About us

Creative Glasgow is a vibrant membership organisation dedicated to connecting, championing, and celebrating creative practitioners across Greater Glasgow.

We’re
here to:

Whether you’re running a creative business, freelancing with years of experience, or just starting out in your career, Creative Glasgow welcomes all creative practitioners living and working in Greater Glasgow. Our diverse membership includes designers, artists, filmmakers, writers, musicians, and other creatives who contribute to the city’s vibrant cultural and creative ecosystem.

At Creative Glasgow, we’re dedicated to ensuring that every practitioner, regardless of discipline, background, or stage in their career, has a platform to flourish. For established professionals, we offer opportunities to expand networks, collaborate on transformative projects, and influence the city’s creative direction. For emerging talents, we provide access to essential resources, training, and mentorship to help you grow and thrive.

By becoming part of our community, you’re joining a collective effort to shape Greater Glasgow into a hub of innovation, culture, and creative excellence for our city and our citizens.

Our Guiding Principles

Creative Glasgow’s work is driven by a set of guiding principles that underpin our operations, programmes, and membership offer:
 
  • We are committed to supporting the next generation of creatives, with a dedicated programme for young people aged 18–25.
  • We champion the principles of Fair Work, creating an inclusive working environment and ensuring all programme contributors are fairly remunerated.
  • Our work is rooted in social justice, striving to build a more equal, inclusive, and representative creative and cultural sector in Greater Glasgow.
  • We integrate environmental sustainability into every aspect of our work, contributing to a greener creative and cultural sector.

Learn more about our commitments to:

Creative Glasgow is a company with charitable status, registered in Scotland with OSCR. Charity Number: SC053016.

Meet Creative Glasgow’s Team

Graham McLaren

(Interim) Director

Graham McLaren is a theatre maker and cultural leader. As well as leading theatre companies of different sizes, he has produced, directed and designed over seventy productions across four continents, ranging from totally improvised and devised shows to classical plays. Between 2011 and 2016 he was Associate Director for the newly established, National Theatre of Scotland. In 2021, he completed his tenure, successfully transforming the programming model and structure of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin in his role as joint CEO of Ireland’s National Theatre.

Rosemary James-Beith

Membership and Programme Manager

Rosemary has been contributing to Glasgow’s creative and cultural sectors for over 15 years. She worked in Tramway running their participation programme and was for many years part of Glasgow Life’s Arts, Music and Cultural Venues service. More recently she’s been supporting a range of creative organisations as a freelance research and development consultant, leading research into craft education with Panel and Craft Scotland, developing evaluations for Glass Performance and Take Me Somewhere, managing SCAN’s CLiC project, and running development workshops for Greenspace Scotland and Uni of Glasgow’s School of Culture and Creative Arts, among others! Rosemary is also completing a PhD in Media and Cultural Policy at the Centre for Cultural Policy Research exploring the role of Scotland’s maker-led organisations.

Tie Macbeth

Administrator

Tie joined Creative Glasgow in November 2024 as our Administrator, bringing over 15 years of experience in arts administration. She’s worked in a variety of roles across operations, finance, sustainability, creative learning, production, and events, with well-known Glasgow institutions like CCA (2014-2024), King’s Theatre & Theatre Royal (2008-2014), and Glasgow Comic Con (2010-2024).

Passionate about both the creative and practical sides of the arts, Tie is excited to help support and connect Glasgow’s vibrant creative community.

Lily Garget

Youth Arts Coordinator
(Maternity Cover)

Lily joined GCAN in April 2024 as our new Youth Arts Coordinator. Lily graduated with a First Class degree in Sculpture and Environmental Art from Glasgow School of Art in 2022. Her work centred around natural dyeing, textiles and metalwork. With a focus on community building and engagement with our natural surroundings, Lily has worked with multiple community groups, leading workshops, creating and commissioning artwork, before, during and since graduating.

Cat Gilmore

Youth Arts Coordinator

We can’t wait to welcome Cat back from maternity leave in February.

Our Board

Alison Sommerville

Chair

Jane Gordon

Greer Pester

Darshan Kundi

Rachel Aisling Smith

The Latest

Member Spotlight: Wee Move

Wee Move – Open Movement Night. Think open mic, but with movement!

Wee Move is a new open movement night in Glasgow. This is your chance to be part of a performance jam where movement takes centre stage. No pressure – just an opportunity to share your love of movement.

When: Friday 14th February 2025, 7pm – 8.30pm (approx)

Where: Southside of Glasgow

Shape Glasgow’s Creative Future

Join Us for a Day of Ideas and Action!

Hosted by Creative Glasgow and led by freelance producer Helen Voce, this event explores the future of creative spaces in the city—studios, workshops, offices, and more. With insights from local and international experts, we’ll discuss how we can learn from others and build a better infrastructure for Glasgow’s creative community.

After a morning of presentations from Outer SpacesLateral NorthAgile CityThe Work RoomDundee HapworksPaisley’s Sculpture House and Narture CIC, we’ll host a workshop to tackle:

1. What kind of city we want to maintain and build together

2. What our tangible and spatial needs are as a creative community

3. What Creative Glasgow’s role in that conversation might be going forwards

Tickets are £18 (includes lunch & refreshments).

We are offering a limited number of free bursary places, covering costs like travel, access, and childcare. To apply, book your place and submit the bursary request form by Wednesday 19th February.

Don’t miss out—let’s build the future of Glasgow’s creative spaces together!

Call for Contributions: Creative Education, Training & Skills Showcase Day

Creative Glasgow invite Higher and Further Education Institutions, creative organisations, students, recent graduates, and practitioners to join us on 26th March 2025 to celebrate the creative education, professional training, and skills development opportunities that exist across the city.

