Social / Networks
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People Powered Money
From March 2016 – March 2017, Harrison worked as part of the ‘Glasgow Pound Working Group’, to explore possibilities for developing a citywide community currency to serve the people of Glasgow and build a stronger local economy.
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Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund
Initiated by Harrison in 2015, the Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund (RRAAF) aims to be a new and autonomous funding scheme, which uses renewable energy to offer ‘no strings attached’ grants for art-activist projects in the UK.
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National Museum of Roller Derby
The National Museum of Roller Derby (NMRD) collection was founded at Glasgow Women’s Library in 2012 as Harrison’s contribution to the Library’s 20th anniversary celebrations. As a new ‘outreach’ initiative, the NMRD aims to bring a whole new, strong and revolutionary young audience to the Library, by using it as a home for the UK’s first permanent archive for the new and exciting all-female, full-contact sport of Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby.
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The Artists’ Bond
Harrison is the Agent for this life-long speculative funding scheme for UK-based artists. The Artists’ Bond was established in 2011 by the forty members of the Artists’ Lottery Syndicate (which ran from 1 July 2010 – 1 July 2011), who together chose to re-invest their annual winnings in a new collective venture devised to create a bond between them over the course of their careers.
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Work-a-thon for the Self-Employed
Work-a-thon for the Self-Employed is a world record classification initiated by Harrison in 2011. It aims to encourage isolated freelance workers like herself to come together to attempt to break the record for ‘the most self-employed people working together (on their own individual projects) in the same place at the same time, over the course of a normal 9-to-5 day’.
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Artists Anonymous
Artists Anonymous was a support group for Glasgow-based artists co-founded, coordinated and attended by Harrison over the course of two years. It took place every three weeks at the CCA in Glasgow and aimed to provide a ‘safe space for its members to speak candidly, honestly and confidentially to others about the anxieties and stresses of their professional lives’.
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Artists’ Lottery Syndicate
On 1 April 2010, Harrison launched the Artists’ Lottery Syndicate forming a forty-strong collective of UK based artists joining forces to play The National Lottery over the course of a year, with the hope of hitting the jackpot. The Syndicate ran from 1 July 2010 – 1 July 2011 and was a fun and social group activity, which operated as a gentle critique of artists’ relationships to the economy, as well as a potential money-maker.
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Notts on Tour
In September 2007, Harrison coordinated Notts On Tour – a group road trip to Germany combining visits to Documenta 12 in Kassel and Sculpture Projects Münster 07. The trip was attended by 40 artists and curators from Nottingham, Leicester, Birmingham, Sheffield and Derby. Notts On Tour aimed to provide an important shared experience, which would strengthen the art community in Nottingham and its surrounding region.
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Hen Weekend
In 2007 Harrison devised and founded Hen Weekend – ‘the seminar by the sea for female artists, writers and curators. The project aims to facilitate discussion and encourage collaboration between its participants, and to begin to create a unique support network for talented female practitioners working within the contemporary art sector. Hen Weekend events take place in collaboration with seaside art centres around the UK. The pilot event took place at De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Sea from 30 March – 1 April 2007.
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Union of Undercover Artists
The Union of Undercover Artists was formed in summer 2006 by Harrison, Elizabeth Kearney and Joanna Spitzner in response to the project Part-time, which they had each been commissioned to take part in. For Part-time the three artists were required to spend four weeks working undercover in low-wage jobs and to make work in response to their experiences. As well as drawing attention to the lack of support or representation for individuals working in the visual arts sector, the Union of Undercover Artists formed one of the artists’ major responses to the Part-time project.
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The Quotidian Factor
The first collaborative project between Adele Prince and Ellie Harrison was this artists’ workshop based on the popular UK TV series The Krypton Factor. The day-long workshop took place at Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth as part of the ARC programme, which accompanied the Day-to-Day Data exhibition in the gallery. The Quotidian Factor featured a series of four rounds in which participants competed in challenges designed to get them inspired by the little things in life.
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Day-to-Day Data
Day-to-Day Data – ‘an exhibition of artists who collect, list, database and absurdly analyse the data of everyday life’, was Harrison’s first major curatorial project. It developed as a way of further exploring the ideas at the core of her practice, and as a way of bringing together a group of artists who shared similar interests. The project featured newly commissioned works by twenty artists and comprised a gallery-based exhibition touring to three UK venues, a publication and a website.
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