Media Release: National cultural celebration coming to Dundee

A FAMILY classical music concert featuring hundreds of children from across Scotland, a moving new play presented by Dundee Rep Ensemble exploring identity and language, visual arts exhibitions celebrating the last 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland, and the transformation of Dundee’s City Square into a colourful pop-up park for a day-long celebration of dance, movement and fun are among the projects taking place in Dundee for the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme.

The projects are part of an unprecedented nationwide programme of activity featuring new work created by world-leading and emerging Scottish and international artists in response to the country’s hosting of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and our relationship with the Commonwealth.

In My Father’s Words is a beautiful play about identity – national and personal – and language, and the utter indivisibility between the two. In the year that the Commonwealth Games comes back to Scotland, Dundee Rep Ensemble presents a play which re-tells the Scottish emigrant story for our times. In My Father’s Words, written by Justin Young with Gaelic text by Iain F MacLeod and directed by Philip Howard will be at Dundee Rep from Tuesday 1 to Saturday 12 July.

Scottish Dance Theatre’s Scale is a pioneering, ambitious, multi-strand public art project which will bring the city of Dundee to life with projections of giant toddlers, a pop-up park, and ground-breaking collaborations between internationally renowned artists. Scale looks to Scotland’s infants, parents, and audiences to investigate the journey to individual mastery of the body. The project will include bespoke residencies for toddlers and parents with early years specialist Louise Klarnett, a touring mini-film studio (Overgate shopping Centre, on Saturday 15 March 10am – 3pm) capturing children’s movement and city-wide projections by visual artist Tim Reid (Friday 28 and Saturday 29 March). Scottish Dance Theatre’s exceptional dancers will perform a new work -Human scale (Caird Hall, Friday 4 and Saturday 5 July) by visionary choreographer Fleur Darkin, in a collaboration with critically acclaimed British artist David Batchelor and live music composed and played by Glasgow-based quartet The One Ensemble. On Sunday 6 July a Linbury Prize winning design will transform Dundee City Square into a lively and visually stunning purpose-built park and day long festival with live performances by world class musicians, artists and performers. The event will be launched at the City Chambers, Dundee with the Lord Provost on Friday 28 Feb at 12.30.

Fleur Darkin said Scale grew out of her fascination with the way children move. “I have an obsession with babies – particularly the way they move and the way they learn to walk. It’s a really interesting time of life, physically, because if you ever watch babies, they are doing very innovative things. They are at a time of explosive creation. When the Glasgow Games were announced, I was really keen we do a project for Dundee and Tayside and I wanted to mix the best professional artists with the people in the city. By featuring dance in the culture programme is a way of engaging people who aren’t overtly sporty and Scotland is a dancing nation from country dancing in schools to our penchant for ceilidhs.”

Hundreds of children from around Scotland are being brought together by the National Youth Choir of Scotland and Children’s Classic Concerts, with the RSNO and RSNO junior chorus for a celebratory family concert, Going for Gold on Sunday 18 May at Caird Hall.

Cooper Gallery, DCA; Generator and The McManus will show work as part of a landmark exhibition celebrating some of the very best art to have emerged from Scotland in the last 25 years. GENERATION will see new and existing work shown at more than 60 venues across the country from June to October 2014 in one of the most ambitious celebrations of contemporary art ever held by a single country. GENERATION has been developed as a partnership between the National Galleries of Scotland and Glasgow Life, supported by Creative Scotland. Artists whose work will be shown in Dundee include Tony Swain and Nick Evans. Details of exhibitions will be available in the Spring.

DCA is also a taking part in, Below another sky an international residency programme to enable artists from Scotland to work in Commonwealth countries and to host artists from Australia, Canada, India and Pakistan in Scotland’s cities. The 20 participating artists will produce new work in print with the Scottish Print Network studios and take part in a related programme of public exhibitions, events and workshops

Dundee Dance Partnership will be taking part in the hugely successful country-wide initiative, Get Scotland Dancing, which encourages more people to get active and participate in dance, with activity including dance trails and dance along-movies in June and July. Get Scotland Dancing is also offering a series of free dance classes from March with Get Dancin’, the chance to join in with a Commonwealth Ceilidh that aims to span the globe in June, and the Big Dance Pledge 2014, a dance routine to be performed simultaneously across the globe in May.

The Big Big Sing is a nationwide celebration of singing produced by Glasgow UNESCO City of Music that will inspire thousands of people to sign up and get singing in the lead up to and during Games Time through a wide range of opportunities to participate including a free online songbook of songs from around the Commonwealth with brilliant learning and teaching resources alongside information on finding a local choir and advice on setting up a choir.

Filmmakers of all levels from across Scotland are also invited to create a ten-second film for 9.88 Films, an ultra-short filmmaking challenge supported by Channel 4, and inspired by the Commonwealth record for the 100m sprint.

Aiming to enhance the Games experience for Scotland’s communities, spectators and visitors as well as presenting the best of Scotland’s culture alongside that of the Commonwealth, the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme includes almost 200 projects and exhibitions and over 800 events involving thousands of artists, performers and participants, across hundreds of locations and venues the length and breadth of Scotland.

Covering theatre, dance, music, visual arts, comedy and digital media; small scale indoor shows and outdoor spectaculars; work on bicycles and by rivers; in theatres, community centres, botanic gardens, art galleries, cinemas, public spaces and much more, audiences can expect everything from the intimate to the epic, the intense and life-affirming. Stories will be told of individual lives and communities, special places and moments in time.

Over the coming months, the momentum of the programme is set to build as more projects across Scotland are announced and the journey towards the Games accelerates.

In the meantime, as detailed programme information is becoming available, these are being added at www.glasgow2014/culture where there is also the opportunity to sign up to receive regular updates. Join the conversation #Culture2014 @culture2014

This ambitious and accessible cultural celebration has developed through a unique collaboration between the performers and artists, Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee, Creative Scotland and Glasgow Life.

Dr Bridget McConnell, chief executive of Glasgow Life and director of Culture, Ceremonies and the Queen’s Baton Relay at Glasgow 2014, said:

“This is the biggest cultural celebration that Scotland has ever seen and there really is something for everyone, with a programme that touches every corner of the nation. Whether you have a ticket or not, Culture 2014 is the opportunity for everyone to be part of the Games and enjoy outstanding performances by some of our finest creative talent.”

Eileen Gallagher, independent director on the Glasgow 2014 board and chair of the Ceremonies, Culture and Queen’s Baton Relay Committee, said:

“The Cultural Programme is an extraordinary celebration that gives people all round the country the opportunity to take part in the Commonwealth Games. Hundreds of performances are taking place in the coming months in this once in a lifetime celebration of Culture in Scotland. Whether you want to see something in an intimate or unusual setting or enjoy some of the world class artists performing or even become part of it by participating, this is a terrific opportunity to celebrate and enjoy the Games at locations the length and breadth of Scotland.”

