Ellie Harrison

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The Glasgow Effect

  • 2016 Media

    City backlash against the artist accused of sneering at Glasgow with image of chips

    6 Jan 2016
    The Times (p.11)

  • 2016 Media

    Dear Creative Scotland: Ellie Harrison is a Class Act

    6 Jan 2016
    Bella Caledonia

  • 2016 Media

    Outraged over a £15,000 Glasgow art project? Look at the bigger picture

    6 Jan 2016
    The Guardian

  • 2016 Media

    ‘Poverty safari’: Glasgow art project comes under fire

    6 Jan 2016
    Apollo

  • 2016 Media

    The Glasgow Effect discussion

    6 Jan 2016
    Janice Forsyth, BBC Radio Scotland

  • 2016 Media

    Artist defends £15,000 grant that sparked abusive attack

    6 Jan 2016
    The Herald (p.11)

  • 2016 Media

    The Glasgow Effect

    6 Jan 2016
    Exeunt Magazine

  • 2016 Media

    ‘Glasgow Effect’ artist controversy: arts body defends funding Ellie Harrison

    6 Jan 2016
    The Herald

  • 2016 Media

    Artist Defends Controversial Project to Stay Local in Glasgow

    6 Jan 2016
    Artnet News (USA)

  • 2016 Media

    Paid to Live Like Common People

    6 Jan 2016
    Daily Mail (p.14)

  • 2016 Media

    The Glasgow Effect debate

    5 Jan 2016
    Scotland 2016, BBC Two

  • 2016 Media

    Artist’s stay at home project has wrong effect

    5 Jan 2016
    The Scotsman (p.5)

  • 2016 Media

    Artist’s £15,000 grant to stay in Glasgow for a year is money well spent

    5 Jan 2016
    The Guardian

  • 2016 Media

    [Insert outraged headline about The Glasgow Effect funding shocker]

    5 Jan 2016
    The List

  • 2016 Media

    Handout Blast: £15,000… it’s Monet for Nothing

    5 Jan 2016
    The Sun (p.19)

  • 2016 Media

    Creative Scotland defends ‘Glasgow Effect’ arts project funding

    5 Jan 2016
    BBC News, Glasgow & West Scotland

  • 2016 Media

    Artist’s £15K… to Stay in Glasgow

    5 Jan 2016
    Daily Mail (p.5)

  • 2016 Media

    The Glasgow Effect phone-in

    5 Jan 2016
    Kaye Adams, BBC Radio Scotland

  • 2016 Media

    Art of provoking a backlash

    5 Jan 2016
    The Herald (p.1)

  • 2016 Media

    London artist paid £15k public money to spend a year in Glasgow for research project branded ‘poverty safari’

    4 Jan 2016
    Daily Record

  • 2016 Performance / Events

    The Glasgow Effect

    The Glasgow Effect was a multi-layered ‘research project‘, which took place in 2016. Its central provocation was that Harrison would refuse to travel beyond Glasgow’s city limits, or use any vehicles except her bike, for a whole calendar year (1 January – 31 December 2016). On 8 January 2017, she gave a talk about the work at the Glasgow Film Theatre. On 4 November 2019, she published a book providing the complete context for her thinking and action.

  • 2015 Lectures

    Sustainability in Practice

    Speaking at the Culture & Sustainability event organised by Julie’s Bicycle at The Tetley in Leeds, Harrison discusses the challenges and consequences of putting ‘sustainability’ into practice; specifically: her life-long project Early Warning Signs, her Environmental Policy and how her breaches of its Transportation section led to The Glasgow Effect.

  • 2015 Exhibition

    For Love or Money

    Created in 2015 to highlight the main causes of Harrison’s breaches to her own Environmental Policy and the amount of carbon each produced, For Love or Money paved the way for The Glasgow Effect in 2016.

  • 2015 Writing

    Venice Biennale: Think Local, Act Global!

