SONICA at the Baths

For the next 11 days, the baths will be one of the host venues for the Sonica Festival. Sonic artists from across the world will be exhibiting and performing in 14 venues across Glasgow.
At the baths we have Robbie Thomson’s “A New Alps” in the main pool and the world Premier of “Order and After” by Indonesian artist Jompet Kuswidananto in the Ladies pool.
The events are open from 12 each day through to 8pm, entry is FREE.
Govanhill Baths arts coordinator Jim Monaghan said:
“We are delighted to host such a prestigious event and, once again, bring world renowned artists to Govanhill”.

SONIC runs from 29th October till 07 November. For further information see http://sonic-a.co.uk/

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GOVANHILL BATHS COMMUNITY TRUST- LIVING WAGE COMMITMENT

The Govanhill Baths Community Trust (GBCT) is delighted to announce that it is committed to seeing everyone who works at Govanhill Baths receive, as minimum, an hourly wage of £7.85. At present all GBCT staff are paid higher than the Living wage.

GBCT’s committment to the Living wage began in 2013.
GBCT Manager, Fatima Uygun said, ‘As a key voluntary sector organisation in Glasgow we would urge other Third sector organisations to do the same to ensure that workers wages reflect the real cost of living, rewarding a hard day’s work with a fair day’s pay’.

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New Funding Secures the Future of Govanhill Baths

Heritage Lottery Fund announced a new “first round” funding package for Govanhill Baths Community Trust that means refurbishment of the building can begin soon to bring swimming back to Govanhill.  The award, coupled with other funding packages will allow the Trust to start work towards repairing the “Ladies pool” “Teaching Pool” and Turkish baths and sauna.  It will also allow us to repair the roofs, walls and structure of the building to prepare for further development in the future.

GBCT Chair Alan Walsh was delighted with this breakthrough:

“This award means that we can finally confirm the long term future of the project and begin work soon that will realise the aims of our 14 year fight to bring swimming back to Govanhill.  There is a lot of work to be done but we can plan ahead with confidence. We would like to thank everyone who has been involved over the years, especially the Project managers of the capital works programme The Prince’s Regeneration Trust who have helped steer us through this funding process.”

Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of The Prince’s Regeneration Trust, said: “This is fantastic news for everyone who supports the revival of Govanhill Baths.

“We are very proud of the important role that PRT played in securing this vital HLF funding, including writing the application, developing the outline business plan and putting together the key strategic partners for the project.

“Govanhill Baths has long been an important social asset for the people of Glasgow. With this funding in place, the refurbishment of this wonderful building can begin and it can once again play a key role improving the lives of local people.”

The GBCT Trust Manager Fatima Uygun was one of the first people to campaign against the closure in 2001 and has been working towards the re-opening ever since.  She said:

“This is a proud day for Govanhill.  It is a testament to the people of this area who refused to give in, and took control of the future of their own local assets. Some day soon we will be swimming again.  Everyone who has been involved over the years can share in the glory of this moment.  It has been a collective effort involving thousands of people over many years, I am honoured to have been part of this campaign and delighted that we are moving forward to achieve what we set out to do in March 2001.”

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Southside Film Festival at the Baths

On Saturday, all day, Govanhill Baths will host events as part of this year’s Southside Film Festival.  Starting on Saturday morning, Rags to Riches and Southside Film present “Making in the Movies”. The day begins with the monthly Sew Lah Tea Dough meet-up, there will be a mini version of our annual “this is not a craft fair” with work from some of the top upcyclers and films running all day in the studio, converted to a cinema for the day, screening films on the subject of upcycling and recycling.  From 2pm “Transit Artists” will be showing films On a screen from a van in the gardens at Kingarth Street.  In the evening we have a special double bill with a one-off screening United We Will Swim… Again, Fran Higson’s film about the Baths campaign, followed by Bill Forsyth’s classic  That Sinking Feeling, produced by Fran’s mother Paddy Higson.

If you cannot make the screening of the Baths film it will be screened again on Sunday 18th October at the CCA as part of a Camcorders Guerillas retrospective at Document, the Human Rights Film Festival.  A videoteque preview of that retrospective will be in the Baths foyer from today.

For full details of these events and the film festivals see southsidefilm.co.uk and documentfestival.org

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