Janet Archer, chief executive Creative Scotland, said:

“This incredible programme will weave together rich stories of people and places from Scotland and the Commonwealth. It will present spectacular performances and intimate portraits, put communities at the heart of the work, and create new communities through an unprecedented range of ways to take part. This programme will give opportunities for people across the country to explore and enjoy great work by world leading and new artists from Scotland and the Commonwealth. The Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme is going to be an exhilarating journey. We hope you will join us on it.”   

A number of projects are being produced with the assistance and expertise of partners, including BBC Scotland on projects such as From Scotland with Love, Authors Live and Commonwealth Poets United; British Council Scotland for GENERATION and Channel 4 for 9.88 Films

ENDS

Notes to editors:

2. Glasgow 2014’s official partner level sponsors are Longines, SSE, Virgin Media, BP, Emirates and Ford. For more information on Glasgow 2014’s full sponsor family, please visit http://www.glasgow2014.com/games/our-sponsors

3. Glasgow 2014, the Commonwealth Games Federation and UNICEF are working together in an exciting partnership that will transform the lives of children in Scotland and throughout the Commonwealth. Using the power of sport and culture this unique partnership aims to inspire, enable and empower the children of the Commonwealth to be the best they can be.

4. The Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, which is being developed both as a Scotland-wide Culture 2014 and Glasgow-focused Festival 2014, is a creative collaboration between the Organising Committee, Creative Scotland and Glasgow Life. As the organisation responsible for delivering the Games, Glasgow 2014 will oversee and provide the unifying brand for the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme which will be delivered by Glasgow Life in partnership with Creative Scotland.

5. Full details of the Festival 2014 programme will be announced this summer, but for now Culture 2014 gives a flavour of things to come. Explore and enjoy the range and depth of what Culture 2014 has to offer, in this unique and inspiring journey to the Games.

6. To keep up to date with all the latest information, listings and to sign up to receive a newsletter visit www.glasgow2014.com/culture

7. For further information please contact Gordon Boag at Glasgow 2014 on 030 2014 0160 or Gordon.Boag@glasgow2014.com/Brian Maycock at Creative Scotland on 0131 523 0046 orBrian.Maycock@creativescotland.com

APPENDIX

All Cultural Programme projects currently announced

MUSIC

More than 800 children from around Scotland are being brought together by the National Youth Choir of Scotland and Children’s Classic Concerts, with the RSNO and RSNO junior chorus for celebratory family concerts in Dundee and Glasgow this May called Going For Gold. (Part of Culture 2014)

In the Classical Marathon Day, Nicola Benedetti leads the cream of Scotland’s orchestras, classical musicians and ensembles in one amazing marathon day of music at the heart of the Commonwealth Games, produced by Glasgow UNESCO City of Music. There has never been a day like this in Glasgow – it is a feast of many flavours; Baroque splendour from The Dunedin Consort; blazing Beethoven from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra; intense chamber classics from Hebrides Ensemble and NYOS Futures; Indian-Scottish fusion from Red Note Ensemble; Tango-meets-Vivaldi with the Scottish Ensemble and the day climaxes with the amazing sound of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra joining forces to create a mega-orchestra. Nicola Benedetti will electrify audiences as she undertakes her personal marathon for the day, rehearsing and performing three concerts with different orchestras: a challenge every bit as extreme as running 26 miles. The music kicks off at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall at midday on July 26 and will run through the day until 9.30pm. All tickets are just £5 making it possible to attend every performance for under £30. (Part of Festival 2014)

The HA Orchestra is a melting pot of African music from all the different regions of Africa and its diaspora which aims to tap into a vast unexplored treasure of musical cultural experiences and values. Led by Pan African Arts Scotland the Orchestra will work with composers including Danso Abiam, the first composer to set up a purely pan African orchestra anywhere in the Commonwealth community of nations, and traditional African and western musicians in Scotland and the UK. Glasgow Refugee Asylum and Migrants Network of the University of Glasgow and The Community Central Halls are partners in the project. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Aidan O’ Rourke (20 for 14) – Sirius 2014 is a musical meditation on ten years of performing and travelling throughout the world featuring new Scottish music written for twelve of Europe’s finest folk and jazz musicians. (Part of Culture 2014)

Laura Macdonald (20 for 14) – A 90-minute world premier of an International Sextet featuring musicians from the Commonwealth inspired by traditional folk melodies of Commonwealth Countries. (Part of Culture 2014)

Paul Towndrow (20 for 14) – A musical project exploring synergy between the professional and amateur worlds. PRO-AM will combine the forces of two Glasgow based big bands in the performance of a brand new suite of music by saxophonist and composer, Paul Towndrow.  The music will reflect real-life stories of sporting excellence and unsung heroes from the 17 Commonwealth Games sporting disciplines. (Part of Festival 2014)

Steven Blake (20 for 14) – will document the impact the XX Commonwealth Games has for people across the country, before, during and after the event by creating an album of new folk music which describes and reflects upon this. Steven will also stage a live performance of the material. (Part of Culture 2014)

Dick Lee (20 for 14) – The Games is a celebration of the Commonwealth Games through a fusion of music, poetry and dance. At the heart of this exciting event is new music from Dick Lee for his group Dr. Lee’s Prescription, combined with new poetry from Edinburgh Poet Laureate Ron Butlin and new dance from renowned dancer and choreographer Alex Rigg. (Part of Festival 2014)

Big Big Sing is a nationwide celebration of singing produced by Glasgow UNESCO City of Music. It will inspire thousands of people to sign up and get singing in the lead up to and during Games Time. Big Big Sing will provide a wide range of opportunities to participate in the Cultural Programme. With the Big Seven Community Choirs across Scotland, a range of live Song Stages in and around Glasgow, and a free Song Book of newly commissioned songs available anywhere, there will be every reason to join in and get singing. There’ll also be a massed singing event in Glasgow, and an online choir combining singers and songs from around the Commonwealth. No experience is required to take part. A new national framework of information and training will underpin Big Big Sing. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014). 

As part of the Big Big Sing, Hands Up for Trad will coordinate a national song relay, linking communities across Scotland and creating an extensive network of community choir performances at locations along the route of the Queen’s Baton Relay. A special song that anticipates and captures the excitement and mood ahead of Glasgow 2014 will be commissioned and each choir will create their own unique arrangement of the song and then perform it in their own locality to celebrate the arrival of the Queen’s Baton Relay. Choirs will also develop and present their own repertoire. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Artist, composer and performer, Hanna Tuulikki’s Air falbh leis na h-eòin (Away with the Birds) is an ambitious site-specific project on the Isle of Canna, exploring the vocal mimesis of birds in Gaelic song. At its heart is an outdoor staging of Tuulikki’s score, fragmenting and re-weaving extracts of Gaelic songs into a soundscape that grows out of the landscape. Performed by a female ensemble, it also features field recordings by Geoff Sample and film footage by Daniel Warren. Air falbh leis na h-eòin is a re-imagining of the archives and vibrant lives of John Lorne Campbell and Margaret Fay Shaw, two of Scotland’s most important ethnomusicologists and the last Laird and Lady of the island. Between them they helped to rescue vast quantities of oral tradition from oblivion. Produced by Suzy Glass in association with Cape Farewell (Part of Culture 2014). 

