Wandering through Glasgow you cannot avoid the pops of colour in the form of the city’s numerous murals, and the good news is these works expand even further across the city. SWG3, is a multi-disciplinary arts venue and events company, Yorkhill, located in the West End, is Scotland’s first-ever dedicated ‘Street Art District’.
Yardworks Studio down at the riverside has put over £500,000 in 2021 into developing Yorkhill into an area dedicated solely to street and graffiti art forms. This funding went towards creating a hub for artists of all levels, ages and backgrounds and forms part of broader plans to transform the areas surrounding SWG3 and the Clydeside.
With the £500,000 grant awarded by the Scottish Government’s Regeneration Capital Grant Fund, and an additional grant of £40,000 from the William Grant Foundation, the development of this ‘Street Art District’ also acted as a link between the riverside communities of Partick, Yorkhill and Govan. Once complete, the district will see gable ends illuminated with new, large-scale murals, creating an open-air gallery trail and attracting visitors to the area.
At the centre of the ‘Street Art District’ is the Yard Works Studio, the UK’s first purpose-built home for street arts, which provides space for hundreds of artists to create work. Built on-site in SWG3’s Yard, the new studio features a heated workshop, a 12m high wall for the creation of large-scale artworks, specialist equipment and working space for artists, youth and community organisations. Plus, there’s a glazed wall at the front of the studio to allow passers-by on Eastvale Place to catch a glimpse of the exciting work being created within the hub.