Up a snake and down a ladder: 80 ways to Alasdair Gray
Monday 2 – Sunday 8 March 2015
Gallery 1

This week-long event was created to celebrate the artist Alasdair Gray who lives and works in Glasgow and has just turned 80. Born in Riddrie in the east of Glasgow in 1934, he attended the Glasgow School of Art in the mid 1950s. Gray is a prolific poet, playwright, novelist, painter and printmaker, and is often described as a creative polymath – an expert in many art forms.

The concept of ‘Up a Snake and Down a Ladder’ was to introduce a larger and more diverse audience to Alasdair Gray in a fun, inviting and interactive way. The learning team at GoMA opened up the main Gallery 1 space to the public and invited them to learn and create by adding to the installation over the week.

The event also complemented the Spheres of Influence show in Gallery 3 which looks at the key influences of Gray and also those he now influences in current art practice. The idea of how artists, musicians and the like can influence one another gave the ideal starting point to develop into a week-long event. Through discussion and mind-mapping the learning team were able to create a wide variety of creative activity in the gallery from musical performances, jewellery making workshops and theatrical performances to book readings by Alasdair Gray and Tom Leonard.

It was important to have something for all ages and to that end we collaborated with the Wee Write festival and offered storytelling sessions for visiting schools and nurseries. Along-side scheduled workshops and performances the main feel for the gallery was that of an open studio where the public could dip in and out of a wide selection of self-led activity including a library corner, giant games and board games. A highlight of the week was a chess tournament with professional chess players playing on a chess board from the contemporary art collection held in GMRC. ‘How the West was Wild’ by Victor Tiede (Canadian) was an instant hit with the public, people were very pleased to see something that had been in storage for so long especially as it was being used for its original purpose.