New Music Biennial is supporting 20 brand new commissions by some of the UK’s most exciting composers, including 6 Scottish-based composers, being performed across the country and at two special weekend events at London’s Southbank Centre (4-6 July 2014) and Glasgow UNESCO City of Music to coincide with the Commonwealth Games (1-2 August 2014). New Music Biennial is a PRS for Music Foundation initiative, in partnership with Arts Council England, Creative Scotland and the British Council. It is presented in collaboration with BBC Radio 3, NMC Recordings, Southbank Centre and Glasgow UNESCO City of Music. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

The East End Social aims to be the most ambitious, eclectic and community-orientated music programme the east end of Glasgow has ever seen. Curated by Bridgeton-based label Chemikal Underground – working closely with the urban regeneration company Clyde Gateway – music events, live performances and community initiatives will be woven into the fabric of the area Chemikal Underground has called home for more than 16 years. Utilising an extraordinary range of new, unconventional and everyday venues, The East End Social will incorporate parks, train stations, sports centres, town halls, pubs, bandstands, schools and more besides to deliver an exciting and diverse programme of music within Glasgow’s east end. With flagship events featuring international artists, augmented by a constellation of smaller and medium sized initiatives and performances throughout the community, The East End Social promises to be an internationally facing but locally focused celebration of Glasgow’s love affair with music. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Scottish Opera is leading a coalition of partner organisations from Commonwealth countries in the creation of a new piece of music theatre on the universal theme of friendship, Anamchara – Songs of Friendship. Internationally acclaimed novelist Alexander McCall Smith will write the libretto, with music by composer Pippa Murphy. This four year project will culminate in four weeks of rehearsal and performance in Glasgow’s Theatre Royal. The development of this project was supported by The British Council and The Scottish Government. (Part of Festival 2014)  

The Scokendia Ensemble will bring together 24 young musicians from Scotland, Kenya and India to form a unique chamber orchestra. The musicians will be drawn from each country’s conservatoires, music schools, national youth orchestras and outreach projects, including the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, National Youth Orchestras of Scotland, Kenya Conservatoire of Music and India National Youth Orchestra. The performances, across Glasgow, will include four newly-commissioned pieces of music from young composers in each of the three countries. The musicians, playing on classical and traditional instruments, will bring together three culturally strong and distinct musical traditions in a celebration of the diversity of cultures of the Commonwealth. A film, recording the ensemble’s work in their home countries and then during the Games, will be made, coupled with ongoing blogs and video diaries. This project is being led by Scottish musician Jamie Munn. (Part of Festival 2014).

DANCE AND PHYSICAL THEATRE

Young people from Aberdeenshire will work with choreographers and community dance artists Royston Maldoom and Tamara McLorg, to create a new dance performance to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. They will marry the north-east’s reputation for ‘four seasons in one day’ with Vivaldi’s most famous score culminating in a performance at His Majesty’s Theatre as a prelude to the Aberdeen International Youth Festival. The project is commissioned by Get Scotland Dancing and will be produced by Aberdeen International Youth Festival who will recruit the participants from around Aberdeenshire. (Part of Culture 2014)

In Hot Tramway will showcase a season of some of the most exciting, spectacular, moving and downright clever contemporary dance and performance from Australia. The season running from 11 June to 3 July, features established international artists and new, fresh, talent. Highlights include Gudirr Gudirr – the beautiful autobiographical collaboration between Dalisa Pigram and Koen Augusttijnen (ballets c de lab) that maps the tensions of indigenous and multi-ethnic Australia; Untrained from the internationally acclaimed choreographer Lucy Guerin – sometimes moving, sometimes funny and always clever mix of highly skilled professional dancers with some blokes off the street, Tamara Saulwick’s Pin Drop – an audio cinematic immersion into the worlds of the voices heard throughout the work, And the spectacular music laser show from the renowned composer Robin Fox. Details at www.tramway.org (Part of Culture 2014)

Ceilidh Comhla presents a series of events that returns to the traditions of a Gaelic ceilidh – a meeting place where people come together to share stories and song – which is common to the social gatherings that occur within distinct cultures across the Commonwealth. Each event will be co-hosted by Gaelic artists and artists from Commonwealth Cultures. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Indepen-dance will host Scotland’s first International Inclusive Dance Festival, Gathered Together 2014 at Tramway in August. The festival’s aims include developing and sharing knowledge and expertise with festival delegates, forging new artistic partnerships in the world of Dance and Disability. Gathered Together 2014 is part of a European dance project, INTEGRANCE funded by the European Union, which is bringing together dancers from Scotland, England, France and Belgium to share dance experience and cultural development. (Part of Culture 2014)

Emancipation day is celebrated on 1August across the Caribbean to mark the emancipation of African and Caribbean slaves. The connection between Scotland and the slave trade is well documented but not widely known. African Caribbean Cultures Glasgow plans to change all that by bringing Emancipation Day to Scotland for the first time. Emancipation Jam will take place at four venues in Glasgow’s Merchant City, the area with the strongest historical links to the slave trade. Using five art forms (dance, drama, costume making, music and photography) they propose to bring to life the stories of the connection between Scotland and the slave trade as well as the story of the abolitionist movements that lead to the emancipation of slaves. Produced by the partnership between Scots Jamaican musician, poet and community activist Graham Campbell and former MSP and graduate of the RSAMD Anne McLaughlin, it will be a day of recognition and a day of celebration for everyone. (Part of Festival 2014)

Rosana Cade (20 for 14) – A Glasgow based performance maker, will travel to India to work with some of the LGBT community and explore how the relationship between Britain and India has affected attitudes and laws surrounding same sex love in Indian culture. (Part of Festival 2014)

Drew Taylor (20 for 14) – 44 Stories is the development, rehearsal and performance of a new poetic dance theatre piece based on the lives and stories of LGBT individuals from 44 countries of the Commonwealth where homosexuality is illegal. (Part of Festival 2014)

Robert Softley Gale (20 for 14) - Two perspectives – a disabled artist and a disabled athlete – share their experiences and the stories of how their bodies and their disabilities got them to where they are today. Through laughter and poignancy you will get to see what made them become who they are. (Part of Festival 2014)

Eilidh MacAskill (20 for 14) – Conference Call Of The Birds will be a multi-artform celebration of the National Birds that represent the Commonwealth Nations and Territories, but haven’t been invited to the party. It will be created by Eilidh MacAskill of Fish & Game with a host of artist collaborators, members of the public and the birds of Glasgow (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Dance providers across Scotland are offering free taster Get Dancin’ dance classes as part of the nationwide Get Scotland Dancing campaign to inspire more people to get active and participate in dance. Get Dancin’ offers opportunities for people to try a free class at local dance centres across Scotland as a great way to be creative, get fit and meet new people in 2014. People who have never been to a dance class before, or haven’t been to one in the last few years, are encouraged to register for a free dance class online at: www.getdancin.org. Ongoing activity will run from 10 March 2014 – 30 November 2014 in conjunction with the rest of the Get Scotland Dancing campaign and events programme (Part of Culture 2014).

