Opening Day – June 21st
Riverside Museum and The Tall Ship Glenlee open to the public on June 21st, 2011, at 10am. Expect queues, and please walk or use public transport.
Riverside Museum open!
Riverside Museum is now open to the public. It’s been an exciting five years working on the project and great to see it all finally come together. It’s been a while since I posted a Conservation update, however the last few months were busy moving buildings and getting everything installed. Why not come on down and see the results for yourselves.
Tall Ship Glenlee moves to new home by Riverside Museum
The Tall Ship Glenlee today moved downriver to her new berth at Glasgow’s new Riverside Museum. Three tugs moved Glenlee out from her former home at Yorkhill Quay this morning. After years of planning and preparation, it’s wonderful to finally see The Tall Ship and the Riverside Museum together!
Patricia Cain brings Riverside artworks to Kelvingrove
Copyright: Patricia Cain
Artworks detailing the construction of the Zaha Hadid-designed Riverside Museum are currently on display at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
Drawing (on) Riverside is an exhibition by Patricia Cain which features 100 works, many of them new, and runs until August 14.
Drawing (on) Riverside is a powerful body of work from an award-winning artist who explores the development of the £74million museum in drawing, painting and sculpture highlighting the different phases of construction.
Patricia Cain has become a familiar figure on the site of Glasgow’s new transport museum and her work based on the project has already won the prestigious Threadneedle Prize and the Aspect Prize.
Councillor George Redmond, Chair of Glasgow Life said: “Anyone who sees the works Patricia Cain has been creating that are based on Riverside will be astonished by her unique vision and the detail she has captured of Britain’s most exciting museum project. This exhibition not only showcases Patricia’s incredible talent, it also affords visitors an insight to the various stages that have brought this iconic building to life.”
Patricia Cain said: “Watching the Clyde landscape changing has had a major influence on my art practice for the last 10 years and as part of this, I’ve been observing and recording the construction of the new Riverside Museum. I’ve made this process the focus for this exhibition by trying to expose aspects of this through both solo work, and collaborations with Ann Nisbet, Alec Galloway, Rosalind Lawless and Phil Lavery that mirror the working on-site collaborations that occurred.”
The exhibition has been generously sponsored by Clydebank Rebuilt, Varla, Paterson Timber, The Ballast Trust, Glass and Mirror, Optium Acrylic, The GalGael Trust, Independent Glass, The Norma Frame Foundation, The Bet Low Trust (amongst others) and Ferguson Shipbuilders and AD Associates who have leveraged match funding from Arts & Business Scotland.
Katriona Holmes, Investments Manager at Arts & Business said: “It is great to see local businesses involved in the staging of such a significant exhibition, and A&B Scotland is pleased to support these partnerships under the New Arts Sponsorship scheme. This funding has been made available by the Scottish Government to encourage business investment in the arts. The grants match-fund a sponsorship, doubling the associated sponsorship benefits for the business.”
The exhibition runs until 14 August 2011. Entry to the exhibition is free.
Riverside Museum and The Tall Ship open to the public on June 21 2011. To donate to the Riverside Museum Appeal, please visit www.riversideappeal.org
Two articles on Glasgow’s Riverside Museum
It’s great to see Glasgow’s Riverside Museum garnering attention from media all over the world.
Here’s an article on the project in Italian design magazine Abitare. And here’s another article, from a very different perspective, in the Journal of Victorian Culture Online.
Clyde Cruises reveals details of Govan Ferry crossing
One of the best ways to get to the Riverside Museum will be by ferry. Walk, bus or get the subway to Govan’s historic Water Row and take the MV Fencer for the short trip across the Clyde.
Here’s the timetable.
The service will run 7 days a week, 360 days a year
- Monday – first service departs – 1000
- Tuesday – first service departs – 1000
- Wednesday – first service departs – 1000
- Thursday – first service departs – 1000
- Friday – first service departs – 1100
- Saturday – first service departs – 1000
- Sunday – first service departs – 1100
Services will run approximately every 20 minutes and the last departure from the Riverside Museum is 1705 each evening.
Visit the Clyde Cruises website for more details.
Riverside Museum re-creates legendary hillclimb race on Scotland’s most famous road
Courtesy of Geoff Kitt
The legendary hillclimbs up the Rest and Be Thankful road have been re-created for a dramatic display at the new Riverside Museum in Glasgow.
Seven classic cars took part in the re-enactment, which will be used in a display that tells the story of the notorious races up Scotland’s most famous – and most demanding – stretch of road.
The old Rest and Be Thankful road winds its way up from the floor of Glen Croe to the pass west of Ben Arthur – aka the Cobbler. Ascending it was an exhausting effort for the early automobiles, horses and drovers alike, hence its name.
But the Rest’s legendary status as a racing venue rose during the 1950s and 1960s when fearless racing drivers tested their mettle on the steep, hairpin-riddled road. Racers such as Jackie Stewart and “speed king” Basil Davenport helped seal the road’s position in Scottish motor sport’s hall of fame. The current road, the A83, opened in 1941, and follows the edge of Glen Croe, way above the old road.
