Glasgow Harvest 2011

Various, Glasgow

September/October 2011

Building on the success of the 2010 event at the Hidden Gardens, Glasgow Harvest 2011 went citywide and was a huge success.

- Watch videos about Glasgow Harvest North, South & East by clicking on the ‘play’ icons above
- Watch the Glasgow Harvest West video 2011 HERE

NVA’s Glasgow Harvest 2011 was a celebration of local food, hosted by community gardens in the South, East, North and West of the city. An irreverent homage to the village fête – centred on the Harvest Meal – each celebration featured live music, communal cooking, food sharing, workshops and competitions. New work by visual artists drew inspiration from the people and garden spaces that make urban growing in Glasgow so unique.

At each Harvest event there was a wealth of food sharing activities from jam tasting to vegetable pakora making demonstrations. Free Wheel North provided FREE group cycle rides from Glasgow Green to each of the Harvest events led by trained cycle leaders. Glasgow Transition Support also presented a series of workshops and talks exploring ideas about how we can develop a more connected and resilient food system for Glasgow.

Harvest South hosted by Urban Roots in Toryglen was the first event and also celebrated ‘Blasda’ – Scotland’s Local Food Feast (a project of The Fife Diet) which happened simultaneously in 12 locations across Scotland as part of Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight.

Other events were hosted by Kennyhill Community Allotments, Concrete Garden and Woodlands Community Garden. All events ran from 12-4pm and were free entry.

Highlights

• Approximately 1500 people attended 4 events hosted by community gardens over four weekends in autumn 2011

• About 400 pieces of pakora, 12 large pots of soup, at least 50 cakes, a wide range of curries, risotto, and salads were made using locally grown vegetables

• 247 pupils from 7 primary schools participated in Creative Container workshops

• Over 90 pizzas were made and shared at Harvest West

• At least 80 volunteers helped to make the events possible, from helping with the design and planning of the events to cooking and running activities on the day.

• 2 of the commissioned art works were permanent and will leave a lasting legacy – a community dining table in Kennyhill and brick pizza oven in Woodlands.

• 89% of people surveyed at the events said that Glasgow Harvest had encouraged them to grow their own food next year

• “Hundreds of people, happy in the rain, stuffing their faces with healthy fabulous food!”
Woodlands Community Garden volunteer memory of Harvest West

• “I’ve lived here for years and never been inside the allotments before”
Member of the public at Harvest East

Contemporary Art at Glasgow Harvest

Harvest commissioned four artists to create site and/or event specific artwork for each of the events.

85A collective at Harvest SOUTH
85A collective are an emerging, loose-knit brood of Glasgow based multidisciplinary artists. For Harvest South at Urban Roots in Toryglen, they created a striking site-specific puppet theatre, with performances throughout the day. Fesco the Giant – a reworking of Jack and the Bean Stalk - used puppets, promenade performance, audience participation and costumes made from edible plants.
www.85a.org.uk

Pidgin Perfect at Harvest EAST
Pidgin Perfect is a creative studio who build, produce, make and create as a means of bringing different ideas and different people together, putting the community at the heart of urban projects. For Harvest East they worked closely with Kennyhill Allotments to create a long-lasting legacy - an abstract community dining table that created spaces for preparing food, eating, sitting, playing, planting and storing whilst bringing the community together throughout the year.
www.pidginperfect.com

Rachel Mimiec at Harvest NORTH
Rachel Mimiec is a Glasgow based visual artist who works in diverse community contexts, which include schools, hospitals, growing spaces and galleries. She collaborates and facilitates projects using a process based approach which leads to the creation of artworks such as exhibitions, commissions, stage sets, temporary public works and events. For Harvest North she worked with gardeners and community groups to create textile bunting, digital-printed tablecloths and textile-wrapped harvest gifts using the Japanese folding technique, Furoshiki.
www.rachelmimiec.com

Stephen Skrynka at Harvest WEST
Stephen Skrynka is a Glasgow based artist whose practice often involves going to great lengths to learn other people’s skills. He firmly believes that what you discover is never what you are looking for. For Harvest West he worked with the local community to design and build a pizza oven from scratch in Woodlands Community Garden. He then cooked pizzas on the day as part of his work, asking people to bring their own toppings or pick things from the garden.

Glasgow Harvest is continuing into 2012, read all about it HERE

Further Information

You can find many more 2011 images on Flickr HERE

Download the full 2011 brochure HERE

If you have any specific questions about the 2011 event, please contact: contact@nva.org.uk

Find out more about Blasda at the website www.blasda.org.uk

For information on last years event visit our project page Glasgow Harvest 2010 HERE

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