Latest Updates

Here we’ll share any upcoming events, as well as a summary of what the Learning team has been working on. 

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December 2022 

• Ghazala Ansar finished her engagement series, recording oral histories and teaching a group of local Urdu-speaking women to sew their own swimming kit bags.
• We were sad to say farewell to both Beulah and Ghazala, as they finished their traineeships with GBCT. We wish them all the best for the future!

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November 2022 

• Our ‘Explore the Baths through Pottery!’ series has proved very popular, with a fully booked class. In total, 12 people have taken part, creating tiles based on images of the baths building. This is a collaboration between GBCT Archives and Heritage and the Wellbeing Programme. The series is led by Beulah Ezeugo and Frances Diver. 
• Ghazala Ansar is leading a workshop series in Urdu, teaching women to sew swimming bags, whilst also recording oral histories in Urdu/Punjabi around swimming and using the steamie. 
• Katherine spoke at Holy Cross Primary’s ‘Tea and Chat’ event, for parents who are new to English. She talked about the refurbishment and also about activities at the baths which they could get involved in. 40 parents were in attendance. 
• We welcomed 51 students and lecturers from Glasgow University’s Museum Studies course, for a talk on grassroots community artchives. We hope to welcome some of the students back on placement with us in the new year. 
• Our Community Engagement Trainees, Beulah and Ghazala, undertook training with the British Library (Archival Management of Oral History Collections), Pitman Training (IT skills) and the Museums Association (Launching your Museum Career). They also met Helen M. Hughes, Textile Conservator with Glasgow Museums, for a tour of the Burrell collection and a discussion about conservation as a career path. 
• Katherine was a guest on the Number 1 Befriending Agency’s podcast, talking about the history of the baths and the occupation. 

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August/September 2022

• We held Tall Tales of Govanhill, part of Govanhill International Festival and Carnival 2022. The event was a playful look at the history of Govanhill Baths and Glasgow more generally, with contributions from three different storytellers and a local musician. 22 people attended the event. 
• An Edwardian Extravaganza took place, in which 10 members of Maryhill Joyous Choir sang early 20th century songs from around the world. The idea was to reflect the sorts of songs which workers would have been singing as they put the finishing touches to the baths building, and what sort of tunes early swimmers might have listened to. 
• We were able to hold twelve tours of the baths building for Doors Open Days, which were attended by a total of 161 people. Of that number, 17 were from local community groups: Unity Sisters, Community Renewal, Glendale Women’s Cafe, and the Scottish Arab Women’s Association. 
• At The Swim Club launched, which was an exhibition of materials relating to amateur swimming clubs and competitions at Govanhill Baths. The exhibition was co-curated by our two Community Engagement Trainees, Beulah Ezeugo and Ghazala Ansar. In total, 327 people came to see the exhibition. Around 115 of those visitors were from local schools and community groups: The Number 1 Befriending Agency, Glendale Women’s Cafe, Holyrood Secondary School, Hollybrook Academy, and Holy Cross Primary School. 
• The employability project with Holyrood Secondary School continues, working with 9 young people to spark their interest in a range of heritage/upcycling-related careers. In the archive, the young people have learned about the baths occupation, created an oral history testimony, and spoken to Clark Contracts about careers in construction. 

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July 2022

• Beulah and Ghazala received training in 3D scanning, and visited archival collections at Summerlee Museum, the Arlington Baths, and the Zenith Swimming Club. 
• The Govanhill International Festival and Carnival programme was launched. The festival this year includes two learning events: a storytelling evening called ‘Tall Tales of Govanhill’, and a performance of Edwardian music as part of the Street Music Festival. This is alongside a number of events organised by Paula Larkin, GBCT Archivist, including a talk about the history of Irish people in Govanhill, and the launch of a graphic novel celebrating occupations in Glasgow. 
• The Doors Open Days programme has now been launched, which this year includes an exhibition co-curated by Beulah and Ghazala, an ‘open archive’, and a series of hard hat tours. Four of these tours are being offered to local community groups such as the Scottish Arab Women’s Association.

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June 2022

• Our two Community Engagement Trainees, Beulah and Ghazala, settled into their roles. They received training in 2D digitisation and recording oral histories. They took part in the final session at Hollybrook Academy, and had a tour of the baths building. We also held one-on-one meetings with them to help shape the direction of their traineeships. 
• We worked with 5 students at Hollybrook Academy to complete the series on protest. For the final session they had a chance to explore some objects from our archive, and then used pens and spray chalk to make their own placards. These then went on display on the stage in the school hall. 
• I met with Holyrood’s EAL department for a debrief on the recent project and to make plans for more of a rolling programme for the next academic year. This programme will focus more on the idea of Govanhill as home, encouraging young people to see the opportunities that Govanhill and the baths have to offer them. It will be aimed at students who have recently arrived in the UK. 
• We now have a confirmed plan for the employability project with Holyrood Secondary’s DYW department. We will work with 22 young people for 16 weeks between August and December. Each student will get a chance to try recording oral histories and object handling, and will hopefully also visit the baths for a tour. This is in collaboration with our UpHub project. 
• I put out a callout for performers for both Govanhill International Festival and Carnival and Doors Open Days. The deadlines are in mid-July. I am looking for storytellers for our storytelling event, musicians interested in Edwardian music, and tour guides who can speak Arabic, Slovak, and Romanian. For more details, click here. 