People in locations across the world are invited to learn the Big Dance Pledge 2014 – a dance routine to be performed simultaneously across the globe on 16 May 2014. The Big Dance Pledge has fun and celebration at its heart. Devised for people of all ages and abilities and with a variety of dance styles included – from ballet to bhangra, the original choreography was created by Scottish Ballet, and takes some inspiration from the Highland Games. Participants are encouraged to perform their own interpretation – whether that be hip-hop or folk, or inspired by their own community or country national dance styles. With support from the British Council, school children around the world will be able to learn the Scottish Ballet choreographed dance and participate in the Big Dance Schools. The choreography and resources were commissioned by Big Dance and Get Scotland Dancing. (Part of Culture 2014)

Get Scotland Dancing have commissioned YDance to present the Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival. The CYDF will celebrate the best of youth dance from across the Commonwealth, take place over three days and nights – 10 to 12 July 2014 – and bring approximately 30 groups from Australia, Canada, England, India, Malta, Namibia, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales together – up to 400 young people and 30 youth dance leaders. There will also be public performances by these groups at Glasgow’s very own Tramway, offering local, national and international audiences the chance to see some of the best youth dance talent the Commonwealth has to offer. (Part of Culture 2014)

The Spokesmen is an outdoor theatre production by Visible Fictions with the cast and audience travelling through the story on bikes. Performed in parks across Scotland, this hilariously heart-warming tale asks communities to see the place they live with a renewed curiosity and to experience live theatre in an outdoor setting on the move! (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014).

A new performance work, entitled Guide Gods devised by Claire Cunningham exploring the perspectives of the major religions and faiths towards disability will be presented in community settings in Glasgow in June 2014. Claire, a multi-disciplinary performer and choreographer, will perform the piece with live musical accompaniment and work closely with other artists, faith leaders, and communities in Glasgow and internationally to develop the finished piece. Claire Cunningham’s unique performance style integrating the dynamic and imaginative use of her crutches, alongside her beautiful voice (she trained as a classical singer), aerial and acting skills have made her a much-sought after performer both in the UK and internationally. Her body of works, including Ménage à Trois which was part of Unlimited, have been critically acclaimed for their humorous and intelligent challenges to issues of aesthetics and dance. (Part of Culture 2014)

Award winning independent choreographer and dance-maker Janice Parker is working with a diverse cast from Glasgow’s Commonwealth who invite you to a new performance work, Glory, which will celebrate performers, bodies, the pursuit of excellence and alternative forms of the elite in movement. This multi-media performance will create parallels between the dancers’ and the athletes’ rigour, discipline and aesthetic, drawing on conventions and rituals of performance and of the Games themselves. Performers will represent a wide range of Glasgow’s Commonwealth Community and be of different ages, abilities, levels of experience and body-types. The work will be staged in in a ‘Performers’ Village’ designed by visual artist Richard Layzell, sited in Tramway, and inspired by the concept of the Commonwealth 2014 Athletes Village. Tramway will co-produce the project. (Part of Culture 2014)

Boomerang from Glasgow-based Active Events, will celebrate the Indigenous Commonwealth through a unique collaboration of Gaelic, Aboriginal and Mâori traditions in language, song, music and dance. Performances will be presented at Womad New Zealand in March 2014, Sydney Opera House Message Sticks Festival in April 2014 and then in the Isle of Lewis as part of the Heb Celt Festival before culminating in a performance as part of Festival 2014. Breabach, who curated a highly acclaimed Burns Night collaboration for Celtic Connections, will curate the Scottish component of the show. Rhoda Roberts Aboriginal artistic director for Sydney Opera House, Message Sticks and Boomerang festivals will curate the Aboriginal artists. Emere Wano and Drew James of the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust, producers of both WOMAD New Zealand and the Taranaki International Arts Festival will lead on the involvement of the Maori artists. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

The hugely successful country-wide initiative, Get Scotland Dancing, which encourages more people to get active and participate in dance, presents a wide-ranging programme for the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme from March 2014 including dance trails, dance along-movies, YDance’s Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival, and a Commonwealth Ceilidh. The programme will be presented with the national Dance Hubs and other partner organisations across Scotland. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Scottish Dance Theatre’s Scale is a series of dance provocations – epic and miniature – to Scotland’s infants, parents and audiences that capture the most important human endeavour – the journey to individual mastery of the body. The project will include Scale Dance bespoke residencies for toddlers/parents, a touring film studio capturing children’s movement, a dance for professionals choreographed by Scotland’s toddlers in a purpose-built park in Dundee City Square, and a mass dance for parents and children. (Part of Culture 2014) 

The Clyde and the Thames will be the settings for a spectacular dance production, The River. Inspired by historical and personal stories of journeys between Commonwealth countries, The River is being created and performed by Barrowland Ballet‘s professional ensemble alongside a large community cast under the artistic direction of Natasha Gilmore and in partnership with East London Dance. The project will culminate in two high profile dance performances accompanied by a live choir along the rivers’ banks and on boats, in London, and in Glasgow for Festival 2014. (Part of Festival 2014)

In (i)Land, faced with life on a deserted island, three characters uncover a means of escape back to civilisation only to discover that the float will only carry one. This new integrated dance performance explores isolation, humanity, ingenuity and invention and a big pile of sand! It is choreographed by Marc Brew the project will be performed in a range of settings. (Part of Culture 2014)

Squash merges with dance in Squish Squared, a performance and education project which will be presented by Room 2 Manoeuvre (R2M) in squash courts across Scotland from June. This dynamic and humorous duet, which is being created to be of particular interest to young audiences, is based on the theme of day to day competition, present throughout life, and played out in a Squash court. It is being developed by R2M artistic director Tony Mills and dancer Tom Pritchard with rehearsals based at the Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, where R2M is a resident company. Following each performance there will be dance and squash tuition for the audience. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Stories from Glasgow’s east end will be celebrated with puppetry, music and storytelling all performed in an ice cream van for The Pokey Hat. The stories will be gathered during community Gala days and workshops in Glasgow before the tour, which begins in June. Clare McGarry, artistic director of Grinagog Theatre, composer Oliver Searle and writer Martin O’Connor will work with a range of other artists and organisations on the piece and audiences will be treated to an ice cream at each performance! (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014) 