As well as the film, the display at Riverside will see classic cars positioned on a rising “road” that follows the curve of the Zaha Hadid-designed museum. The display itself was designed by Event Communications.
Drivers from classic car club Friends of the Rest and Be Thankful took part in the re-enactment, which was filmed by Glasgow-based software firm 55 Degrees. Camera and sound crews positioned in key locations captured the cars as they came roaring up the glen. The cars included a 1924 Bugatti Type T, a Daimler Dart, an Austin Healey 3000, an MG MGA, a 1910 Ford Model T, a 1930 MG M-Type Midget Boat Tail Speedster, and a Cooper MG once driven by Stirling Moss.
Accompanying the racing footage will be in-car commentary, and interviews with former drivers and spectators from the 1950s and 1960s races, when hundreds of people perched amid the heathered slopes of Glen Croe to watch the races. For the en-enactment, curious passers-by and nearby residents lined the route.
Councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council and Trustee of the Riverside Museum Appeal, said: “It’s wonderful that the Rest and Be Thankful and its historic hillclimbs are being immortalised in the new Riverside Museum. They’re an important part of Scotland’s motoring heritage, and I’m extremely grateful to the Friends of the Rest and Be Thankful and the communities of Arrochar, Ardlui, Tarbet and Succoth for their help in making this exciting film.”
Andrew Davidson, owner of Glencroe Farm and the old road, said, “I’m delighted that the Rest and Be Thankful hill climb was used to film footage on the old road for the new Riverside Museum display. It was a joy to watch fellow members of the Friends of the Rest group re-creating the road’s glory days in their classic cars.”
Gavin McLellan, Director of the Riverside Museum Appeal, said: “The dramatic re-enactment of the Rest and be Thankful hillclimb is another example of the public support for the new Riverside Museum, with so many people giving up their time to support this film. With opening day just over two months away, there’s still time for everyone to have a place inside this new museum. A donation to the Riverside Museum Appeal will ensure that your name or that of someone you love will be a permanent presence inside the museum, just like those who starred in this exciting re-creation. We’ve raised £4.2million and have less than £1million to go – a terrific achievement. To donate online, please visit www.riversideappeal.org or text the word ‘Riverside’ and your name to 70700 to give £5.”
Riverside Museum and The Tall Ship Glenlee opens to the public on 21st June at 10am.
Museum drama brings Glasgow’s wartime subway to life
Copyright: Culture & Sport Glasgow (Museums)
More than 50 volunteers and professional actors donned 1940s costumes to star in an innovative short film that will be broadcast on an antique subway train inside the new Riverside Museum.
The 28-minute period drama is set on the 1930s subway car, a well-known feature of the old Museum of Transport at Kelvin Hall, and part of Glasgow Museums’ collection. Visitors to Riverside Museum will be able to board the subway and watch the performance, which will be back-projected onto the end of the train.
During the drama, the 17 actors and 36 extras board and alight at various “stations” on the route. One of these stations included Merkland Street Station, which was bombed in 1940 and re-opened the following year. The drama is set a few weeks after the station re-opened with travellers still anxious about the risks of attack. Despite the fears, Glasgow’s subway was regarded as a safe way to travel during the Second World War, and by 1945 more than 34 million people were travelling on it.
Joseph Briffa, Head of Film and Video at 55degrees, the multi-media production company that made the film, said the production was one of the most ambitious and challenging shoots they’d ever worked on. He said, “We had some 60 actors entering and leaving the subway carriage at very specific timings based on a real-time circuit of the subway in 1941, all in single 30-minute long takes. If there was the slightest mistake we had to re-set and return to the beginning. The technical challenge of this was extreme to say the least, and the level of concentration by everyone on set to make this happen was incredible.”
As well as the challenges of filming, production staff also had to ensure that the cast of 17 actors and 36 extras all boarded and left the train at exactly the right moment in the script. While aboard, the “travellers” had to sway as if they were standing on a moving train.
Kirsty Devine, Senior Curator at Riverside Museum, added “It was important we got the look perfect. We had to make sure the costumes, make-up, hairstyle and dialogue were all authentic. It was a fun and extraordinary couple of days. Everyone was fantastic, and it was lovely to see such enthusiasm for the new museum. By the time of the final shoot, however, wartime fatigue was definitely starting to show!”
Gavin McLellan, Director of the Riverside Museum Appeal, said “This filming is another example of the public support for the new Riverside Museum, with so many people giving up their whole weekend to feature in this film. There’s still time for members of the public to become part of the new museum. A donation to the Riverside Museum Appeal will ensure that your name or that of someone you love will be a permanent presence inside the museum, just like those who starred in this innovative wartime drama. And despite the difficult financial circumstances, we’ve raised about £4million and have £1million to go – a terrific achievement.”
To donate online, please visit www.riversideappeal.org or text the word ‘Riverside’ and your name to 70700 to give £5.
Picture of the week
Here’s an attempt to uphold Iona’s tradition of picture of the week. This is the car show room at the Museum of Transport, the majority of cars have gone and the wrapped items are bicycles waiting to be transported to the Riverside Museum.
Riverside Museum 