Transmission
Transmission (b.1983) is an artist-run organisation that supports and is supported by its membership and surrounding communities in Glasgow and beyond.
Operating in multiple capacities, Transmission works with artists in the production of exhibitions, events, exchanges, residencies and publications. It also shares various resources with its membership in order to facilitate activities outside of its own programming. As the longest standing artist-run space in Glasgow, it houses an archive of materials connected to the activities of the gallery and its membership, whilst remaining active a present-day social hub.
Transmission labours under the banner of autonomy - but is deeply (inter-)dependant on a variety of factors and players that determine the operational parameters of the space and its activities. As a registered charity, it is held together by a combination of state funding, voluntary labour, and the on-going construction of its community. It is constitutionally engrained that all Transmission activities and resources remain free, and that each and every person that works with it receive fair pay, now and forever. It is one of the inherent contradictions of Transmission that whilst dogmatically enforcing fair pay for artists and creative practitioners, it is managed and programmed by a voluntary committee of six people, each of whom joins successively and may serve for a maximum of two years.
Anyone can become a member of Transmission. The membership is currently comprised of around 300 artists and interested parties in Glasgow and further afield. As a whole, it constitutes the collective body that shares, cares, and thinks critically around the programming and functioning of Transmission, forming both the primary audience and users of the space.



Transmission is deeply committed to fostering qualitatively different working conditions for artists. In eschewing the dogma of productivity, performance targets and qualitative evaluations of artistic merit, it strives to nurture the infinite amounts of background work that goes unrepresented and overshadowed by the final, delivered 'product'. Transmission seeks to avoid creating frameworks that directly or indirectly encourage competition or competitiveness and actively discourages artists from performing ever more uncompensated administrative work. It does not have an open call procedure for programming and only accepts brief expressions of interest rather than fully formed proposals.
Transmission was set up in 1983 by graduates from Glasgow School of Art who were dissatisfied with the lack of exhibition spaces and opportunities for young artists in Glasgow. It provided a platform for new artistic practices that where under-represented in the city at the time. More recently Transmission has been looking for ways to redefine the role it already plays within the city, and to open up potential new functions it can perform in order to better utilise it's status, organisational autonomy and relative institutional power.
Become a Member
Transmission's membership body is at the core of the spirit and mission of the organisation.
About the Membership
The membership forms an active community and critical audience around the gallery's activities and management. Currently there are over 300 members living in Glasgow, the UK, and Internationally with varied levels of engagement depending on their interests and location.
Anyone can become a member for an annual fee which may, if preferred, be paid in kind by invigilating during an exhibition or by volunteering in another capacity. Please don't hesitate to contact us with what this in-kind volunteering could be and we will strive to meet everybody's access needs.
Cost of Membership
Membership Type | Cost |
---|---|
Regular | £20 or pay in kind |
Student | £10 or pay in kind |
Unemployed | £10 or pay in kind |
International | £35 (to cover postage costs) |
For legal reasons we must ask that members choose either a full or associate membership: full members are requested to attend Transmission's Annual General Meeting
In addtion to the payment methods listed above, we also offer memberships at no cost for individuals that have experience with the asylum system.
Committee
Transmission is run and programmed by a voluntary committee of six people who are accountable for all decisions made. The committee acts on a rolling basis, with each member working for a maximum of two years, after which new committee members are invited through recommendations and nominations.
The following is a list of everyone who has served as a Transmission committee member from 1983 to the present day. The second committee entirely replaced the first but after that the groupings are less defined. Some people stayed for the standard two years (occasionally more), others left after a few months. At times there were only two people on the committee, the standard is now six.
The current Transmission committee is:
- Shalmali Shetty
- Zoë Charlery
- Josie KO
- Hannan Jones
- Chao-Ying Elizabeth Rao
- Clay AD
- Anika Ahuja
First Committee (1983 - 1986):
- Alastair Magee
- Lesley Raeside
- John Rogan
- Michelle Baucke
- Alistair Strachan
Second Committee (1986 - 1988):
- Gordon Muir
- Malcolm Dickson
- Carol Rhodes
- Peter Thompson
- Simon Brown
- Douglas Aubrey
Rolling Committee (1988 - Present):
- Douglas Gordon
- Alastair Magee
- Lesley Raeside
- John Rogan
- Malcolm Dickson
- Carol Rhodes
- Douglas Aubrey
- Richard Walker
- Jayne Taylor
- Tommy Lydon
- Billy Clark
- Karen Strang
- Gillian Steel
- Scott Paterson
- Anne Elliot
- David Allen
- Christine Borland
- Mike Ellen
- Pete Gilmour
- Euan Sutherland
- Anne Vance
- Craig Richardson
- Claire Barclay
- Elsie Mitchell
- Roderick Buchanan
- Katrina Brown
- Jackie Donachie
- Martin Boyce
- Simon Starling
- Kirsty Ogg
- Eva Rothschild
- Will Bradley
- Toby Webster
- Tanya Leighton
- Judith Welk
- Caroline Kirsop
- Toby Paterson
- Sarah Tripp
- Robert Johnston
- Ewan Imrie
- Julian Kildear
- Lucy Skaer
- Sophie Macpherson
- Rose Thomas
- Alan Michael
- Frederik Pedersen
- Anna McLauchlan
- Danny Saunders
- Alex Pollard
- Clare Stephenson
- Lorna Macintyre
- Laurence Figgis
- Lotte Gertz
- Lucy McEachan
- Lynn Hynd
- Iain Hetherington
- Michael Hill Johnston
- Michael Stumpf
- Cara Tolmie Esq
- Morag Keil
- Giles Bailey
- Laura Aldridge
- tim Facey
- Victoria Skogsberg
- Salomeh Grace
- Levi Hanes
- Helen Tubridy
- Conal McStravick
- “JENS” Sssssssssssttttraandberg!!!
- Rebecca Wilcox
- Tom Varley
- Amelia Bywater
- Mark BRIGGSY Briggs
- Carrie Skinner
- Claire and Guiseppe Shallcross and Mistretta
- Chris Dyson
- Darren Rhymes
- Hannes Hellstrom
- Emilia Muller-Ginorio
- Kari Robertson
- John Nicol
- Nick Thomas
- Gordon Douglas
- Jennifer Bailey
- Josee Aubin Ouellette
- Sophie Pitt
- Joe Sloan
- Adam Lewis-Jacob
- Alex Sarkisian
- Winnie Herbstein
- andrew black
- Camara Taylor
- Alberta Whittle
- Sophie Mackfall
- Nima Sene
- Ashanti Sharda Harris
- Adam Benmakhlouf
- Thulani Rachia
- Sophie Mackfall
- Elaine Ang
- Myriam Mouflih
- Katherine Ka Yi Liu
- Colm Guo-Lin Peare
- Zoë Guthrie
- Danny Pagarani
- Isabel Barfod
- Zoë Charlery
- Anika Ahuja
- Cat Dunn
- Shalmali Shetty
- Josie KO
- Hannan Jones
- Chao-Ying Elizabeth Rao
- Clay AD