11 March 2016
The Sun
Controversial artist Ellie Harrison has been forced to take “Special Leave” from her salaried lecturer job to complete art project The Glasgow Effect.
The University of Dundee lecturer, 36, was originally granted paid leave to “live in Glasgow” for a year.
But she revealed today the university has pulled support from the project – forcing her to take unpaid leave from March 1 – December 31 in order to complete it.
A newsletter on her website states “The University has also stated that because “the stipulated focus of the research contained within the original project application has partially shifted to include a critique of the University and the way in which it operates”, it will no longer publicly support the project.”
Ms Harrison was originally going to receive her salary of £25,484.01 while donating £15,000 of funding from Creative Scotland to cover the costs of hiring a lecturer to replace her.
Now she plans to split the Creative Scotland grant, using £7,500 for living expenses and the other half to “invest in projects and campaigns which I care passionately about”.
She also amped up the pressure with the added challenge of not travelling in a vehicle for the whole year – a GPS tracking device will alert Creative Scotland if she travels at more than 20mph or goes beyond the Greater Glasgow boundary.
She added that she plans to work in a “collaborative, low-key way” and will keep “a low-profile” for the rest of the year.
The lecturer in Contemporary Art Practices split opinion and caused backlash on social media when she revealed The Glasgow Effect to the public at the start of the year.
Her project was slammed as a waste of money after she planned to “increase her sense of belonging” by never setting foot outside Glasgow.
It was described as “A year long ‘action research’ project / durational performance, for which artist Ellie Harrison will not travel outside Greater Glasgow for a whole year (except in the event of the ill-health / death of close relative or friend)”.
Creative Scotland insisted the project met the funding criteria.