!