This event will explore:

  • Widening access to, and participation in, creative and cultural education
  • Student experiences: partnerships between education institutions and the creative sector
  • Supporting graduate ambitions: employability pathways and progression routes
  • Self-employment: supporting student enterprise and business development

We are also open to other themes! Contributions are welcomed through our form. Deadline: Friday 14th February.

For more details or questions, contact programme@creativeglasgow.co.uk.

SOUP: Extra Tickets Released

Due to incredible demand we are delighted to make additional tickets available to our SOUP event! Based on the famous Detroit SOUP model, this event is all about community, creativity, and giving back. We have an incredible range of pitches lined up and can’t wait to see who walks away with the cash raised on the door (recommended donation £10+)

When: Thursday 20 February 2025, 6pm – 9pm
Where: Civic House, Glasgow

If you are no longer able to attend please contact admin@creativeglasgow.co.uk so that we can pass your ticket on…

Creative Glasgow has officially launched!

Thank you to everyone who came together on Wednesday 5 February for an unforgettable night at the launch of Creative Glasgow.

The event at Civic House was buzzing with energy, featuring everything from thought-provoking lightning talks on live art and mental health, to hands-on workshops with Glasgow Zine Library and The Bold Collective.

Thank you to our incredible presenters who really captured the spirit of Glasgow’s creative community: Stephen Greer on Glasgow’s live art history & its future, Halina Rifai on mental health in Glasgow’s creative scene, Chris Yeoh from Glasgow Zine Library on the power of zines for community building, Greg Shearer with a spoken word performance on working-class life, Freya NicLeòid from Lateral North on blending digital tech with physical spaces, Loa Pour Mirza on collage-making as a radical creative tool, and Robert Thomas James Mills with an exploration of time, space, and imagination.

Shout out to our incredible BSL interpreter Mel Toner, and to Junglehussi and Phil HEALTHY for providing the tunes. Special thanks to our generous drink sponsors Panther Milk and Epochal – the Dirty Banana Shakes and barrel fermented ales went down a treat!

And thanks to the talented photographer/videographer Basharat Khan, every moment was captured for the memories.

But this is just the beginning! Over the coming months, we’ve got a packed programme of events and opportunities to bring the creative community closer together. A big part of this is the Member’s Directory – a space for you to connect, collaborate, and showcase your work – on our new website designed by the wonderful Bold Studio. You can still join Creative Glasgow and help shape what’s next. Sign up now!

Creative Glasgow Newsletter – 7 Feb 2025

We’re back again with news and opportunities for Glasgow’s creative community.

Click below for the lowdown on our Launch Party and details about upcoming events and opportunities!

Creative Glasgow Privacy Notice

Last Updated November 2024

This Privacy Notice for Creative Glasgow (‘we’, ‘us, or ‘our’), describes how and why we might access, collect, store, use, and/or share (‘process’) your personal information when you use our services (‘Services’), including when you:

  • Visit our website at http://www.creativeglasgow.co.uk, or any website of ours that links to this Privacy Notice
  • Use Creative Glasgow, a membership organisation for the creative and cultural sectors in Greater Glasgow. Creative Glasgow is a Limited Company with Charitable Status, registered in Scotland with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) (SC053016).
  • Engage with us in other related ways, including our marketing activities and events

 

Questions or concerns?

Reading this Privacy Notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. We are responsible for making decisions about how your personal information is processed in keeping with all relevant legal requirements, including the UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our services. If you still have questions or concerns, please contact us at admin@creativeglasgow.co.uk

What personal information do we process?

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us. This may include the following: names, email addresses, job titles, usernames, passwords, contact preferences, contact information, date of birth, and authentication data.

When you visit, use, or navigate our services, we may process personal information depending on how you interact with us and the Services we provide, the choices you make, and the features you use. You must notify us of any changes to personal information.

We do not process sensitive personal information (for example your racial or ethnic origins, sexual orientation, or religious beliefs) through this website. We also do not collect any information about you from third parties.

Some information – such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address and/or browser and device characteristics – is collected automatically when you use our services. Like many businesses, we also collect information through cookies and similar technologies.

How do we process your information?

We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our services, communicate with you, and to comply with the law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent. We process your information only when we have a valid legal reason to do so.

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires us to explain the valid legal bases we rely on in order to process your personal information. In our case this includes:

  •  Consent: we may process your information if you have given us permission (i.e. consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Performance of a contract: We may process your personal information when we believe it is necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations to you, including providing services to you.

Creative Glasgow are the ‘data controller’ for the purposes of this Privacy Notice. We determine the means and/or purposes of the data processing we perform.

We may, from time to time, share information in specific situations with third parties. This includes vendors, consultants and third-party service providers who perform services for us on our behalf and require access to such information to do that work. Contracts will be in place to safeguard your personal information. We may also use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect and store your information, this includes allowing third parties to access this data for the purposes of online analytics (such as Google Analytics).

How do we keep your information safe?

We only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice, unless a longer retention period is required by law (for example for accounting, reporting or other legal requirements). We have adequate organisational and technical processes and procedures in place to protect your personal information. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorised third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. If this occurs we have a legal obligation to inform the Information Commissioner https://ico.org.uk/

What are your rights?

You have the right, under the UK GDPR, to (1) request access and obtain a copy of your personal data; (2) to request rectification or erasure; (3) to restrict the processing of your personal information; (4) request data portability to another service; and (5) not to be subjected to automated decision-making.

How to contact us?

For any questions relating to our storage or processing of your personal data please contact us at admin@creativeglasgow.co.uk

Or write to us at

Creative Glasgow
Civic House
24 Civic Street
Glasgow
G4 9RH