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1983

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The 1980s was a very busy decade. In 1980 I resigned from the Glasgow League of Artists swearing never to be in a artists
organisation again.Then in 1981 I set up the Glasgow Visual Artists Register because I felt there was a crying need for this.
While it was not very successful reaching at the maximum 46 registered artists it led me on to the Open Circle group. I still feel
that there is a need for this type of artists register currently John Atchison is trying to do this on www.scotlandsartists.com and 
any artist living in Scotland can have a free entry. In 1983 a group of Glasgow writers,artists and composers came together 
because we felt that things had got so bad for creative people that we had to try to do something to combat the situation.
This group formally took the title of Open Circle in 1984 and I was elected the first chairman. .

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Open Circle started getting creative people together by running vaguely artistic parties often at the Goethe Institute since our first coordinator,
Bea Withers, was working there. When we heard about the twinning between Glasgow and Nurnberg we suggested to the City that this should be marked by festivities including the arts. One of the events was a large exhibition ofwork from 60 Glasgow artists in the Kunsthaus Nurnberg in July 1985. "Crossing the Bowl" and "Melting Point of the Electric City" were exhibited in the Kunsthaus. Bea Withers also initiated solo exhibitions for 7 artists which is how I came to exhibit in Galerie in Zabo..

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