The Commonwealth Youth Circus will be a new company creating high octane, spectacular performances showcasing contemporary circus, including the specialist artforms of stilt-acrobalance and acrobatic parkour. The company will feature specially recruited young performers between 15 and 24 years-old, from Scotland and Commonwealth countries. Training for nine months, they will join the Queen’s Baton Relay for a number of pop-up performances at locations across Scotland. The Commonwealth Youth Circus is a collaboration between Bright Night International, Glasgow Parkour and Aerial Edge in partnership with youth circus charity Pocket Circus and the Edinburgh Mela. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

A spectacular global performance on multiple stages. High above streets in three countries – Scotland, Australia, and Brazil – Perch delivers aerial theatre, street theatre, community participation, choirs, orchestras and media broadcast. An international collaboration from Conflux, Legs On The Wall, Lume Teatro, and composer Stephen Deazley, Perch will grow from small musical and theatrical interventions in each country to a spectacular finale in Glasgow. Audiences experience aerialists overhead while street performers mingle amongst them. An orchestra performs a live score and buildings are transformed before one’s very eyes, while performances are screened live from Australia and Brazil. (Part of Festival 2014)

Sound to Sea will be an inspiring outdoor gala performance on the water and quayside of the River Clyde celebrating Glasgow’s history, industry, beauty and resources, and Scotland’s present day vibrant culture scene, diversity and wealth of talent. Cryptic, whose work aims to ravish the senses, are joining forces with Glasgow Science Centre, All or Nothing, Walk the Plank and a wide range of well-known and new musicians to create this spectacular happening. (Part of Festival 2014)

On Common Ground is a multi-faceted, multi-artform, community-based project culminating in outdoor performances led by the Citizens Theatre in partnership with Debajehmujig Storytellers based in Wikwemikong Uncededed Indian Reservation, Canada and local Glasgow-based partner organisations. Incorporating a film made in Mannitoulin Island, Canada, an international workshop programme and a team of professional and non-professional performers, the project aims to tell a powerful story of people and their relationship to the environment related directly to the vision for an environmentally conscious Commonwealth Games. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Scotch Hoppers from stillmotion is a performance event inspired by childhood street games, such as hopscotch, that will link art and sport with physical play to create a new game. Open to be played on and watched by people of all ages, Scotch Hoppers will take the form of a large scale sculptural installation that can also be used as a performance space. A development of previous presentations, this new version will integrate performance and music to create a unique and friendly event. (Part of Festival 2014)

Dancing City will celebrate the perpetual motion of the City by exploring and animating collective and individual journeys, creating the possibility for all of us to view seemingly ordinary things in new ways. Produced by Dance House, Dancing City will bring together professional artists and communities to take part in workshops, performances, film and projection in a highly accessible work. (Part of Festival 2014 and Culture 2014)

VISUAL ART

Glasgow International will include a Director’s Programme of artist commissions in offsite locations, presenting the unknown and forgotten architectural gems of the city in a new light. Artists include Jordan Wolfson, Hudlinilson Jr, Avery Singer and Charlotte Prodger. Making the most of Dalmarnock which is also part of Glasgow International was announced as part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme in July 2013 (Part of Culture 2014)

Scotland Can Make It! is an independent project by Glasgow-based independent curators Panel in which six unique souvenirs responding to Scotland’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2014 have been created. The souvenirs have been designed by leading Scottish artists and designers and produced through a series of unique collaborations with Scottish manufacturers. The designers were selected from an open competition that ran during the summer of 2011 aimed at artists, designers, craft practitioners and musicians working across a wide spectrum of creative disciplines. Artists and designers involved in Scotland Can Make It! include Katy West with Highland Stoneware, Neil McGuire with Marianne Anderson, Emlyn Firth with Angharad McLaren, Claire Duffy, FOUND and Atelier EB with Marc Camille Chaimowicz. (Part of Festival 2014).

Below another sky is an international residency programme to enable artists from Scotland to work in Commonwealth countries and to host artists from Australia, Canada, India and Pakistan in Scotland’s cities. The 20 participating artists will produce new work in print with the Scottish Print Network studios and take part in a related programme of public exhibitions, events and workshops. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Two residencies focusing on the Cuningar Loop, a new woodland park being created in Glasgow for East End communities as part of a significant Legacy 2014 project, are being hosted by Forestry Commission Scotland. The residencies are being carried out under the title A Breath of Fresh AIR and aim to raise awareness of the new park and the benefits it will bring. Rob Mullholland will develop designs for two installations which will be gateways to the park. James Winnett will work with people from the communities closest to the new woodland, Rutherglen and Farme Cross, to encourage community involvement. (Part of Culture 2014)

Roger Palmer (20 for 14) - who will be an overseas artist and correspondent based on Nauru in the South Pacific, the world’s smallest republic with a population of fewer than 10,000. Its athletes have won medals at every Commonwealth Games since first taking part in 1990. (Part of Culture 2014)

Toby Paterson (20 for 14) – will produce a visual exploration of the changing urban environment of the City of Glasgow as it prepares for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The resulting series of paintings will be exhibited at an exciting and unconventional venue within the heart of the city later this year. (Part of Culture 2014)

Stephen Hodsden Murray (20 for 14) - In the spirit of the Commonwealth Games and reflecting Greco-Roman ideals of sport, competition and culture Stephen will build, install and manage a sculptural velodrome/amphitheatre with a twist for the duration of the Commonwealth Games. (Part of Festival 2014)

Rachel Barron (20 for 14) – will produce a new body of work in response to the Commonwealth Games, resulting in an experimental, multi-disciplinary installation that engages the public in creative activity. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Arpita Shah (20 for 14) – Portrait of Home will be a series of photographic portraits of families in Scotland who are also culturally rooted to other Commonwealth countries. The work will explore Scotland’s links to the Commonwealth countries through intimate family portraits that share stories of migration and the meaning of home. The portraits will celebrate the cultural diversity in Scotland and also visually represent how migration has shaped the culture and national identity of Scotland. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Kate V Robertson (20 for 14) – converse is a series of audio installations in public consisting of different spoken dialogues, broadcast from horn speakers hanging across telegraph wires – echoing the urban gesture of shoes hanging over streets. The works will be scripted from audio recordings taken at events during the games, but will be installed after the Games have finished. Installed across various locations, the audio pieces will be then be translated into Commonwealth languages and archived in libraries and online. (Part of Culture 2014)

Deirdre Nelson (20 for 14) – The Kildas highlights the contemporary St Kildans of Scotland, New Zealand and Australia through a series of crafted awards for individuals of merit. (Part of Culture 2014)

A landmark exhibition celebrating some of the very best art to have emerged from Scotland in the last 25 years GENERATION will see new and existing work shown at more than 60 venues across the country from June to October 2014. This nationwide programme will be one of the most ambitious celebrations of contemporary art ever held by a single country. GENERATION has been developed as a partnership between the National Galleries of Scotland and Glasgow Life, supported by Creative Scotland. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014) 

