Ballroom of Memory is a moment of remembrance and an opportunity to locate our individual and collective histories. This immersive, interactive workshop explores exhibition-making and archiving – asking you to use care and vulnerability to connect. In sharing an object, a story or engaging in conversation, this project invites participants to take part in creating a democratic, community-built archive. This project, run by Curatorial Master’s students at GSA, seeks to create a living archive within the timeframe of the workshop which will be subsequently immortalised through an online and physical archive generated by the histories recorded today and throughout our research. This archive will include oral histories and a zine publication including photography of the artefacts brought into the space today as well as the written responses to them.

The ephemera of this transient, experimental workshop will create the basis for a permanent collection which tells the stories of lost and changed spaces in Glasgow.

We invite you to interact throughout this workshop: whether through presenting an object on one of the plinths, or responding to one of the objects you see before you in the guestbooks provided. This workshop is intended to create space for conversation and sharing, whether you feel comfortable sharing in the written form, talking to one another or simply having a drink and observing – please feel welcomed to the ‘Ballroom of Memory’.

Ballroom of Memory is a collaborative project initiated by students from Glasgow School of Art, with contributions from the wider Glasgow public.

With thanks to: GSA Archives, GSA staff, the MLitt Curatorial tutors and our collaborating artists Coire Simpson and Zhongyang Sun

This project was curated in collaboration by: Alex Howey, Bjorn Blakstad, Jem Staples, Ruihan (Sherry) Wang, Hannah-Faith Salmons