Ellie Harrison

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"pretentious agitprop"
- The Spectator
"probably Scotland’s highest-profile transport campaigner"
- Conrad Landin
"clever-but-accessible"
- The List
"a critique of the careerist structure of the art system or merely a symptom of it?"
- Moira Jeffrey
"doing something conceptually beautiful with the possibility of making real changes in the world"
- David Pollock

News

Ellie Harrison is an artist & activist based in Glasgow (UK). In 2023 she won the Stephen Fry Public Engagement Award for her ‘Bus Regulation: The Musical’ Trilogy in Greater Manchester, Strathclyde & Merseyside (2019 – 2023).
In 2021 the Second Edition of Harrison’s book The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint was launched at the UN Habitat’s Innovate4Cities conference to mark the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, and chosen by the Ecologist for the Resurgence Book Club. Her Early Warning Signs were also exhibited at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library during COP26 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the project.
Harrison’s Vending Machine continues to feature in the 😹 LMAO exhibition exploring humour in data visualisation at the Open Data Institute in London.

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Ellie Harrison

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Artist, activist & author of 'The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint' 📚

This weekend Wasps Artists' Studios - Hanson Street, Glasgow is celebrating its 25th anniversary! 🥳 I’ve been based here for sixteen of those years, since 2010. On 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟯 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿, 𝟭𝟭𝗮𝗺-𝟰𝗽𝗺 I’m opening my studio to visitors as part of the building’s special anniversary open studios event: waspsstudios.org.uk/news/hanson-street-studios-celebrates-25th-anniversary-this-october/ Please come down and say hello! @followers ...

1 week ago

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On Thursday night we launched the Get Glasgow Moving public transport campaign’s 10th Anniversary Exhibition at The New Glasgow Society 🙌 It’s only on until Weds 23rd Sept, so please make sure you visit! 👇

🗓️ Open every day until Weds 23rd September, 12noon-5pm
📍 1307 Argyle Street, G3 8TL

It’s been a total labour of love to bring this exhibition together – four days’ solid to install and a whole summer spent sorting through the archives and organising more than 240 photographs, sixty press cuttings, fifty films, alongside many old placards, banners and leaflets to the tell the story of our campaign over the last decade 🚍 🚇 🚆

If you don’t know much about Get Glasgow Moving or just want to find out how I’ve been spending a massive chunk of my time over the last 10 years as the campaign’s co-founder and chairperson – then please make sure you come along!

I’ll be invigilating from Monday – Weds, so come and say hi 😊

We are also selling our popular campaign t-shirts, designed by yours truly, for just £10 – so don't miss your chance to get one 👕

And thanks, as always, to Neil Scott for the wonderful photos!

Presented as part of Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2026

#GlasgowDoorsOpenDaysFestival #GlasgowGoesOut #CulturalHeritage #GlasgowEvents #GDODF26 @followers ...

3 weeks ago

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Opening this Thursday! 📢 Please don't miss this special exhibition I've curated to celebrate the Get Glasgow Moving campaign's 10th Anniversary 🥳 I've been working on it all summer and it's 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗶𝘅 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 at The New Glasgow Society as part of Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival #GDODF26 @followers 🙏 ...

4 weeks ago

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I was delighted to be back in Liverpool City Region this week for the launch of Merseytravel's new publicly-controlled bus network 🚌🥳 I staged 'Bus Regulation: The Musical' here in 2022 and 2023 as part of the campaign which led to Steve Rotheram's decision to become the 2nd UK city region to roll-out bus franchising, after Greater Manchester. Find out more here: ellieharrison.com/merseyside @followers ...

1 month ago

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After 10 years campaigning, it's just brilliant to see The Scottish Government finally taking action to regulate bus fares in Glasgow 👏 But their £2 fare cap will do nothing to improve services, create new routes or integrate timetables and tickets with other transport modes 🚍🚇🚆 For that we must bring our bus network back into public control. Please support Better Buses for Strathclyde to make it happen ✊ @followers ...

1 month ago

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Thanks so much to The National Newspaper for inviting me to discuss how to fix Glasgow's public transport on their podcast! 😄🚍🚇🚆 Listen to find out more about my campaigning with Get Glasgow Moving, Better Buses for Strathclyde, Bring Back British Rail & GoBike 👇 @followers ...

2 months ago

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It was great to meet Paul from PalFox Photography last month when he visited me at Wasps Studios Hanson Street to take these fab pictures 📷

My studio has always been more like an office than anything else, going back to my very first one in Glasgow in the Barnes Building at The Glasgow School of Art from 2008-2010. I bought ‘The Boss’ mug back then as I was interested in the aesthetics of the corporate world and exploring what it meant to be self-employed worker, making pieces like ‘The History of Financial Crises’ (2009), ‘Desk Chair Parade’ (2009) and ‘Desk Chair Disco’ (2011), and the ‘Work-a-thon for the Self-Employed’ (2011).

I’m not making much art these days as nearly all my time goes into local community activism, particularly with the Glasgow Community Energy co-operative which I helped get up-and-running during the pandemic, and with the Get Glasgow Moving public transport campaign which I co-founded in 2016.

Over the summer I’m preparing for Get Glasgow Moving’s 10th Anniversary Exhibition at the New Glasgow Society, which opens on Thurs 17 September as part of Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2026.

I love using my creative skills to further causes that I’m passionate about. Over the years I've designed many campaign materials – including this ‘Trans-Clyde Links You Clyde-Wide’ T-Shirt, which is based on the original marketing for the Trans-Clyde integrated public transport network launched by the Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive in 1979, the year that I was born.

The integrated public transport networks which most big city-regions had were wilfully destroyed in 1986 with the deregulation (and later privatisation) of buses. This was one of the most destructive of all Margaret Thatcher’s policies, and it is shameful that The Scottish Government has continued to maintain it for more than quarter of a century of devolution. With the Better Buses for Strathclyde campaign, we are doing all we can to get our region’s buses back in public control.

If you like the T-Shirt, come down to the exhibition in September and you’ll be able to get one there! And, if you'd like to have a nosey round my studio, I'm also planning to take part in the Open Studios at Wasps Artists' Studios - Hanson Street, Glasgow on Sat 3 October 😊 See you there! @followers ...

3 months ago

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This 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟱 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 in Glasgow! 📢 I'm delighted to be talking about my work with Get Glasgow Moving & Glasgow Community Energy at the 𝘙𝘦𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘺: 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘎𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘨𝘰𝘸? conference at the University of Glasgow 🎟️ Tickets are free, so come join us 👇 @followers ...

4 months ago

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Commodities

Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund Sticker £3.00
Counterpoint Poster £10.00
National Museum of Roller Derby Sticker £3.00
Hen Weekend Bag £10.00
Ellie & Oliver Show T-Shirt £20.00
Bring Back British Rail Sticker £3.00
Confessions of a Recovering Data Collector £10.00
4 LIVE Broadcasts DVD £20.00
Tea Blog Sticker £1.00

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