A new film by renowned international artist Phil Collins will be presented at a unique outdoor screening event accompanied by a specially commissioned live musical score in Queen’s Park on the Southside of Glasgow during Festival 2014. Fusing fantasy and reality, he will draw on a range of stories, characters and images collected by him from Glasgow, to create a unique, surprising and highly original new vision of the city at its most international, through the eyes of an artist who has been both resident and visitor. Commissioned by The Common Guild. (Part of Festival 2014)

A major commission for the East End of Glasgow, promoted by VELOCITY which is part of the Cultural programme, will see a disused site nearby to the Emirates Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome transformed by a public artwork – the Baltic Street Adventure Playground.  With a focus on alternative educational practice and its relationship to the public realm and Create London, architects Assemble will work with local communities in Dalmarnock to design and construct a permanent outdoor learning and play area. The project aims to connect local people – particularly the children of settled and show people communities – to one another through the design process and creation of a new shared space. Funded by Glasgow City Council, Creative Scotland and Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company, VELOCITY is a cultural response to the impact of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games promoting an aspirational approach to partnership working to re magine, repair and reconnect neighbourhoods, communities and the city (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Corroborree is a six-week arts festival beginning in June that will animate five of Scotland’s botanic gardens by celebrating people, indigenous culture and ecological diversity among the Commonwealth of Nations. A group of established artists from Commonwealth countries specialising in different artforms will work alongside Scottish artists to create a range of work during residencies at the gardens. There will also be lots of ways for the public to participate, with public events, demonstrations and workshops. Corroboree aims to be a green festival. Music will be unplugged, food will be local and healthy, transport will be sustainable and the plants and natural features of the gardens will be a prominent part of the celebrations. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

David Dale Gallery, an artist-led voluntary organisation will work with several artist initiated projects across the six Commonwealth territories to produce an ambitious programme taking place during the Games. The programme will utilise the organisation’s premises and other surrounding spaces within Glasgow’s east end. International Artist Initiated will incorporate visual art exhibitions, public art, music, events, and publications. Each group will be invited to present a proposal, which responds to the context of the Commonwealth Games within Glasgow, and is representative or indicative of contemporary culture within their nation through the lens of an artist-led organisation. Since 2010, David Dale Gallery has developed an innovative programme of contemporary visual art and has a growing reputation within Scotland, nationally and internationally. The organisation also provides studio spaces for practicing contemporary visual artists and designers. (Part of Festival 2014)

All Sided Games is a series of commissions by Collective Gallery, placing contemporary artists in venues built or used for the Edinburgh 1970 and 1986 Commonwealth Games and in venues to be used for Glasgow 2014. Delivered in partnership with Edinburgh Leisure and Glasgow Life, the project builds on Collective Gallery’s pioneering work connecting communities, international and Scotland-based artists, and draws people together to make work that brings into focus our relationship with each other, with art and with sport. In Edinburgh, artists Mitch Miller and Jacob Dahlgren will be working in and around Meadowbank Sports Centre, presenting work in October 2013, and Cristina Lucas will be developing a new project in December. In 2014 All Sided Games moves across Scotland to present projects in Glasgow. (Part of Culture 2014)

FILM

With its location, remote yet at the centre of vast seaways and shipping routes, Shetland has a tradition of its young men going to sea, to new lives or to work that would support families back home. In Ebb Tide, the Shetland Moving Image Archive is working with local film makers to create new work inspired by the stories, journeys, imagery and artefacts of Shetlanders who voyaged overseas on ships made on the Clyde. There will be a series of short films including ones featuring original soundtracks created by local musicians, and these will be shown across Shetland, in village halls, leisure centres, schools and at Mareel, and in July in Glasgow on the original Tall Ship next to the Riverside Museum. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014) 

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in partnership with the Scottish Documentary Institute is creating a short film, directed by Genevieve Bicknell. Creating a vision of the Commonwealth will be a creative response to the unique aerial photography of Commonwealth countries taken throughout the second half of the twentieth century by the Directorate of Overseas Survey. (Part of Culture 2014)

Sophie Cooke & Anne Milne (20 for 14) – A long poem in a short film: the Clyde and the Commonwealth Film-Poem will follow Glasgow and the Commonwealth’s journey with the river as its guiding light. (Part of Culture 2014)

9.88 Films is an ultra-short filmmaking challenge supported by Channel 4, and inspired by the Commonwealth record for the 100m sprint. Filmmakers at all levels from across Scotland, the UK and the Commonwealth are invited to showcase their own amazing talent by creating a ten-second film in any form of moving image, on any theme (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Critically acclaimed songwriter and raconteur Aidan Moffat will partner multi-award winning filmmaker Paul Fegan in Where You’re Meant to Be to document a Scottish road trip celebrating the art of storytelling and its indelible place in Scotland’s psyche. The road trip begins in April 2014 and will include performances across Scotland by Aidan and his band of new songs and stories. Local artists will also perform at each show. These dates will be preceded by the film makers visiting the tour’s planned destinations and engaging with local arts communities, writers and musicians, exploring the history of the cities, towns and villages, and their regional storytelling culture. The final film will be premiered in Glasgow around the close of the Commonwealth Games in August 2014. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

The McLaren 2014 Programme will promote and celebrate the life and work of the pioneering, Scottish-born animator and filmmaker, Norman McLaren. McLaren 2014 will begin in Stirling on the centenary of McLaren’s birth, 11 April 2014, followed by special exhibitions and screenings in Stirling, Glasgow and Edinburgh, 25th anniversary celebrations of the McLaren Award at the 2014 Edinburgh International Film Festival, and a nationwide public engagement programme, seeking to get Scotland animating. McLaren 2014 will conclude at the end of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games on the 3 August. The McLaren 2014 Programme is being produced by the Centre for the Moving Image, working with partners from across Scotland, the UK and Canada. The Programme is being produced in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Sports Stories from around the African Commonwealth will explore African sports and culture through film and will strive to open new audiences up to the Games, to Africa and to sport. Presented by Africa in Motion (AiM) it will take viewers on a journey through the African Commonwealth highlighting triumphs and key challenges and opportunities through sport. The programme will include over 15 films from across the African Commonwealth, panel discussions with expert speakers and educational workshops. Screenings will take place in a wide range of venues including cinemas, schools and universities around Scotland. Africa in Motion (AiM), an annual film festival, taking place in Edinburgh and Glasgow, is now in its eighth year. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

From Scotland with Love is a documentary film and live music performance, with a contemporary music score curated by one of Scotland’s leading ‘indie’ musicians, Kenny Anderson. The project, which is produced by Faction North Ltd, will be a moving, emotional musical and visual poem from Scotland to the world. The film which will be directed by Virginia Heath will be constructed from archive material from the Scottish Screen Archive, featuring people and places along the QBR route. The completed film, together with its score will be shown from June 2014, together with live musical performances of the soundtrack by local musicians alongside world famous musicians, all building up to a live musical performance as part of Festival 2014. Being carried out in association with BBC Scotland. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014).

