Joanna Peace

Glasgow School of Art student exhibitions at Pollok House, 2015 - 2017

I worked with undergraduate and Masters students from the Department of Sculpture & Environmental Art to develop two exhibitions at the National Trust property Pollok House in Glasgow. Following a period of supported research in and around the House, the students presented new work in the form of sculpture, performance, text and video, negotiating the conservation challenges inherent in working in a heritage site. 

Tall Tales, Swiss Cottage Library, London and Glasgow Women's Library, 2016

Throughout 2016 I ran workshops with a number of groups as part of the touring exhibition 'Tall Tales', organised by Weiwora Projects. In Swiss Cottage Library, London, I worked with Glasgow Women's Library Young Critics group on a creative writing workshop, and in the Glasgow Women's Library itself I worked with volunteers and the public on a series of mark-making and textiles workshops that related to notions of communal storytelling. 

I have held Lecturer positions at Plymouth College of Art, where I taught into the BA & MA Fine Art programme between 2017 - 2018, and the Glasgow School of Art, where I taught into the Department of Sculpture & Environmental Art between 2013 and 2017.

In 2017 I completed a PG Cert in Learning & Teaching, for which I undertook an action research project that looked at anxiety, assessment and narrative.

I regularly devise and deliver workshops and long-term participatory projects with organisations across Scotland. These have included Ibrox Writers' Group, Project Ability, Glasgow Women's Library, Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Weiwora Projects, Depot Arts and House for an Art Lover. These projects have resulted in exhibitions, publications and radio broadcasts.

A selection of these projects are featured here. 

The window opens like an orange, House for an Art Lover & Glasgow School of Art, 2015

Writing and publishing workshop with Cristina Garriga from My Bookcase and Masters students from the Glasgow School of Art, part of a residency for these students at House for an Art Lover. Sharing texts by Deborah Levy, artist Serra Tansel and Naja Marie Aidt, we used writing exercises to inhabit and examine the often disorientating experience of being 'in residence'.

The Walking Group, with House for an Art Lover & Project Ability, 2015

Drawing and writing workshop exploring the exhibition 'Delaying Tactics'.

ReConnect Blog Project with Project Ability, 2014 - 2015

ReConnect is a group of adults with lived experience of mental ill health who regularly work in the art studios at Project Ability. Through practical workshops and discussions we planned and built a blog to support and promote their individual artwork, and reinforce their identity as a collective of artists. 

Creative Cargo with Glasgow Sculpture Studios & Depot Arts, 2014

Creative writing workshops with a group of adults with diverse needs, as part of the learning & engagement programme of the Glasgow Sculpture Studios.

Creative writing and publishing with Project Ability, 2016 - 2017

Project Ability is a Glasgow-based arts organisation that creates opportunities for people with disabilities and people with mental health issues, aged from 5 years to 80+, to express themselves. Between 2016 and 2017 and In collaboration with Anthony Autumn, we devised and delivered three creative writing projects with participants at Project Ability. These resulted in three publications titled CATS, Superheroes and writing people drawing people painting and an exhibition of text, collage and animation in the Project Ability Gallery. 

PAY ATTENTION!!! Plymouth College of Art, 2018

One-day workshop with Fine Art students at Plymouth College of Art , March 2018. In this workshop we drew upon text and film by Chantal Akerman, Derek Jarman, Haytham El-Wardany and Rob Nixon as starting points for playful creative writing exercises. The students were challenged to find ways to 'perform' this new writing for one another. 

Broadercasting, commissioned for Radiophrenia and produced in collaboration with Project Ability, 2017

In collaboration with artist Anthony Autumn, we devised and led a series of creative writing, noise making and sound recording workshops with participants from Project Ability. Through voicing, technologies, and alternative forms of collaboration, participants approached writing in new ways, conjuring stories and poems out of their everyday experiences, their pasts and speculative futures. They transformed found material and objects into words and sounds that are lyrical and emotional, funny and fantastical.

The resulting sound collage - described by one participant as "loud like a tropical jungle on a busy city street" - is titled GIRAFFE'S AYE, and was broadcast by Radiophrenia in November 2017. It can be heard here. 

A video documenting this project was created by Media Coop and can be viewed here. 

Cross School Course with Glasgow School of Art, 2013 - 2015

This annual project brought together first year students from across GSA to explore key sites in the city, and to create collaborative creative responses.