From Cowp to Nature Reserve

From 2018 to 2022, Glasgow Sculpture Studios and Hamiltonhill Claypits Local Nature Reserve Management Group worked with artist Mitch Miller to produce a public artwork that captures and documents the social history of The Claypits and surrounding area.

Mitch makes participatory artworks that he calls ‘Dialectograms’ – large drawings that blend comics, maps and ethnography to tell the various stories that make up a specific place or area. To make these artworks Mitch spends a lot of time getting to know a place, talking with lots of different people and hearing their stories, experiences, and points of view.

The industrial heritage of the canal is well known but the social history is less well documented. As a result, Mitch and the Community Team focused on collecting a wide range of stories from those who have lived around and used the Claypits over the years to create a Dialectogram of, and for, The Claypits site to mark this key moment in the area’s history.

The project focused on how vital the practice of oral history is in sharing and telling the stories and histories of places like the Claypits from the people who actually have lived experience of the place. We wanted to take a ‘live-heritage’ approach to reinforce the idea that heritage is a living evolving thing that is continually produced and shaped by the communities actually living and working in the area now, and that these stories are vital cultural artefacts to capture and share. Feedback during the project also highlighted that the experience of working with an artist helped legitimise local knowledge and opinion that public bodies and agencies might have been quick to dismiss otherwise.

Throughout the course of the delivery of this project we were able to provide a range of engagement opportunities – ranging from one-off events to more sustained and in-depth involvement and participation. Through the fieldwork and interviews conducted by Mitch and the Community Team we were able to gather the stories and memories of 33 members of the local community. In addition to this, through events and other associated programming, we were able to reach a further 500 members of the local community through walks, family activities, workshops, and a celebration to mark the unveiling of the final artwork.