    Harrison self-critically reflects on the experience of taking part in the 2015 Venice Biennale (as part of Doug Fishbone’s Leisure Land Golf) in this short text for Press Room, which laid the groundwork for The Glasgow Effect in 2016. (Word count: 760)

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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

Ellie Harrison

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

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Don't miss our Better Buses National Hustings tonight! 👇 You can catch me on the livestream at 7pm:
📺 www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rFh2CjP_Xs @followers
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1 month ago
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"We need The Scottish Government to support our transport authority, SPT, to bring the bus network back into public control, so they can deliver a fully-integrated, accessible and affordable public transport network across the region like Greater Manchester’s new ‘Bee Network’, or the recently released plans for South Yorkshire’s ‘People’s Network’" — Ellie Harrison

I was delighted to contribute to Gerry Hassan's article for Bella Caledonia about 𝘈 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘝𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘎𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘨𝘰𝘸 👏 Read online here 👇
bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/03/31/time-for-a-new-deal-and-vision-for-glasgow @followers
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2 months ago
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Calling all A-N members! Don't miss this online artist's talk and workshop on '𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲' which I'm co-hosting this Thursday 2 April, 11am-1pm 🌍 Find out more 👇 @followers ... See MoreSee Less

2 months ago
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Are you in Glasgow t

Are you in Glasgow this evening? Come along to this free screening of the brilliant POWER Film at The Glasgow School of Art 👇 I'll be introducing the event, talking about my work with Glasgow Community Energy and chairing a Q&A with artist and filmmaker Hilary Powell 😊 @followersSave the date! 🌞 We're delighted to be collaborating with Friends of the Earth Scotland to bring you Turning homes into renewable Power Stations: film screening & Discussion 👇
🗓️ Thurs 12 March 2026, 5:30pm
📍 Reid Building, The Glasgow School of Art
🎟️ Book free tickets: powerstationGSA.eventbrite.com @followers
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2 months ago
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It’s this blatant injustice that motivates all my campaigning 😡 Why should people in the poorest parts of Glasgow have to pay 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 for an essential public service as bankers in the City of London? Shame on The Scottish Government for presiding over this system for more than 25 years! @followers ... See MoreSee Less

4 months ago
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Ten years ago today, I was just beginning my year-long durational performance #TheGlasgowEffect which was to become one of the most controversial publicly-funded artworks that Scotland had ever seen.

Part psychological experiment, part protest, part strike, for the whole of 2016, I vowed not to travel beyond Glasgow’s city limits, or use any vehicles except my bike.

I described my experience of starting #TheGlasgowEffect, including being at the centre of the social media stooshie it provoked, in ‘When the Chips Hit the Fan’ – Chapter 5 of my book ‘The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint’ published by Luath Press 📚

We have just printed a newly updated version of the Second Edition, so do have a read if you’d like to be transported back to that moment in January 2016... Find out more at: ellieharrison.com/book @followers
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5 months ago
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It's been brilliant working with Metro Map Design to produce Get Glasgow Moving's new film setting out our vision for the new #ClydeMetro integrated public transport system 🤩 Check it out here 👇 @followers ... See MoreSee Less

5 months ago
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🚶🚲🚍🚇🚉 I was honoured to be invited to discuss my activism with Bring Back British Rail, Get Glasgow Moving & Better Buses for Strathclyde at ETF's 𝘉𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘉𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 conference at KVS Brussels 🙌 @followers ... See MoreSee Less

5 months ago
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Commodities

  • The Quotidian Factor Badge The Quotidian Factor Badge £2.00
  • Bus Regulation: The Musical T-Shirt Bus Regulation: The Musical T-Shirt £15.00
  • Day-to-Day Data Book Day-to-Day Data Book £20.00
  • Ellie & Oliver Show T-Shirt Ellie & Oliver Show T-Shirt £20.00
  • Counterpoint Poster Counterpoint Poster £10.00
  • Bring Back British Rail Sticker Bring Back British Rail Sticker £3.00
  • 4 Live Broadcasts DVD 4 LIVE Broadcasts DVD £20.00
  • Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund Sticker Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund Sticker £3.00
  • Channel Swimming Challenge Logbook Channel Swimming Challenge Logbook £3.00

Contact

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  • ellie@ellieharrison.com

Small Print

  • Creative Commons Licence
  • Environmental Policy
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