The Glasgow School IV: CPP and all That

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who has read and spread the previous Glasgow School posts. I'd like this process to be transparent, and be in a constant state of flux. That said, the idea is to limit it in time...

Educational institutes play an important role in determining Glasgow's artistic profile. Lowndes identifies the importance of the Glasgow School of Art in both attracting artists to the city and providing a locus for creativity - in particular, the Environmental Art course, which encouraged an open interpretation of what art can be, as well as promoting the idea of art within a wider social discourse. For performance, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Glasgow University have both provided academic courses that have feed recent generations of makers.

The Conservatoire has been active in producing , not only actors and directors but, through the Contemporary Performance Practice degree, a generation of creatives who fall into the lineage of Live Art.

Here's the description of the course from the website.

Our students tell us that studying CPP at the Conservatoire is like nothing you could ever imagine. It’s total immersion in a challenging programme with the central philosophy that human beings make art in order to understand better the world in which they live.

 It’s for aspiring performance makers who wish to develop their skills as innovative and socially engaged performers, directors, teachers, and cultural leaders, who can realize their aspirations to create and shape the future of new work. In one sense, this could be the programme for you if you are passionate about creating performance, but you’re unsure of what you’d specifically like to do in the field.

You will be able to explore the realization of ideas through the disciplines of performance, education, installation, movement, research, and documentation. We will help you to develop your performance skills in our world-class facilities, working with our staff, visiting practitioners, directors, and lecturers, with regular opportunities to take part in specialist workshops and masterclasses. You will push yourself and push boundaries, creating new works with image, action, sound, and text.

You will leave the Royal Conservatoire as an independent and entrepreneurial self-managing ‘ eco-centric’ artist with an awareness of the aesthetic, intellectual, social, emotional, political, and ecological considerations of a holistic and sustainable arts practice.

Graduate destinations

We place great emphasis upon preparing you for a range of diverse careers in professional practice. The programme is packed with work opportunities. Performance and professional collaborations with national and international cutting-edge practitioners, companies, festivals, and arts venues are central to the programme. 

Recent projects have included work with The Arches, the macrobert, Libellule Theatre, Janice Parker, National Theatre of Scotland, Glas(s) Performance, the Tramway, Fish and Game, the British Red Cross, and Nic Green, and several students have gone on secondment to international locations such as the USA, Switzerland, Germany, India, and Zambia.

Our graduates are working as solo artists in the live arts sector, directors and performers in devised, community, or educational theatre, and as freelance drama workers. A significant number of graduates have successfully set up their own companies. With further study graduates have also become drama teachers and drama specialists. 

Alumni from the programme include Nic Green, Jess Thorpe, Tashi Gore, Peter McMaster, Becki Gerrard, Gary McNair, and Johnny McKnight, all of whom produce performance work internationally, and frequently teach or give workshops at the Conservatoire.

What would work well here is a bit of an email interview with someone teaching on the course, or one of those graduates...