The project included 15 artists, 18 partner organisations, and 7 funders – 6 weeks of community workshops led to the public art event on 28 april – including 2 working trebuchets/catapults, mailboats made from Clyde flotsam, a huge string-and-cup telephone and marine signal flags.
Nothing About Us Without Us Is For Us was shortlisted for a Creative Scotland Award 2012.
The main event day attracted more than 1500 visitors and made a compelling case for the riverside at Govan as a public space. The Govan Armada was a fleet of model mailboats constructed from flotsam pulled from the River Clyde and each carrying a message. More that 20 different community groups and organisations took part in workshops and made 73 boats Three new sets of flags were created in Govan for Nothing About Us – these were used to send messages across the Clyde to the Tallship at the Riverside Museum. The Govan flags were made by artists Alexandra Bowie, Geraldine Greene and Fiona Fleming working with local community groupsThe flag codes were freely available around Govan, allowing people to decipher messages being passed between the Tallship at The Riverside Museum and various buildings in Govan during the week leading up to the main public event.The Galgael Trust constructed a trebuchet catapult and propelled a ‘Charm Offensive’ across the river. Ammunition created by Colin Begg and the Kinning Park ComplexThe judging of the Armada by Jimmy Stringfellow the head of one Govan Showpeople family with Jenny Brownrigg of Glasgow School of ArtOther communication projects at Nothing About Us included the human megaphone and choral singing (Steven Anderson), River Patter (Ingrid-Shearer) and a giant string and cup telephone (Kate V Robertson).