During one day in July, Glasgow Film will present a dynamic cinema experience exploring significant, unexpected and underused locations, connecting communities and bringing the best of Scottish film to the fore. In Cargo Camera Action! Glasgow Film will work alongside Glasgow-based art collective 85A, to stage a spectacular cinematic takeover in and around the Clyde. Kinetic movie sets will be constructed, using the Clyde as a backdrop for projections and live performance. Cargo Camera Action will feature newly commissioned work by leading filmmakers and artists including Torsten Lauschmann, Chris Leslie, Eilidh MacAskill, Minty Donald and Nick Millar. (Part of Festival 2014)

COMEDY

Enjoy stand-up comedy, with a Commonwealth edge this March at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. The Commonwealth Stands Up will feature some of the finest comedy acts on today’s circuit. Prepare for an evening of side-splitting hilarity (Part of Culture 2014) 

Celebrating the nations comedy storytelling abilities, Janey Godley will tour to far-flung corners of Scotland, delivering her own show and gathering stories and images as she goes, in Journeys to Glasgow. These will be celebrated during Festival 2014 with comedy bus tours utilising a vintage Bedford classic bus, stand up shows featuring Scottish and Commonwealth artists, a dedicated you tube channel and a soundslides film of the journey. Janey Godley is a multi-award-winning Scottish comedienne, playwright, award winning blogger, best-selling author and former Scotsman newspaper columnist. She will be joined by her daughter, the actress and stand-up Ashley Storrie throughout the project. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

News Just In by Random Accomplice will be a continually evolving, satirical comedy set in the media office of Glasgow 2014. Part live theatre, part online content, it’s a direct response to the events that take place each day. (Part of Festival 2014)

LITERATURE AND SPOKEN WORD

Commonwealth themed strands will take place throughout Aye Write! Glasgow Book Festival including discussions on sport, international authors and independence & Empire. 100 days before the Games begin, up to 300 young people aged between 16-19 will take part in the Aye Write! Future News International Young Journalists’ Conference on 14-16 April, 2014. There they will enjoy master classes from some of the world’s leading journalists on a range of subjects including press freedom and ethical reporting, to technical skills, from investigating features and research to using digital technology and social media to report on their stories. Wee Write! which is held for schools will also present Commonwealth related programmes as part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme.(Part of Culture 2014)

Aye Write! Glasgow’s Book Festival will present several events reflecting and celebrating writing and authors across the Commonwealth. These include an appearance from 2013 Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton, travelling to the city from New Zealand, along with a host of other world-renowned writers and speakers. Aye Write!, now in its ninth year, runs for nine days in April and will also host a special event to celebrate one of the greatest Commonwealth figures of all time, Nelson Mandela. (Part of Culture 2014)

Future News International Young Journalists’ Conference

The next generation of global journalists will gather in Glasgow in a unique opportunity to connect to the Commonwealth Games. 100 days before the Games begin, up to 300 young people aged between 16-19 will take part in the Aye Write! Future News International Young Journalists’ Conference on 14-16 April, 2014 at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. There they will enjoy masterclasses from some of the world’s leading journalists on a range of subjects including press freedom and ethical reporting to using digital technology and social media to report on their stories. The British Council will select young people from the Commonwealth who, on their return home, will help to foster an ongoing relationship long after the Games. During the Commonwealth Games, beginning on 23 July, the Mitchell Library will be the base for a Live Games Newsroom, which will see 40 aspiring journalists from Glasgow working on Games-related stories and compiling and editing reports. Their work will be uploaded and accessed by young people from across the Commonwealth who will edit, interpret and produce content for their local audiences. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

The Empire Café will be based in Glasgow’s Merchant City for seven days during the Commonwealth Games and will explore Scotland’s involvement with the North Atlantic Slave trade via tea, coffee, sugar and cotton. At first glance the café will look like a traditional tea room, but closer inspection will reveal furnishings patterned with symbols of the slave trade. The Empire Café will host a series of debates, academic papers, literary readings, films, workshops and art installations themed around Scotland and slavery. It will also commission poems from Commonwealth and Scottish poets on the same theme, which will be published in an anthology in co-operation with the Scottish Poetry Library and Scottish PEN. The free poetry anthology will be distributed via The Empire Café and selected libraries. The work is led by author Louise Welsh and Jude Barber of Collective Architecture (Part of Festival 2014).

Building on the success of Poetry 2012 the Scottish Poetry Library in collaboration with BBC Scotland will present poetry from around the Commonwealth in Commonwealth Poets United. Six Scottish poets and poets with links to Scotland from Canada, India, Jamaica, New Zealand, Nigeria and South Africa will give public readings in locations across Scotland and take part in school visits from March 2013. They will record their experiences for BBC broadcast and record poems for SPL podcasts and website. The 12 poets will also be commissioned to create new work for the BBC’s Sonnets from Sunrise to Sunset project. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014).

In The Marathon Storytelling Cycling Challenge acclaimed actor and theatre maker Tam Dean Burn will undertake a marathon endeavour to travel by bicycle to locations across Scotland and over the course of his journey read to children all of Glasgow-based former Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson‘s 167 books. Best known for the phenomenally successful children’s book The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson’s catalogue of works includes picture books, phonic books, music books, plays, and early age books. Tam’s readings will happen through exclusively free performances in a wide range of venues and be a unique blend of Julia’s more and less well known stories and songs, with musical accompaniment by Andy Alston and shared readings of her plays written especially for children to perform, to help develop reading and imagination skills. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014).

Building on the Authors Live programme Scottish Book Trust in collaboration with BBC Scotland Learning, will present a programme of events from the host city featuring an exciting range of leading Scottish, UK and Commonwealth-based authors and illustrators for children and broadcast them live for free over the internet to schools across the Commonwealth. There will also be an educational programme working directly with teachers from local authorities across Scotland and from Commonwealth countries. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Blueblock Studio is an interactive pop up space for children aged 4 and under and their parents and carers to take part in and enjoy creative play and storytelling. Led by artist Katy Wilson and produced by Starcatchers, a pioneering organisation which specialises in performances and creativity for babies, toddlers and young children, Blueblock Studio will visit communities across Scotland from May 2014. In the morning, creative play sessions will encourage parents and babies to explore, move and interact with large, colourful geometric shapes, animations, instruments, lighting and sounds in the space. In the afternoons, a storytelling performance for two-to-four year-olds based on Who’s Calling written by Kenyan author Charity Waciuma will take place. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014)

Scottish PEN will hold a unique series of literary events across Scotland in parallel with the Queen’s Baton Relay which will explore how Scottish writers and communities have welcomed literary visitors and writers in need of help, a shared a sense of Scottishness through words and writing and how, in turn, Scottish cultural identity has been influenced by this history. Through the PEN International Network, the project aims to bring the finest international writers to these events, reinforcing and re-establishing literary connections Scotland has created with the wider world. An extensive range of education and community projects will also take place. (Part of Culture 2014)

Q-POETICS installs the poet & poetry in queues during the Commonwealth Games. Through the arousal of curiosity, poet & performer Skye Loneragan joins those lining up to pay, purchase or pass. With so much going on in the Host city, queues are a sign of success and Q-POETICS infuses these places and spaces of waiting in innovative ways with visual and audio installations, performance poems and podcasts which can be downloaded while you’re in your queue. (Part of Festival 2014)

Tron Theatre will present a celebratory Home Nations Programme with Scotland’s Makar at its centre during Games Time. Curated by Liz Lochhead, the programme will include dramatic interpretations of work from some of the UK and Northern Ireland’s finest poets including Dylan Thomas, Seamus Heaney, Carol-Anne Duffy and Edwin Morgan. (Part of Festival 2014).

