Ellie Harrison

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privatisation

  • 2023 Exhibition

    Bus Regulation: The Musical (Merseyside)

    15 Jul 2023
    The Black-E, Liverpool

  • 2022 Performance / Events
    Bus Regulation: The Musical staged at the Bluecoat on 13 November 2022

    Bus Regulation: The Musical (Merseyside)

    The final part of Harrison’s Bus Regulation: The Musical Trilogy – inspired by the 1980s hit musical ‘Starlight Express’ – re-enacts the history of public transport provision in the Merseyside region from the post-war period to the present day… on roller skates!

  • 2022 Performance / Events
    Bus Regulation: The Musical staged at CCA Glasgow on 24 April 2022

    Bus Regulation: The Musical (Strathclyde)

    The second iteration of Harrison’s Bus Regulation: The Musical – inspired by the 1980s hit musical ‘Starlight Express’ – re-enacts the history of public transport provision in the Strathclyde region from the post-war period to the present day… on roller skates!

  • 2019 Writing

    The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint

    On 4 November 2019, Luath Press published Harrison’s first book. Inspired by her 2016 ‘durational performance’ The Glasgow Effect – for which she refused to travel beyond Glasgow’s city limits, or use any vehicles except her bike, for the whole calendar year – the book provides the complete context for her thinking and action. (Word count: 119,000)

  • 2019 Performance / Events
    Bus Regulation: The Musical staged at Manchester Art Gallery on 28 September 2019

    Bus Regulation: The Musical (Greater Manchester)

    Inspired by the 1980s hit musical ‘Starlight Express’, this performance / event re-enacts the history of public transport provision in Greater Manchester from the post-war period to the present day… on roller skates!

  • 2016 Political Campaigns, Writing

    A Better Railway for Britain

    Writing as founder and coordinator of Bring Back British Rail, Harrison reflects on the last seven years’ campaigning for the public ownership of our railways in this preface for the campaign’s first report, launched in the Houses of Parliament in London on 13 October 2016. (Word count: 663)

  • 2014 Political Campaigns, Writing

    Power For The People!

    In this comment piece for The Ecologist, Harrison details how her concerns about climate change led her to start campaigning for the public ownership of our essential services and infrastructure with Bring Back British Rail and Power For The People. (Word count: 766)

  • 2013 Political Campaigns

    Power For The People

    Harrison launched Bring Back British Rail’s ‘sister campaign’ Power for the People in October 2013 in order to popularise the idea of returning the UK’s energy production and supply to public ownership. Together the campaigns aim to ‘join the dots’ between our most carbon-intensive industries and services to make evident the need to remove the profit-motive from all of them in order to meet the challenges of climate change.
    Campaign website

  • 2012 Political Campaigns, Writing

    Bring Back British Rail

    As founder of the Bring Back British Rail campaign, Harrison was invited to write about the public ownership of our railways for the Green Party of England & Wales’s The New Home Front II (p.41-42) in 2012, which looks to the post-war period for lessons on how to tackle climate change now. (Word count: 709)

  • 2011 Installations
    A Brief History of Privatisation installed at Watermans in 2011

    A Brief History of Privatisation

    An installation in which the oscillations in UK public service policy over the last century are re-enacted by an inner circle of electric massage chairs under the seedy glow of red, and then blue, neon.

  • 2009 Political Campaigns

    Bring Back British Rail

    In 2009, Harrison – the self-professed ‘Che Guevara of trainspotters’ – founded the national Bring Back British Rail campaign to popularise the idea of re-nationalising our public transport system. Now with more than 150,000 supporters across Facebook, Twitter, Riseup and its online petitions, Harrison continues to coordinate the campaign with the help of a small network of volunteers around the UK.
    Campaign website

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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Why are we still waiting for better buses? 🚌 Check out this brilliant new animation by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee graduate Sooz Reilly which we launched this week as part of the Better Buses for Strathclyde campaign. Please take two minutes to 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗠𝗦𝗣𝘀 to demand action 👇 @followers
📨 betterbuses.uk/strathclyde/#email
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3 weeks ago
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It was an honour to organise this event for the brilliant Govanhill International Festival 🙌 @followers

It was an honour to organise this event for the brilliant Govanhill International Festival and Carnival 🙌 @followers ... See MoreSee Less

3 months ago
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Published today! Check out The Artists Bonds 14th Annual Report, detailing our third best performing year with 3 cash prizes totalling £125 🥳💷 This means an annual payout of £0.79 for each or our 159 artist members 👏 @followers Read more here 👇
artistsbond.co.uk/14artistsbondreport2024.pdf

Published today! Check out The Artists' Bond's 14th Annual Report, detailing our third best performing year with 3 cash prizes totalling £125 🥳💷 This means an annual payout of £0.79 for each or our 159 artist members 👏 @followers Read more here 👇
artistsbond.co.uk/14artistsbondreport2024.pdf
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3 months ago
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This 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝟲 𝗔𝘂𝗴𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱, 𝟳𝗽𝗺! 📣 Don't miss our FREE Cultivating Community Activism: Learning from Cathy McCormack’s ‘The Wee Yellow Butterfly’ event as part of Govanhill International Festival 🙌 Listen to my interview on Sunny Govan to find out more! @followers tune in from 1:04:09 👇 ... See MoreSee Less

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Govanhill Festival 2025 preview interviews - 29 July 2025

www.mixcloud.com

3 months ago
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I was delighted to be interviewed about the Bring Back British Rail campaign for 14-year-old Riku Fryderyk's brilliant new documentary about rail re-nationalisation 🚉 Well worth a watch! 🙌 @followers ... See MoreSee Less

4 months ago
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Commodities

  • Hen Weekend Bag Hen Weekend Bag £10.00
  • 4 Live Broadcasts DVD 4 LIVE Broadcasts DVD £20.00
  • National Museum of Roller Derby Sticker National Museum of Roller Derby Sticker £3.00
  • Confessions of a Recovering Data Collector Book Confessions of a Recovering Data Collector £10.00
  • The Quotidian Factor Badge The Quotidian Factor Badge £2.00
  • Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund Sticker Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund Sticker £3.00
  • Gold Card Adventures Poster Gold Card Adventures Poster £5.00
  • Bring Back British Rail Sticker Bring Back British Rail Sticker £3.00
  • Part-time Book Part-time Book £10.00

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  • ellie@ellieharrison.com

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