Southside to host Turner Prize

The annual art award is presented to a British artist under the age of 50 who is judged to have produced a stand-out exhibition or piece of work.

Glasgow will now be the first city in Scotland to host the controversial £25,000 prize-giving, previously won by artists such as Damien Hirst, Grayson Perry and Martin Creed.

The bid to host was submitted by Creative Scotland, Event Scotland and Glasgow city council, and won out against Notting Contemporary, New Art Gallery in Walsall and Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester.

Tate director Nicholas Serota explained: “Over the last 20 years, Glasgow and Scotland has gained national and international recognition as a centre of excellence in, and for, the visual arts.

“For many years, artists who are from Scotland or who have trained at the Glasgow School of Art – one of the world’s leading art schools – have been nominated for, or won, the award”.

Since 2005, 30 per cent of Turner Prize nominees have studied at the Glasgow School of Art, including 2011 winner Martin Boyce, and 2009 winner Richard Wright.

GCC leader Gordon Matheson welcomed the news, calling Glasgow “Scotland’s cultural powerhouse” and the Turner Prize “the UK’s most prestigious arts prize”.

He added: “Tramway has been described as an industrial cathedral that connects art with humanity and has a thriving global reputation as a producer and promoter of the most innovative work by Scottish and international artists.

“In bringing the Turner Prize to Tramway and Glasgow, we will build on that growing reputation”.

Tramway is situated in a former tram depot on Albert Drive, Pollokshields. There are two performance spaces and two galleries, as well as the Hidden Gardens and workshop facilities on site.

The arts centre recently launched an ongoing project alongside Glas(s) Performance, cataloguing the neighbourhood’s businesses and residents – and now it appears to be putting Pollokshields on the map in more ways than one.