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May 2022

• Our two Community Engagement Trainees, Beulah Ezeugo and Ghazala Ansar, started their employment within the Archive and Heritage team. 
• We successfully secured £250 of funding from the South East Integration Network to further develop our plans for Doors Open Days. This will go towards offering tours for the local community in a range of languages, most likely Urdu, Romanian, and Slovak, as well as a possible tour for GBCT Wellbeing participants. This is a great way to start welcoming the community back into the building, and encouraging them to see it as their local resource. 
• Aayisha Rashid completed her work placement, and will now be moving on to university. This also meant the culmination of our work with Holyrood Secondary’s S4 ESOL students. A case study about Aayisha’s experiences will be featured in our Annual Report this year. 
• The final student from Holyrood Secondary completed their work experience at the Bell Street site. 
• We completed plans for Govanhill International Festival including an Edwardian music festival and a storytelling celebration. I also completed plans for Doors Open Days, which includes the tours mentioned above alongside an exhibition and ‘open house’ at The Deep End. This will involve opening the archive up to the public, and an exhibition about the Zenith Swimming Club co-curated by our Community Engagement Trainees. 
• Katherine spoke at two conferences: the Community Land Scotland Conference in Edinburgh on the 21st May, and the Migration Museum’s Scotland Network event on 24th May. I used both opportunities to talk about recent work including the recruitment process for the Community Engagement Trainees and our recent work at Holyrood Secondary School, as well as giving updates about the progress of the baths’ refurbishment.

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April 2022

• Our wonderful placement student, Aayisha Rashid, led her first session at Holyrood, delivering a post-making workshop to 15 young people. The focus of the workshop was ‘what would your dream Govanhill look like?’. All the groups focused to some extent on sport, especially swimming and football.
• The first session in a new series at Hollybrook Academy, this time focusing on protest. The first session was an overview and included a screening of ‘United We Will Swim Again’. 10 young people attended. Future sessions will involve object handling in collaboration with GBCT Archive, placard making, and a visit to Kenmure Street on the anniversary of the resistance.
• We have appointed the two Community Engagement Trainees who will be joining us in May. We had over 40 applications and interviewed 6 candidates. The trainees will help us fill gaps in our archive, working with hard-to-reach groups, in particular the South Asian and Roma communities.
• Katherinec led a drop-in workshop during GBCT Youth Club’s Easter Fun Day, working with 43 children. The idea of the workshop involved decorating an Easter egg with something the child was excited about doing when the baths reopened, and then pinning it to a painted nest. This was a great opportunity to talk to young children (4-10 years) about what they can expect when the baths reopens.
• We facilitated ‘Tales of Auld Govanhill’ at Bee’s Knees cafe, a storytelling event by Rae McKinlay and Bruce Downie. 21 people attended and we received universally excellent feedback. The stories focused on the history of Govanhill.

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March 2022

• Four sessions at Holyrood Secondary School working with S4 ESOL learners. The largest class size was 18 students. Sessions this month were as follows: a walk around Govanhill, two sessions exploring the idea of ‘my home in Govanhill’, and an object handling session in collaboration with GBCT Archive. 
• The advertisement for two Community Engagement Trainee positions went live. The deadline will be on April 8th. We are aiming to recruit two trainees with an interest in museum practice/community development, who may otherwise face barriers to entry into the sector. For more information, click here. 
• Two of the four Holyrood students carried out work experience on a Clark Contracts site. 
• Katherine visited Holyrood Secondary and gave a talk to 8 young people about the baths and what the refurbishment was about. The talk focused on what job opportunities there might be with Govanhill Baths in the future.

January 2022

• The first stage of the project ‘Govanhill Past and Present’ at Hollybrook Academy culminated in a banner unveiling as part of the school’s 50th anniversary on Wednesday 19th January. 27 young people took part in the unveiling. 
• We held our first careers event at Holyrood Secondary School, in collaboration with Clark Contracts. The aim of the event is to generate interest in the company’s apprenticeship roles, which will be advertised in March/April.
• We completed an activity book for Holyrood Secondary’s ESL learners. This may be shared on a nationwide ESL website.

December 2021

• Katherine delivered a 10-minute presentation about the refurbishment at the Occupy! Occupy! Occupy! Conference (2nd-3rd December), organised by GBCT Archive. The presentation covered the latest updates on the refurbishment, as well as giving people an insight into what the Heritage Learning Programme does. The presentation was attended by 84 people. 
• We completed three sessions at Hollybrook Academy for the Govanhill Past and Present project. These involved a walk around Govanhill, a banner design session and a craft session. The banner will be completed in January in time for the school’s anniversary on 19th January. This is of course dependent on covid developments. So far I have engaged with 9 young people. 
• Aayisha Rashid continued her work on placement, which included learning about schools engagement and meeting Karen Cooper at Holyrood Secondary. Of the placement so far, Aayisha says ‘it has exceeded all my expectations and I’m really excited to see how it develops’. 
• We delivered a series of 12 videos to Holyrood Academy, in 7 different languages: English, Romanes, Romanian, Czech, Italian, Arabic and Urdu. The videos feature local people talking about living in Govanhill, and in particular what they like about the area. The videos are aimed at EAL learners aged 14-15, and will serve as a starting point for a programme of activities aimed at engaging young people in the baths and the wider Govanhill community. I hope to bring learners from both Hollybrook and Holyrood to see the baths in the new year (covid permitting).