The life behind 'Cultural Connections'

March 27^th 2014 was the day when we all met for the first time.

We went to Ayr by train and on the way everyone was introducing themselves
and we all were immensely excited.

Marzanna, Fiona, Angela and Maria on the way to Ayr.

Claire documenting the whole process of making the festival happen.

 

And when we entered the Rozelle Estate’s gate the park looked just beautiful.
The Gallery’s white walls were basking in the shy early spring sun, grass and trees
shimmered with shades of green, the air was cool and fresh… It felt the right place to be.

Dianne and everyone whom we came across made us feel welcomed and valued.
We were shown round the Galleries, the House and went for a walk in the magnificent park.
It was a pleasant and highly productive time.

Our first visit to the galleries.

A stroll in the park.

 

On the way back to Glasgow we were even more excited than in the morning.
We were all thrilled and eager to immerse ourselves in the festival work!

We started reading more in depth about the artists whose works will form our exhibition.
Angela and Maria began their thorough archiving work in search of precious undiscovered materials; Lauren devoted herself to creating images for the new Hannah Frank website; Marzanna felt in her element cooperating closely with Dianne and Fiona to plan the events calendar, and Claire was always around with her camera documenting this making of an exhibition.

It all made perfect sense. That’s probably why Fiona Frank wrote later, inspired by another meeting:

“Very happy about the five amazing women working with me to bring the name of Hannah Frank even more to the fore - they all say they're doing their 'dream jobs'!!! - curators Maria Simou and Angela Short (Maria is also doing social media, carrying on after the great work of Elly Griffith-Ward, and Angela is also doing archiving), events organiser Marzanna Antoniak, photographer Claire Maxwell and illustrator Lauren Stephanie Pass spent the day with four of them on Monday at the Maclaurin Gallery - watch out for a fabulous exhibition starting July 2014.”

Angela at work.

Planning in progress. After countless draft versions we now have
the final festival programme with a variety of events for you to choose from!

 

This is where we are so far. It still makes perfect sense, especially as the close proximity of the Festival makes it feel very real now.