THEATRE

Annie George (20 for 14) - A theatrical performance work which fuses text, sound and visual design to tell a remarkable story, connecting Scotland to Kerala, India, where it is set against the background of the movement towards Independence. It is part detective story, part theatre, part love letter to a rich and verdant homeland on the brink of liberation. (Part of Culture 2014)

Lou Prendergast (20 for 14) – An innovative and challenging theatre project that draws upon Scots-Caribbean family autobiography to raise questions about Scotland’s entanglement in the slave trade. The work is also a response to the Commonwealth Games notions of humanity, equality and destiny and the ways in which these themes interact within socio-political frameworks of capitalism, racism, feminism and global inequality. Written, directed and performed by Lou Prendergast it blends the trilogy of plays about her late father into one work, which will run at the Arches. (Part of Culture 2014)

Sarah Longfield (20 for 14) – An intimate, creative family response to a big awe inspiring event. 3, 6 and 36 is a piece of theatre that shares thoughts, feelings and personal legacy of the games coming to town. (Part of Culture 2014)

Glasgow Girls, the modern Scottish musical based on a real-life political campaign started by a group of teenage girls from the city, is at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow in February. The story follows a group of seven teenage girls whose lives are changed forever when they arrive at school one day, to be told that their friend and her asylum seeking family have been forcibly taken from their home to be deported. The girls unite and campaign for the return of their friend, taking on the Scottish Government and the Home Office in the process! Produced by the National Theatre of Scotland, Glasgow Girls was conceived and directed by awarding-winning director, actor and musician, Cora Bissett, with the book written by David Greig. (Part of Culture 2014)

Inspired by Helen Ward’s bestselling book the same name, The Tin Forest sees the National Theatre of Scotland, in association with Scottish Youth Theatre presenting an eight month project across Glasgow and at the South Rotunda on the Clydeside that explores the city’s industrial heritage and 21st century future. The project includes a nationwide engagement programme and the creation of a pop-up arts venue for a rich programme of performance and visual art. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014).

GRIT is an ambitious new multi-form, site-specific, international collaborative theatre production based on the inspiring life and music of one of Scotland’s most innovative, pioneering and influential musicians, Martyn Bennett. Multi-award winning Director, Cora Bissett (Olivier Award winning RoadKill/ Whatever Gets You Through the Night and hit new political musical Glasgow Girls) and one of Scotland’s most provocative and urgent playwrighting voices Kieran Hurley will work with a team of International and Scottish Dance, circus and theatre artists including Canada’s renowned choreographer Dana Gringas ( Animals of Distinction) and the world renowned technical director of Cirque Du Soleil, Andrew Watson to create a truly cross-form total theatre experience. GRIT is produced by Pachamama Productions in an association with Tramway and Mull Theatre. It will be staged firstly in Tramway One then in a unique Midsummer weekend in Mull. (Part of Culture 2014).

In My Father’s Words is a ground breaking collaboration between Justin Young and Iain F Macleod about the Scottish emigrant experience in Canada and tells the profoundly moving story of a father and son, and the recovery of language and identity. Produced by Dundee Rep Theatre, with Justin Young as the primary playwright, and Iain F MacLeod as co-writer and author of the play’s Gaelic text, In My Father’s Words will have its world premiere in Glasgow at The Tron and then transfer for a run at Dundee Rep before touring in the Highlands. (Part of Culture 2014 and Festival 2014).

At the old gateway to Glasgow, now the gateway to the Games, stories flow from the mouth of the Clyde… White Gold is an astonishing site specific, promenade performance set in The Sugar Sheds in Greenock. Brought to the sugar sheds for storing, sifting, refining and finally presenting, White Gold is woven together from vivid and touching narratives gathered from across the nation. The show will use drama, movement, original music and breathtaking aerial performance to unfold a narrative around the audience as they promenade through the show. Surprising, poignant and deeply moving, White Gold gives the community of Greenock and Glasgow top billing as the nation stars. White Gold is an original creation by Mark Murphy and is produced by Iron-Oxide (Part of Culture 2014)

Endurance from A Moment’s Peace Theatre Company will examine the narratives of Empire through the inspiring stories of female Commonwealth athletes. Culminating in a site responsive theatre production examining strength, and illuminating what is achieved when women put their bodies on the line. The production will be created and performed by women from, and living in, Glasgow, under the direction of AMP’s artistic director Catrin Evans, but will tell the stories of female athletes from across the world, who since women joined the competition in 1934 have had a profound impact on the wider struggle for gender equality globally. (Part of Festival 2014)

FESTIVALS

A major season of South African work will be presented at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, full programme details of which will be announced on 18 March. (Part of Culture 2014)

GastroFest, a series of innovative events exploring the centrality of science to our culinary experience and celebrating food, drink and science from across the Commonwealth will take place as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, full programme details of which will be announced on 13 February. (Part of Culture 2014)

The Imaginate Festival will present two exemplary pieces of work from Australia on tour this May throughout Scotland. Saltbush is an immersive and interactive journey through the culture and landscape of Aboriginal Australia while The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer tells the tale of Alvin Sputnik and the search for his lost love in the seemingly endless depths of the ocean. (Part of Culture 2014)

The World Fringe Congress is a formal meeting of Fringe directors and organisers from across the globe taking place during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – the original home of the Fringe ideal. The Congress is a chance for directors and organisers to meet, share ideas and form partnerships to maintain the strong global network of Fringes. This will be the second Congress following 2012’s hugely successful inaugural event at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (Part of Culture 2014)

Glasgow Mela is Scotland’s biggest multi-cultural festival and the colourful free event returns to the city for its 24th consecutive year on 7 and 8 June. Last year’s festival attracted 35,000 people to Kelvingrove Park, creating a fantastic party atmosphere as the crowds enjoyed an extravaganza of music, dance, exotic food and eclectic stalls. A host of talented performers are coming from countries including India, Pakistan, Cyprus and Sri Lanka to entertain in Glasgow in this very special year. Kelvingrove Park’s historic bandstand will be introduced to Glasgow Mela for the first time following its £2 million revamp. (Part of Culture 2014)

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Contact: Brian Maycock
Phone: 0131 523 0046
Email: brian.maycock@creativescotland.com
Website: http://www.glasgow2014.com/culture